PADUCAH, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2021) – Kentucky Transportation Cabinet crews were out during the early morning hours responding to reports of slick spots as round 1 of an extended winter weather system started moving across the region.
Radar indicated gradually increasing bands of freezing drizzle moving across the district’s 12 counties from west to east starting around 9 p.m., Tuesday.
McCracken County was the first to put trucks on the road spreading salt on scattered trouble spots in response to a number of jackknifed SEMI trucks along Interstate 24 in the Paducah area. Through the morning hours highway crews in Marshall, Ballard, Graves, Lyon, and Carlisle counties put trucks on the road to spread salt on trouble spots.
KYTC District 1 personnel have trucks fueled and ready to roll out quickly when they receive reports of slick spots. The District 1 Snow and Ice Team continues to closely monitor the developing snow and ice event to coordinate response efforts.
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 extreme cold temperatures through the weekend into next week.
Due to the likelihood of accumulating ice, The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is reminding motorists that travel may become hazardous. While ice accumulations are expected to be well below the ice storm of 2009, there will be plenty of opportunities for travel disruptions. The potential for damage to trees and power lines is significant.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet crews have pretreated roadways. However, once the 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.
As a precaution, highway crews are checking chain saws and other tree-clearing equipment.
KYTC engineers are asking the public to avoid travel as the ice accumulates. Crews will be focused on maintaining access for emergency vehicles as the heaviest round of freezing rain is expected Wednesday night into Thursday.
The public is urged to closely monitor changing weather conditions as this winter storm develops and ice accumulates.
Most of western Kentucky can expect ¼ to ½ inch of ice. As a comparison, the ice storm of 2009 was about an inch to 2 inches of ice.
The National Weather Service indicates about 70 to 80 percent chance of ½ inch of accumulating ice.
The freezing rain and sleet will be followed by extreme cold heading into the Weekend with a low temperature on Sunday morning around 6 degrees at Paducah.
Again, KYTC engineers are urging everyone to limit travel due to the potential for hazardous driving conditions.
Updated travel conditions are available at goky.ky.gov.
To get traffic advisories and alerts via email go to https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/KYTC/signup/13651 and click on counties in Kentucky you regularly drive through or on any of the specialty corridors you travel. Be sure to check your SPAM filtering to assure Gov Delivery is on your approved list.
Timely traffic advisories for the 12 counties of KYTC Highway District 1 are available by going to www.facebook.com/kytcdistrict1. You do not have to be a Facebook member to access this page.
Navigate traffic at goky.ky.gov, at waze.com, or with the WAZE App.