More News

The early arrival of snow Saturday, coupled with cold temperatures, had a larger impact on upcounty roads than expected.

During the storm, about half of the county's rescue units were busy, with many working accidents along Interstate 270 and other heavily traveled major roads, fire and rescue spokesman Pete Piringer said.

The county's new storm center in Gaithersburg monitors 185 traffic cameras and uses the Web-based local forecasting tool WeatherBug to generate highly localized forecasts.

Staff used that information to deploy road maintenance trucks in the northern half of the county and to avoid the expense of putting trucks in downcounty areas, largely unaffected by the snow, said Keith Compton, the county's chief of highway services.

By 4:30 p.m. about 30 trucks were salting primary arterial roads and residential streets north of Rockville, he said.

State road crews, which are responsible for fewer miles but the most heavily traveled roads, were surprised because the snow and slippery conditions started four or five hours ahead of forecasts that the State Highway Administration used from the National Weather Service and DTN, an Omaha-based commercial forecaster, said David Buck, a spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration.

The agency also was surprised that the snow started east of the mountains.

"It's unusual for storms to start on this side of the mountains, and it wasn't supposed to start until 9 p.m.," Buck said, adding that forecasts pegged the chance of snow at 30 percent.

By the time SHA crews were on the roads, northern Montgomery, Carroll and Frederick counties already were the scene of accidents.

SHA plans to do more pre-treating of roads with salt brine six to eight hours before storms hit, Buck said.

By 4:30 a.m., county crews returned to retreat emergency routes and also had treated some bridges and sections of state roads that needed attention, such as I-370, Great Seneca Highway, Father Hurley Drive and Route 27, Compton said.

Unlike some jurisdictions that have been hit hard by high prices and short supplies of salt in the wake of Midwest storms last year, county and state reserves are fully stocked.

Montgomery is paying 5.7 percent more for salt than last year, or $62 per ton, under a contract that limits increases to the consumer price index, Compton said. Much of the county's salt supply comes from Chile, he said.

To eliminate waste, the county recently recalibrated all its salt and sand spreaders.

The state paid roughly $57 per ton for salt, a price set last season, rather than the $75 per ton price it probably will have to pay when the supply drops about 20 percent, Buck said.