The extremely cold temperatures will continue into next week, with overnight lows well below zero and the daytime highs approaching zero and in the single digits.

Greene County Engineer Wade Weiss says when temperatures are that low the effectiveness of applying salt and sand to the roadway is greatly reduced. 

“It still does work. Good thing is we have enhanced our salt and sand mixture with some calcium chloride, so we have a little bit of an advantage there. Especially when the sun comes out, even in the cold temperatures we’ll see the product start to work. Now the product is effective at these temperatures, but it’s just not as effective as it is when the temperatures are higher.”

Weiss notes they don’t treat every county road in every snow event with sand and salt, but they always treat the critical areas, such as intersections, hills, curves and stop sign areas. 

Jefferson City Administrator Mike Palmer says colder temperatures have caused an issue for public works as well.

“Our public works director said when it gets this cold, some of their equipment that’s? diesel starts to gel inside the equipment and they can’t use it. But these guys have been out for nights on end, in this cold weather.”   

Public Works Director Dave Morlan notes that crews have been out this week trying to scrape the slicker roads to help motorists continue to travel safely.