| Just wanted to give everyone some weather updates and road conditions.
Wind Chill Advisory: In effect from Friday @ 2200 – Saturday at 1200/noon. Snow remains on some roadways, causing hazardous driving conditions. - Freezing rain has ended, and much colder air will continue to move into Middle Tennessee today with temperatures dropping into the 10s and 20s by this afternoon. These cold temperatures will cause any remaining moisture on roads to freeze and create additional icy travel conditions today - mainly on secondary roadways.
Record Breaking Snowfall in Nashville: According to the NWS, Nashville officially received 1.3” of snow on January 14th, and 6.3” on January 15th, totally 7.6” of snow for January 14-15th. This broke the daily snowfall record for January 15th. Normal annual snowfall is 4.7”, so Nashville got an entire winters worth in one event.
Driving Safety: • You should be careful when traveling on roadways. Freezing rain, sleet, black ice, and fog are all hazards to be aware of when driving. • You can check current road conditions online on the TDOT SmartWay: Traffic Map (tn.gov) • If weather reports indicate icy conditions, consider staying off the roads until they are clear. • Black ice is highly transparent, so it is hard to see while driving.
Tips that may help if you get caught in areas of black ice: • Keep your steering wheel straight. If you turn the wheel, you have a better chance of sliding and losing control of your vehicle. • Do not brake. Braking causes the vehicle to slide, especially if you brake too hard. • Take your foot off the accelerator to reduce speed. It is best to let the car stop on its own if you have enough room in front of you.
Protect your Pets: • Bring your furry friends inside when temperatures take a dip! • Wipe dog’s paws after each trip outside. Ice-melting chemicals or rock salt can cause irritation, sickness or be fatal.
Road Updates: Our city crews have been out every day plowing and applying salt to the roadways since the beginning of this event. They will continue to be out all day today plowing and applying salt where it is needed throughout the city. There have been several inquiries to why the roads have not been plowed or not all the way clear yet. I wanted to assure everyone that all roadways in the city have been plowed at least twice, with some of the critical roadways even more. Salt has been laid on every road before, during, and after the event. To this date, the city has laid approx. 66 tons of salt to the roadways.
Factors to the roadway conditions:
- They can only lower the plow blade so low due to curbing, utility access points, and other hazards on the road. This is why some streets seem to be covered with thin packed snow in areas which turn to ice with the cold temps.
- Clearing depends on how frequent vehicles are traveling on it. This is why the main artery roads are much clearer with a lot more traffic driving on them.
- How much the each of the roads are exposed to sunlight to help with melting.
- We have several streets in the city that are shaded and do not get direct sunlight to help.
- The temperatures have been very cold and not letting the salt do its job. The salt needs a minimum of 20 degrees or higher for it to be effective.
- Several areas in the city can have temperatures 5-10 degrees colder than other areas due to our elevations and shaded areas.
We are doing everything possible to help with the road conditions, but the temperatures are remaining very cold with colder temps coming in through the weekend which are going to leave the roads hazardous. The good news is that warmer weather is coming in next week. Please let us know if you have any problems or concerns and I will direct resources to help the best I can.
Stay safe and stay warm!
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