After an unusually warm winter so far with several record highs, snow is in the forecast for Thursday. And while accumulations are not expected to top a few inches at most, the city of Bowling Green is getting ready for whatever snow events are yet to come.

The city is adding to its fleet of vehicles to battle the white stuff. The city currently has eight large snow removal trucks as well as three smaller trucks used to clear parking lots and intersections, city Public Works Director Greg Meredith said. The city has budgeted to buy another plow truck this year, which should be in service soon.

Crews from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 3 started spreading anti-icing agents on state roads Wednesday morning in anticipation of possible snow Thursday, according to the District 3 Facebook page.

The city is also fully stocked with road salt and salt brine that can be sprayed on roads to help prevent snow or ice from sticking, “but you can’t always do that,” Meredith said of applying the brine as rain or sleet can wash it off. “We have to choose the correct storms to pretreat,” he said.

Once significant snowfall hits, city crews work in eight-hour shifts around the clock, even weekends if needed.

The city’s 271 miles of streets are designated as either A (129 miles); B (32 miles); C (45 miles) or D (65 miles) routes.

Crews work to clear the main – or A – routes first.

“They are the more heavily traveled or connecter routes,” to things like hospitals, police or fire stations, Meredith said.

The other priority designations are:

Priority B – School bus routes: streets providing the most direct access to and from schools.

Priority C – Subdivisions: major thoroughfares not included in A and B routes.

Priority D – Low priority: interior streets within subdivisions.

Crews don’t move on to the B, C and D roads “until the previous routes are cleared,” Merideth said, pointing out it was useless to clear secondary streets that would then lead to impassable main roads.

City crews also don’t clear the many state roads that crisscross the city. An exception would be if a city truck is on a state road heading to a city street – “we’d put our blade down,” Meredith said.

According to the National Weather Service, there has been only a trace amount of snow in Bowling Green this winter as of Wednesday. But it was in late January last year that record amounts of snow hit the area, as almost 15 inches of the white stuff fell in a three-day period. Thirty city employees worked 625 man hours nonstop in eight hour shifts from Jan. 21 to Jan. 25 to keep streets cleared, according to city records.

What to expect this year is anyone’s guess. Meredith said while the city does monitor things like long-range precipitation forecasts, “we don’t put a lot of faith in that,” he said. The most reliable precipitation forecasts are made only a few days out, Meredith said. “The trend has been later, more intense storms,” he said. “It’s a process … every storm is different.”

— For more information about snow removal, routes and what zone/route you are in, visit bgky.org/publicworks/snow-routes.

— Follow city government reporter Wes Swietek on Twitter @BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.