Record-breaking winter storm dumps heavy snow across Kentucky
After a balmy and beautiful Friday, Kentuckians woke up, as expected, to temperatures in the teens and a heavy blanket of snow Saturday morning.
The National Weather Service in Louisville said the snowfall broke a record for Lexington. A total of 4.5 inches had fallen by the end of the night Friday, breaking the previous record for March 11. that was set in 2018, when the city had 3 inches of snow. Bowling Green got slightly more and broke a similar record set in 1960, the weather service said.
“Right now, we are encountering a lot of running water from melting snow,” Streets and Roads Project Manager Senior Bill Osborne said in a news release late Saturday morning. “The sun has come out and is really helping activate the salt to work.”
The city said crews would be out throughout the day Saturday continuing to clear more residential areas, including Rank 3 roads, which are collector streets that connect neighborhoods to arterial routes, and Rank 4 streets within neighborhoods. Osborne said they’d also be plowing turn lanes and monitoring areas they had already cleared, especially downtown.
Road crews in Lexington worked overnight plowing and salting and by 5:30 a.m. had cleared most of the major routes in and out of Lexington, such as Main Street, Nicholasville Road and Richmond Road, as well as connector routes such as Red Mile Road and streets that provide access to major office and business areas, the city said in an earlier release.
Lexington police urged motorists heading to the Girls Sweet 16 Saturday to be careful and watch for pedestrians near Rupp Arena. They said they would have officers nearby to help with traffic.
Lexington police worked two injury collisions and 10 non-injury collisions between midnight and 6 a.m., the city said.
As of about 6 a.m., the city said northbound Interstate 75 was shut down near the Athens-Boonesboro exit because of a jackknifed tractor-trailer, according to the release.
I-75 in Laurel County was wet with some slick spots, Sheriff John Root said in an update Saturday morning. He said some Laurel County roads were wet, while others were snow and ice-covered, and he urged drivers to use caution if they had to be out.
Fayette County Public Schools canceled all Saturday activities because of the weather.
Temperatures are expected to remain cold through Sunday morning, reaching only 24 to 28 degrees Saturday and possibly setting a new record for cold for March 12, according to the National Weather Service in Louisville. By Sunday afternoon, temperatures should be back up to around 50, with highs in the lower 60s again on Monday.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 9:08 AM.
