Published: February 21, 2008 09:29 pm      

Area braces for ice storm

ASHLAND — Alarms and alerts were sounded around lunch time Thursday as local residents spread the word to prepare for an incoming ice storm.

By the time many first heard of the possible winter storm, area highway crews were already pretreating interstates and major highways, according to Allen Blair, spokesman for the Department of Highways District 9.

“We have crews on standby ready and waiting,” Blair said mid-day.

Parents of school-age children made arrangements or left work to greet school buses in Boyd County. Students at Morehead State University and the University of Kentucky were among those also dismissed early. Classes were canceled ahead of time in surrounding counties.

With no precipitation and only cloudy skies overhead, several area convenience and grocery stores also had a rush of customers in connection with the icy threat.

By the time precipitation actually began falling shortly before 4 p.m. in Ashland, many Tri-State businesses had also already sent workers home in anticipation of foul weather.

Ice and sleet had already covered a large section of Kentucky by early Thursday evening, but as of press time Thursday night, forecasters were calling for warmer temperatures overnight that would allow the frozen precipitation to melt.

National Weather Service meteorologist Randall Hatfield said warm air is following the cold air that blasted into the lower Mississippi Valley bringing the wintery mix to the Tri-State. Hatfield said as warm air continued to invade the area overnight it would raise temperatures, changing any remaining snow and sleet to rain.

Hatfield said temperatures were expected to rise throughout the night and into this morning, reaching the mid 40s by Thursday afternoon.

“Anyone out between now and midnight really needs to be careful,” Hatfield said shortly before 5 p.m.

AEP Kentucky was reporting no major outages and local law enforcement agencies had no reports of serious accidents.