Local and state agencies are gearing up for Sunday’s forecast of what’s known as wintry mix — a combination of different types of precipitation such as snow, ice and sleet.

This mix can cause light ice accumulation, make roads slippery and potentially create travel hazards, said National Weather Service-Louisville Forecaster Andrea Schoettmer.

The weather service expects Bowling Green to begin Sunday morning with precipitation that can be a light wintry mix, Schoettmer said Thursday afternoon. Late Sunday afternoon, there may be a period of cold rain; then, there could be another wintry mix Sunday night into Monday morning, with precipitation exiting the area early Monday afternoon, she said.

NWS-Louisville is confident there’ll be a winter storm for the lower Ohio Valley region, Schoettmer said. Whether it’ll hit Bowling Green was still uncertain, she said Thursday afternoon.

“Either way, there will be some impact to the roads expected on Sunday and Monday, and we advise to keep up to date with the forecast updates because the track of the storm is still a little bit uncertain,” she said. “And as we get new model data in, depending on the temperature profile, there could be more wintry mix if it’s a colder overall temperature, or it could be more of a rain if it’s a warmer overall temperature.”

For winter weather preparation, Kentucky roads fall under the jurisdiction of the state or a county or city. Representatives from Bowling Green Public Works and the regional Kentucky Transportation Cabinet agency shared their plans.

Bowling Green Public Works

BGPW began applying brine to city streets Friday morning.

The agency may pre-treat roads by using brine or salt to prevent ice by lowering the freezing temperature — a decision that depends on coming weather, BGPW Director Andy Souza said.

“There’s no hard and fast rule on ice; it just depends on if it looks like ice is coming from the north or any other direction, and if other cities are being impacted, we’re going to go head out and going to brine,” Souza said.

BGPW Operations Manager Ryan Johnson would make the call, Souza said. The agency aims to make the decision several hours ahead of an ice event, Souza added.

“And then, we’ll just watch,” Souza said, adding that BGPW has people watching in operations and at their homes for a moment where things start to look bad.

BGPW begins plowing once snowfall reaches 2 inches or if “an extreme amount” of snowfall gets predicted, according to the agency website; it will also “definitely” use salt to deal with snow at 2 inches, Souza added.

BGPW has around 2,000 tons of salt, which gets stored at BGPW’s operations barn. BGPW used 500 tons last winter, Souza said, adding, “2,000 tons definitely will get us through, historically, what have been sort of the most severe cases.” BGPW also has a contract where it can bring more salt in if needed, he said.

The agency’s drivers use a sizable bulldozer to load around six tons of salt per truck.

The agency, which prepared in October for inclement weather, has 10 big plows and four smaller plows, Souza said. If BGPW makes the call to plow and salt roads, the trucks — equipped with a plow on the front and a salt-spreader on the back — are driven through city roads.

Routes are prioritized into categories “A” through “D.”

Priority “A” routes are those that go to hospitals and serve first responders’ needs; priority “B”  routes include schools; and “C” and “D” routes get into the neighborhoods, Souza summed up. (For more details, go to https://www.bgky.org/publicworks/snow-routes.)

“Every single neighborhood will at least get the entrance and the exit to their neighborhood plowed,” he said.

There isn’t a specific schedule for completing the plowing due to the numerous factors involved, including traffic and accidents, he said.

“There’s so many variables that go into how fast we can get out. I don’t want the crews to go fast. I wanted to be safe and effective when they’re going out,” he said.

“I think the citizens should rest easy. We have a plan, we’re prepared, we’ve got resources and this is not our first rodeo. We do this every year.”

Ky Transportation Cabinet

On Friday morning, the regional state agency overseeing transportation began anti-icing state roads — roads that make up the state highway system.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 3 — overseeing the counties of Warren, Todd, Simpson, Monroe, Metcalfe, Logan, Edmonson, Butler, Barren and Allen — made the announcement Thursday afternoon. It prioritizes routes into categories “A,” “B” and “C,” where “A” encompasses interstates, expressways and U.S. routes, said Wes Watt, the district’s public information officer.

“We kind of work ourselves down from there,” Watt said. “(It) goes by just the average daily traffic, so if it’s a very rural area, that’s going to be further down the list — but we always start with the priority A routes for everything.”

The top priority “A” routes in Warren County and Bowling Green are Interstate 65, Interstate 165, the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Expressway, U.S. 31-W, U.S. 68, U.S. 231 and U.S. 31-E, Watt said. (All district routes are available at https://transportation.ky.gov/Maintenance/Documents/Snow%20and%20Ice%20Maps/WARREN.pdf )

With 68 KYTC snow plows, 16 contract trucks and a full supply of some 20,000 tons of salt, the regional agency expects all or nearly all its routes districtwide to have anti-icing applied by the end of Friday night, Watt said.

They’ll use water, salt and liquid calcium to pre-treat the miles of state roadway districtwide.

“We’ll hit each direction and all the lanes,” Watt said. “If we have time, we’ll come back and do the shoulders ….”

After the pre-treatment is complete, the Kentucky agency will look at forecast and conditions before making a judgment call on when to call the crews in to head out, Watt said.

This generally starts with spot treating, usually beginning with salting the bridges and overpasses followed by the remaining areas, he said.

“It just really depends on what the system does, as to our response,” he said. “If there’s no snow, but it’s just water and ice, we’re not going to plow — we’re going to just put salt down to keep the ice from forming on the roadway.”