Local roads will be a wintry mess again tonight, when today’s light rain mixes with sleet and snow before changing to all snow by midnight, according to the National Weather Service.
One to three inches of slushy snow will be on the ground before precipitation changes to all snow, which will be heavy at times tonight at tomorrow, the NWS forecast for Long Island says. Total snow accumulations of four to eight inches is expected.
A winter storm warning has been issued by the weather service beginning this evening at 7 p.m. and continuing through 7 p.m. tomorrow. Snow will taper off Thursday evening, according to the forecast. Northwest winds of 5 to 10 mph tonight will increase to 10 to 15 mph tomorrow with gusts of 20 mph.
The weather service says motorists should expect hazardous travel conditions tonight and tomorrow due to reduced visibilities, icy roads and significant snow accumulations. Visibilities will be one-quarter to one-half mile at times, the weather service said in a hazardous weather statement this morning.
This follows a one- to three-inch accumulation of sleet and snow that left local roadways icy at a time when supplies of road salt used to melt the ice are running very low. Highway crews need to conserve what little salt they have on hand as they try to clear and de-ice roads after last night’s wintry mix.
Photo: Peter Blasl
‘Desperately low’ on road salt
The winter storm comes at a time when local highway crews are scrambling for road salt supplies. Town and county departments are critically low on road salt. Salt deliveries from the Staten Island supplier slowed down after the January 26 blizzard, according to highway superintendents for Southold, Riverhead and Brookhaven. All report having large road salt orders unfulfilled for weeks, receiving shipments “in dribs and drabs” throughout the month of February. See prior story.
“I’m desperately low,” Southold Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando said yesterday.
Riverhead Highway Superintendent George Woodson said yesterday his department didn’t have enough material on hand to get through another storm. Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro said the same.
“All the towns are in the same boat,” said Woodson, who in January took office as president of the Suffolk County Highway Superintendents Association.
Things aren’t much better for the county. “We’re at critical levels,” a spokesperson for County Executive Steve Bellone said Tuesday morning.
The state Department of Transportation Long Island Region has enough salt on hand to get through this week’s storms, according to a spokesperson.
The salt supplier notified town highway superintendents yesterday that anxiously awaited deliveries would not be arriving yesterday — or today.
“They said their barge was delayed,” Orlando said yesterday. They didn’t provide any additional information — or an ETA, he said. Losquadro said the company told him Brookhaven wouldn’t get any deliveries today either.
A spokesperson for Atlantic Salt Co. did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
Highway crews are using more sand in their salt-sand mix, or applying sand only, which provides some traction but doesn’t melt ice, Woodson said.
“It’s a very, very bad situation,” Losquadro said.
