North Louisiana could be hit with a significant ice storm this weekend. State Climatologist Jay Grymes says rain will reach the state’s northwestern parishes on Friday, and that rain will eventually turn to freezing rain and spread across the northern half of the state.
“The biggest concern is the icing threat, and we’re looking at a decent likelihood of a half an inch of ice for more,” Grymes said.
Grymes says ice accumulations could top a half inch for the northern third of Louisiana, and some places could see an inch of ice.
“That’s going to be enough to create, basically, almost impossible travel conditions. And in fact, with that kind of icing, would not be surprised to see some widespread power outages,” Grymes warned.
Grymes says if there are road closures, they could extend into Monday as it will be extremely cold.
“We can see widespread lows down in the teens, maybe even down around 10 degrees, for a couple of nights in a row,” Grymes noted.
Grymes says there is the potential for ice accumulations along parts of the I-10/I-12 corridor by Saturday night into Sunday. Governor Landry will hold a 2 p.m. press conference to discuss the state’s preparedness for the storm.
(graphic courtesy of LA DOTD)
If this approaching ice storm does what forecasters expect it will do, road closures are likely across the northern half of the state. Rodney Mallett with DOTD says they will do what they can to keep roads open.
“We’re going to try to keep as many state highways open as we can. But we know that if it is a prolonged hazardous event, that some of our longer bridges, and some of those are on the interstate, they will be closed so we can keep priority routes open,” Mallet said.
Temperatures are also expected to fall below freezing for multiple days in north Louisiana, so any road closures could be lengthy. Mallett says they do have a chemical called Pavix that can help with iced over bridges, elevated highways and roads.
“It’s an environmentally friendly chemical that makes it harder for the ice to actually connect with the bridge. So when it comes time to remove ice, it’s a little easier to do,” Mallett explained.
Mallett says the state also has more than ten million pounds of salt.
“We’re in the process of moving that from different areas to our staging areas so we can apply it to the bridges as soon as we’re able to,” Mallett said.
Mallett says they can’t spread the salt on the roads too soon, because it will wash away when it starts raining on Friday.