MasonBuzz.com

The worst winter storm we’ve seen in a few years has arrived, bringing sleet and snow across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky this morning.

Rain is falling to the southeast of downtown Cincinnati, sleet is pelting down across the city and up through Hamilton County to Sharonville, and snow is falling in northern Butler County, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

While major roads such as Interstate 75 and Columbia Parkway are fine, other roads are getting slick, especially north and west of the city.

About 45 trucks began treating Cincinnati’s streets with salt at 7 p.m. Christmas night. Up to 70 trucks total are available for city roads.

Those efforts continued overnight, and crews will work 12-hour shifts until the roads are clear and safe, city officials said.

Major thoroughfares will be treated and cleared before secondary and residential streets, said Jarrod Bolden, superintendent of Cincinnati’s traffic and road operations.

“Right now the roads are pretty good,” he said at 8 a.m. “Our pre-treating efforts through the night allowed us to pass the freezing and slicks parts on the road.”

The challenge for road crews today, he said, will be keeping up as the wintry mix switches from rain to sleet and snow to all snow.

“It’s giving us a mix of everything right now,” Bolden said. “With the temperature dropping now it could re-create some freezing pavements and we could get some slushy accumulations through the day.”

Heavy snow is blanketing Oxford in northern Butler County and southeastern Indiana.

In Warren County, 17 trucks hit streets at 4 a.m. to treat roads with salt, said Elbert Allen, a highway clerk at the county garage in Lebanon.

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Winter weather: What’s in store?

“There aren’t any real strong signals that give a clue of whether the winter is going to be one way or another,” said Andrew Snyder, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wilmington, citing the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s most recent long-range forecast. “They have us under what they call ‘equal chances’ for this winter: It could be above normal, below normal or near normal.”

Last year’s mild winter was on the more extreme end of the spectrum, Snyder said.

“We can probably expect a little more up and down this winter,” he said.

The 2013 Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts that temperatures will be much colder this winter than last and the region will see greater snowfall.

Green lights

ODOT trucks are going green – or at least their lights are.

The green and white strobe lights being retrofitted on ODOT’s plows will be used along with existing amber ones in an effort to make the equipment more visible .

“The change to the colored lights was driven by the number of vehicles rear-ending our trucks,” said Sharon Smigielski, public information officer for ODOT District 8. “Ohio has four times the number of rear-end collisions as some of our neighboring states.”

During the past five years, ODOT has averaged 114 collisions per year with their vehicles, she said.

Smigielski said ODOT hopes to have the green lights installed on a third of its trucks by the end of the year.

ODOT will be the first transportation department in the nation to use green strobe lights and one of the first states to use a combination of colors, Smigielski said.

Where are the trucks?

ODOT District 8 has 153 trucks (with a 56,900-ton salt capacity) that maintain 4,038 lane miles on U.S., state and interstate routes in seven counties – Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Greene, Hamilton, Preble and Warren. Here’s the breakdown for local counties:

Hamilton County:… 35 trucks; … 941 lane miles; … 8,300-ton salt capacity

Clermont County:… 27 trucks; … 758 lane miles; … 7,300-ton salt capacity

Warren County:… 22 trucks; … 560 lane miles; … 8,300-ton salt capacity

Butler County:… 18 trucks; … 411 lane miles; … 9,200-ton salt capacity

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