Road conditions expected to improve through the day Thursday, as long as drivers aren't headed west

By Bill Novak, Capital Newspapers

Christmas Eve travelers in southern Wisconsin shouldn't have too much difficulty driving to Grandma's house, unless she makes her gingerbread cookies in the Twin Cities.

Rain and milder temperatures are assisting an army of salt trucks in the fight against the icy conditions that covered the region overnight, with roads expected to be in pretty good shape by mid-morning Thursday.

A winter storm warning for southern Wisconsin was canceled overnight, but a winter weather advisory remains in effect until noon, the National Weather Service said.

Freezing rain in the early morning hours made for difficult driving on rural roads and side streets, but main streets and highways are in decent shape thanks to salting.

Dane County highways are wet and slippery, but the main highways are in pretty good driving condition, said Dane County Highway dispatcher Jeff Klinkner.

"Take it easy out there," Klinkner said. "Even if the road just looks wet, some can glaze over very quickly."

The county has 58 salters and plows out and they've been out since 3 a.m. on the county roads. Salters were working on main highways, including the Beltline and interstate, all Tuesday afternoon, evening and into this morning.

"We'll be out there all day today, salting and sanding and plowing where it needs it," Klinkner said. "It will help when it turns to rain later today."

The State Patrol reported only a few slideoffs overnight.

"There's nothing major going on," said a State Patrol dispatcher when contacted at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. "Go slow, take your time, and you should be okay."

The freezing rain caused power outages in southern Wisconsin, with Wisconsin Power and Light reporting about 11,000 customers out of service, mainly south of Madison, as of 6:50 a.m.

About 1,100 Dane County WPL customers were without electricity, but the main outages were in Green County with 4,880 without power and 4,700 without power in Rock County.

Monroe police also reported a WPL outage Tuesday evening that knocked about half the city's 11,000 people off the power grid for about an hour.

The mixed bag of precipitation that started falling Tuesday afternoon is from a huge storm that is cutting a wide swath right up the nation's midsection, starting out in Texas and working its way up the Plains to the Midwest.

Winter storm warnings have been posted in western Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, with Minneapolis expected to get up to 20 inches of snow as the center of the storm moves up to Iowa on Christmas and stays put for the day. Some parts of Minnesota could get two feet or more.

Parts of western Wisconsin could get a foot of snow before the storm slowly heads off to the northeast, the weather service said.

In south central Wisconsin, Weather Central meteorologist Brian Olson said rain could be heavy at times on Christmas Eve night, and the rain will continue into Christmas morning but will mix with and change to just a few afternoon snow showers.

Thursday's high should reach the mid-30s, and the low Thursday night isn't expected to drop below freezing, so rain should stay as rain during the overnight hours.

The weather service said we could get up to an inch of rain Thursday night and another half-inch on Friday.

Colder air moving in on Christmas will drop temperatures as the day goes on, with a high of 35 by 11 a.m. falling to around 23 in the afternoon.

The rain could cause some standing water problems at intersections or in low-lying areas.

Schumacher said residents should try to open a little channel through the ice and snow to storm sewer drains in the street, so the rain and melting snow and ice has a chance to get off pavement.

The snow that starts falling on Christmas could continue through Saturday night, but only 2-3 inches of snow is expected.

There's a slight chance for snow showers on Sunday with a high in the mid-20s, then sunshine will return on Monday through most of the week, with highs in the mid-20s.