Weather Advisory Warns of Freezing Rain During Friday's Rush Hour

The St. Louis metropolitan area is under a winter weather advisory beginning at 3 p.m. Friday and lasting through midnight.

According to the National Weather Service, there will be a light, freezing drizzle throughout the area. An icy glaze could cover the streets during the advisory, making travel potentially treacherous.

“Right now, we’re looking at a 65 percent chance of freezing rain and sleet moving into St. Louis County sometime between late afternoon and this evening,” said Dave Wrone, public information manager for the county’s Department of Highways and Traffic.

“This is a 'better safe than sorry' scenario," he said. "We’d rather pre-treat with salt and not have the expected storm arrive than to not salt and find ourselves contending with very difficult ice conditions.”

St. Charles street crews started pretreating overpasses, bridges and arterial routes earlier this morning, said Daryl Hampel, St. Charles Street Superintendent.

"All we can really do to it is apply salt and try to melt it off," he said of the ice. "It doesn't take much freezing rain or ice to make everything really slick."

Hampel said some areas of the city, including the steep hill on Zumbehl road and the hill near Hardin Middle School on Elm Street are a few areas where they concentrate their efforts to make sure the roads aren't treacherous.

Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Andrew Gates He said streets are being pre-treated in anticipation of the freezing rain. However, if it rains while temperatures are still above freezing, the water could wash away the chemicals.

Full crews in 204 trucks are currently pre-treating roads and bridges with salt brine, according to a MoDOT news release.

Motorists should check MoDOT’s Traveler Information map for road conditions before their evening commute, the release states.