City crews continue to prepare for winter weather and blizzard-like conditions late Friday night and overnight into Saturday morning. Residential streets have all been pre-treated with rock salt, and primary and secondary streets will be treated throughout Friday afternoon and evening.

Conditions this weekend are expected to be very different than conditions last weekend. The forecast is now calling for lower snow totals, but strong wind gusts are still expected to create blizzard-like conditions. Snow is expected to be drier and fluffier making it more prone to blow and drift, which will require crews to plow and treat primary and secondary streets multiple times to keep them clear. Plummeting temperatures will also make salt treatments less effective. Snow and ice is expected to be packed onto all pavements until temperatures rise above freezing, particularly residential streets which experience less traffic.

At this time, the City is still planning to operate at a Level 5 response, which means it can take up to 48 hours after accumulating snow has ended to plow and treat the more than 1,000 lane miles in the city. This response level is subject to change depending on the actual storm conditions.

The City will continue to monitor the weather forecast and will update its response accordingly.