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Some areas could get up to 4 inches of new snowfall by day’s end and half a foot through the end of the weekend.
It’s expected to snow steadily across the region this morning, tapering down to scattered light snow showers in the afternoon.
Breezy conditions all night into Sunday — 15 mph winds increasing to 25 mph by the end of the day Sunday — and blowing snow will be a major concern.
Storm Center 7 Chief Meteorologist Jamie Simpson said roads could remain covered throughout the weekend.
Another batch of snow arrives Sunday mid-morning.
Simpson said about 1 inch is expected south of Dayton and about 3 inches north.
“One difference between the two days will be temperatures,” he said. “Saturday morning highs will be in the low to mid 20s then back into the teens in the afternoon. Sunday we should climb up to about 30 degrees late in the day so salt will work much better.”
Some communities said the winter has already taken a tole on their salt supplies so they will be conserving this weekend despite the predicted road issues.
Greene County Engineer Bob Geyer said the county only has about 500 tons of salt on hand and had not received a promised delivery by Friday afternoon.
“We will be using the salt sparingly over the weekend,” he said. “I ask that the citizens of Greene County to use extreme caution if they venture out this weekend as weather and road conditions could deteriorate rapidly.”
The city of Fairborn also said they will restrict salt use to main routes, major intersections, bridges, overpasses and hills until salt levels improve. The city said they have ordered an additional 800 tons of salt.
Montgomery County Engineer Paul Gruner said road crews will use sand on low volume rural roads while salt use will be concentrated on hills, curves, intersections and bridges.
“(The shortage) has been caused by the frequent snow storms since the beginning of December requiring the use of salt at a much higher rate than normal,” county spokeswoman Cathy Peterson said Friday. “When combined with slow delivery times from the salt supplier because of high demand and various delivery problems, the result is low supplies on hand.”
Single digit temperatures return to start the day Monday. Breezy conditions mean the wind chill will likely be near zero with the air temperature topping out around 10 degrees.
Tuesday will start dangerously cold with temperatures around 10 degrees below zero and only recovering into the single digits. Sunny skies are expected with light winds.
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