What caused the icy road conditions Wednesday morning, and will we see it again with snow Thursday night?

KFIZ’s meteorologist Doug Raflik breaks down the scenario that caused dozens of crashes Wednesday morning

Wednesday morning driving conditions can be summed up in one word, but internal standards we set here at KFIZ prevents me for saying it in this article.

But why did the roads get so icy? It was just a narrow band of snow that passed over, and we get snow all the time with the roads not getting as slick as they became.

The reason can be seen when you look at the air temperature leading up to, and just after the snowfall.

Highs Tuesday reached up to a balmy 50 degrees, and the air temperature stayed above freezing into the night right up until it started to snow. This prolonged warm air warmed the surface of the roadways to above the freezing temperature.

The line of snow that moved through was orientated east to west along a cold front that was sweeping south across the area. Temperatures behind the cold front dropped fast to 20 degrees by 7 a.m.

Because the pavement had retained the heat from the day before, the initial snowfall melted as it hit the pavement. This moisture then became ice as the air temperature quickly dropped well below freezing.

While I can’t speak for the city and county public works departments, I can assume the roads weren’t pre treated due to the forecasted snowfall potential, or lack thereof, as even I stated was going to be a dusting, if any snow by Wednesday morning. But as we are shown time after time, Mother Nature and forecast models don’t always agree as around an inch of snow fell as that cold front passed over.

So will we see the same thing Friday morning, with about an inch of snow forecasted to fall Thursday night. It’s not likely as air temperatures Thursday will be well below freezing, causing the pavement temperatures to also be cold enough, so when snow does fall, it stays snow, not melting and then freezing as ice. But don’t go saying Doug Raflik said the roads won’t be slippery however as snow covered roads can also be a hazard to drive on. Just not as bad as ice.