UPDATED FORECAST — Roads and Transportation Director Chris Nicholson drew chuckles during the Jefferson County Commission’s committee meeting today when President Jimmie Stephens observed that Nicholson’s department had no items on the agenda.

“We left it clean so we could plan for this weather event,” he said.

But the frigid weather that’s on tap later this week is no laughing matter. County road crews will be ready to address situations that arise.

“I was joking,” Nicholson said, “but yes, we’re preparing. The forecast is showing right now some pretty rough weather this weekend. Really, what worries us the most are overpasses, our bridges where there’s airflow underneath. That’s kind of what we’re focused on — problem areas that we know airflow is under. Therefore, if it rains and freezes, that road service gets frozen first.”

The first line of defense will be on-call staff.

“They’re 24/7-type staff,” the director said. “We’ll go ahead and bring staff in just to be prepared for that. What we’ll do is, we’ll have sand trucks prepared and ready and fully loaded with materials. The moment we hear about an ice area, we’ll send a team out to sand that area and with the proper equipment to really dethaw that ice as soon as possible.”

The Roads and Transportation director said freezing temperatures alone are not the problem. The issue is how much rain comes with it.

Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday afternoon proclaimed a state of emergency  for 19 northern counties, but that area stops shy of Jefferson County.

The NWS forecast for Birmingham updated Thursday predicts a 60% chance of rain Saturday after noon with a high near 48. Saturday night, a 100% chance of rain is predicted, but the projected low temperature is 40, which is several degrees warmer than predicted earlier in the week.

The high Sunday is forecast at 53, with rain most of the day. Precipitation chances reduce to 30% Sunday night, but the area could see snow and rain before midnight and temperatures are expected to dip to about 18.

Monday is predicted to be mostly clear and sunny with a high near 31 and a low of about 16 before temperatures go back to 40 on Tuesday.

 

The Alabama Department of Transportation also issued a statement Wednesday saying it is preparing for a potentially high-impact winter weather event this weekend, including possibly pretreating some roads and planning to help keep main roads passable.