Roads may be slick after Tuesday’s snow. Here’s what to expect if you need to drive
If you lived through the chaos of Jan. 20, 2005, when what was expected to be a nothing snowstorm in Raleigh stranded commuters on the highways and forced students to spend the night at school, you know a half-inch of snow is not nothing.
“We’re taking it very seriously,” said Doug McNeal, head of maintenance for the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Region 5, which includes Wake and Durham counties.
How is NC preparing roads for Tuesday’s snow?
The National Weather Service’s forecast maps on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 21, showed Raleigh likely will get less than an inch of snow as a storm moves through the state through Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, Jan. 22.
While accumulations of up to 8 inches are possible near the coast, McNeal said it’s important to remember that even a good dusting of snow is likely to stick to untreated surfaces because of the Arctic cold.
That can create slick conditions like the ones that unexpectedly brought Raleigh to a standstill during Raleigh’s Snowmageddon 20 years ago.
That’s why crews have been spreading brine since Saturday, McNeal said, coating all major roads and getting to secondary routes as much as possible. The work is being done by DOT staff and contractors.
How does salt brine help during a snow storm?
Spraying salty water onto the pavement ahead of a storm lowers the freezing temperature of water and helps prevent snow and ice from bonding to the surface.
Brining didn’t become a common practice across North Carolina until after 2005, McNeal said.
It works best when applied to dry pavement and when a storm is expected to bring all snow, no freezing rain that would wash the brine away.
Does NC still use rock salt on snowy roads?
Yes.
For a minor event, McNeal said, brine can be enough.
“But when you start getting more than just a skiff of snow, then we’re going to need to put more material down. Occasionally we’ll just add brine, where there are just icy spots and the sun is out and the roads are clearing.
“But if we get more than that, typically we’ll switch to rock salt. We’ll know more once it starts snowing.”
The Weather Service said the most likely time to see snowfall across the Triangle would be from about 7 p.m. Tuesday to about 1 a.m. Wednesday. But it could start as early as 4 p.m. Tuesday, and some school systems began releasing students early.
Across the seven counties in his region, McNeal said crews have 275 to 300 plows ready to go if needed to clear the roads, and another 50 or so in reserve.
Additional state crews can be brought from the mountains if needed, he said, because this time, central and Eastern NC are expected to get more snow than the western part of the state.
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Roads may be slick after Tuesday’s snow. Here’s what to expect if you need to drive."
