(Updated: 4:20 p.m.) 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 seven 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.
‘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.
“I’m desperately low,” Southold Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando said yesterday. Today, Orlando said things are “pretty much status quo.” He was promised a shipment today but as of 4 p.m., nothing had arrived
Riverhead Highway Superintendent George Woodson said yesterday his department didn’t have enough material on hand to get through another storm. Riverhead took delivery of about 85 tons today, he said. Used sparingly, that amount could get the town through tonight and tomorrow, he said. Riverhead has had 1,100 tons on order for more than two weeks, according to Woodson.
Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro also said things were “basically unchanged” today. The town was dangerously low on salt. Brookhaven got “a few loads” of salt today — but not enough to get through tonight’s storm. Losquadro said he was trying to get some from another supplier in Connecticut — but all the suppliers are low and government agencies — which can’t pay cash, like private contractors — have a hard time negotiating a deal when materials are scarce.
“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 yesterday.
The state Department of Transportation Long Island Region has enough salt on hand to get through this week’s storms, according to a spokesperson.
Yesterday the salt supplier notified town highway superintendents yesterday anxiously awaiting deliveries the product would not be arriving.
“They said their barge was delayed,” Orlando said yesterday.
Woodson said he was told today that the barge came in and the company began making shipments.
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. They are also using salt only on known trouble spots. With today’s melt and falling temperatures tonight, surfaces will get icy as snow — forecast to be heavy — begins to fall.
Fortunately, the timing of the storm now has the cold air and snow arriving well after midnight, which will work in favor of highway crews because fewer people are out on the roads, Woodson said.
Editor’s note: This story has been amended to reflect a change in volume of salt delivered to the Riverhead Highway Department yesterday. The superintendent initially provided an incorrect number.
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