Staff Photo by John Rawlston
Chattanooga Department of Public Works employees restock sand in the storage facility just off 11th Street where they received 500 tons on Wednesday. The city stores salt, sand and a mixture of the two at the facility, in addition to brine solution to battle icy road conditions.This morning’s snow is not expected to amount to much, but local road crews are still attaching snow plows to trucks and keeping their fingers crossed.
“We’ll hope the temperatures will stay on our side,” said Tony Boyd, Chattanooga Public Works assistant director. “We’ll be at it from sunup, but we’re hoping we can be through with this by the afternoon.”
Ground soaked by Tuesday’s rain and temperatures ranging in the mid- to upper 30s should prevent the snow from piling up, meteorologists say.
Paul Barys, chief meteorologist with WRCB-TV Channel 3, said the Chattanooga area and North Georgia should expect about an inch — if that. Nor should locals worry too much about area roads freezing tonight becauses temperatures will stay around 36 degrees in the valley and 32 to 33 degrees in higher elevations, he said.
Northeast Alabama has been issued a winter storm watch in effect through Wednesday morning, according to The Associated Press. The report says Alabama cities such as Fort Payne, Guntersville and Scottsboro could see 2 to 4 inches of snow, while Florence and Huntsville are forecast for 1 to 4 inches.
Hamilton, Jasper and Gadsden could see 1 to 2 inches, and Birmingham could see an inch.
Grundy County in Tennessee also has been issued a winter storm warning, and forecasters say the area could see 2 to 6 inches of snow.
“The storm system will affect the plateau counties and Northeast Alabama more than it will in Chattanooga because of higher elevations,” said David Holtz, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn. “But it shouldn’t look anything like everyone saw two weeks ago.”
Boyd said his workers have bounced back from the 9-inch snow that coated the city two weeks ago and kept them working overtime for a week straight. The city’s salt supply, however, has not recovered.
Chattanooga currently has enough salt to get through one more 4- to 5-inch snow, officials said, although the city is expecting more to be delivered sometime this winter.
“We’re definitely hoping we can pour brine and plow and don’t have to dip into our salt rations this time,” Boyd said.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is preparing to use salt on the highways today and they’re expecting to get a big shipment in mid-February, said spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn.
“We were lucky that we did not get any snow this past weekend, so our salt supplies are in reasonably good shape,” she said.
The rest of the week is expected to be dry, with temperatures in the 40s and even into the 50s, according to forecasts.
Contact staff writer Kate Harrison at kharrison @timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.