Here we go again.
After avoiding snow up until the days leading up to Christmas, it looks like Wright County will once again be dealing with a commute that comes in the middle of a snow event.
As it did a week ago and again on Sunday, the Wright County Highway Department is out on the roads this afternoon, this evening and Tuesday morning in preparation for the latest round of snow.
Wright County Highway Maintenance Supervisor Steve Meyer said the different projections on timing and amounts are getting more solidified and he is anticipating a pretty significant snow event starting at about noon Tuesday.
“Right now, the models we’re seeing are projecting three to five inches of snow starting tomorrow afternoon and going on throughout the day and night,” Meyer said. “The biggest impact is that it will be right in the middle of the evening commute when they’re expecting the snow to really start accumulating.”
The front end of the storm is expected to arrive in the late morning with snow picking up around lunchtime and extending for the next 12 hours or so.
Meyer said the highway department has a game plan in place that is already underway.
“Starting this afternoon, we will be pre-treating the roads and we have a night crew that will continue that process,” Meyer said. “We will do some again tomorrow and will have our plows ready to go by about noon. The good news is that it doesn’t look like there’s going to be much wind behind the storm. Wind kicks our butt and can make roads in the open deteriorate quickly. The temperature won’t be anywhere near freezing, so we won’t have the freezing rain and wind like we did last week, which should make conditions much better.”
In anticipation of this round of storms, the Wright County Highway Department has restocked on liquid de-icers and expect to have adequate supplies on hand to accomplish what the drivers need to do.
“You can plan on slippery road conditions for the evening commute, so we want people to be aware of that,” Meyer said. “But, without the wind, we should be able to stay on top of it and have things looking much better by the morning commute on Wednesday.”