It’s brine time.
The N.C. Department of Transportation began its setup on Wednesday for this evening’s winter storm, and its trucks hit the road Thursday to pre-emptively coat roads that could freeze under a layer of the mixture.
The NCDOT calls it brine — its mixture of water with a 23 percent salt concentration. The agency got the word out on Twitter with the hashtag “#brinetime.”
Northern Lenoir County and points further north and west have been targeted.
“What they did (Thursday) was put brine out on the roads in the northern part of the county,” said Hollie Allen, communications officer with the NCDOT. “And, they’re going to watch the weather and kind of re-evaluate things tomorrow morning to see if they need to brine more roads before the system comes in.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service placed Greene County in a winter weather advisory, but Lenoir and Jones counties were left out. The initial belief is ice won’t reach that far south.
“It looks to me, and it looks to us like precipitation probably comes in here, say, later (this) afternoon. Probably talking like 3 to 5 p.m. right now,” said John Feerick, Accuweather expert senior meteorologist. “It’s a close call, but I think we’re far enough to the southeast to where most of the precipitation is going to fall in the form of plain rain.
“Fortunately, this doesn’t have a lot of moisture with it — it’s a quick-mover. Certainly, it could be cold enough, when precipitation does arrive, that maybe there’s a little bit of sleet, maybe even freezing rain if you move north of Kinston.”
Feerick said he believes most travel problems to be northwest of I-95.
Local emergency personnel are waiting and watching to see if they need to spring into action.
“We’re talking to the weather service, and right now we’re just monitoring,” Lenoir County Emergency Services Director Roger Dail said. “That’s pretty much it — we’re ready to go, obviously, but right now we’re in the monitoring situation.”
The Accuweather forecast has the air temperature today dipping below freezing by 8 p.m., so moisture on the ground could freeze in spots — especially on bridges and overpasses.
But the forecast isn’t all bad — by Monday the high temperature will be in the upper 50s, rising to the upper 60s on Tuesday and low 70s by Wednesday.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.
Driving tips for this evening
Slow down
Remember that bridges and overpasses freeze first
Put away the mobile phone
Use only gentle pressure on both the accelerator and the brakes to avoid skidding
Give other motorists plenty of room in case you or the other drivers begin to slide
Source: N.C. Department of Transportation