Road crews have continued treating highways across the area as an Ice Storm Warning continues through Thursday night.
Keith Todd with the state highways department said the district super tanker sprayed brine enhanced with calcium chloride along Interstate 24 and Interstate 69 today.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for much of the region in anticipation of several rounds of freezing rain and winter mix rolling across the region through Thursday. That will be followed by extremely cold temperatures through the weekend into next week.
Michael Dossett, the executive director of the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, said past experience with ice storm events has helped them map out a gameplan for this week.
Transportation cabinet secretary Jim Gray said crews will work to prep and clear the larger roads and highways first.
While ice accumulations are expected to be well below the ice storm of 2009, Keith Todd with the District 1 Department of Highways said there will be plenty of opportunities for travel disruptions. The National Weather Service expects a 70 to 80-percent chance of a half-inch of accumulating ice. As a comparison, the ice storm of 2009 was about one to two inches of ice.
The potential for damage to trees and power lines is also significant.
Todd said that once ice starts to accumulate, the ability to improve driving conditions will be limited. Extreme low temperatures into and through the weekend will severely limit the effectiveness of salt and other ice-fighting chemicals.
Dossett said that even if you don’t see precipitation falling, the below freezing temperatures will still make road conditions hazardous, so stay off them if possible.
The Ice Storm Warning for western Kentucky will continue through 6pm Thursday.
