Heads Up Vermont: This Morning's Road Ice Even Worse Than Forecast

Beware, Vermont motorists. Roads throughout the state
will be icy for this morning's commute as freezing
rain moves in after a chilly night. 

 Heads up, Vermont commuters.

Chances are there's more ice on the roads that previously forecast early this morning.  

Skies stayed clear long enough last night so that temperatures fell well down into the 20s. Before dawn, rain was moving in, and it's going to freeze on a lot of roads, bridges and sidewalks. 

Some places will be worse than others, but be prepared for ice no matter where you are in Vermont this morning.  Even in the Champlain Valley, where temperatures were starting to rise above freezing as the rain moved in.

With the temperatures up in the mid 30s or so, you'd think there wouldn't be a problem. But the cold temperatures earlier dropped surfaces below freezing. So even if plain rain hits, it would still freeze on roads and such. 

The winter weather advisory that was in effect in central and eastern Vermont has been expanded to include all of Vermont, including the Champlain Valley. 

Be especially careful when encountering bridges. The road might be OK and you're cruising along on wet pavement. The ground might still be just warm enough under some roads in some areas to keep the rain from freezing.

But there's no ground under the bridges, obviously, so there's nothing to prevent the bridge from freezing. So a wet road turns into a skating rink on the bridge as you're zipping along at or over the speed limit, and that's a recipe for disaster. 

If you can postpone driving until mid morning or after, do that. If you can't, then drive very cautiously and leave plenty of extra time to get to where you are going. 

The rest of the day might be a bit rainy, but the roads should be fine this afternoon.

I'll update our potentially snowy Vermont Thanksgiving in a post later this morning.