WASHINGTON — The heavy rain is moving out of the region and temperatures are slowly rising along with the chance of flood waters after Monday’s storm that dropped snow, ice and rain leaving behind hazardous road conditions.
The region’s warm-up and changeover from freezing rain to plain rain happened unpredictably, and led to a wide range of conditions on area roads. By 8:30 a.m., many main highways were wet with some slush puddles that lingered but side streets and sidewalks were still slick with a coating of ice. Road conditions continued to improve through the morning as temperatures rose, melting any remaining ice in the D.C. metro area. But ice still lingered in colder parts of the northern and western suburbs.
In the District, temperatures rose from 32 to 50 in less than two hours Tuesday morning. But elsewhere, Manassas for example, the temperature was still at 35 degrees at 9:30 a.m. — patches of ice where in some places, sheets of ice in others.
A Flood Warning remains in effect for D.C., as well as Prince George’s County, central Anne Arundel County, eastern Howard County and southeastern Montgomery County until 2 p.m. and a Flood Watch for the entire area until 11 p.m., as melting snow and ice can overwhelm drains, ditches and smaller waterways.
“That’s why we concentrated on clearing out those inlets that are ice-covered” on Monday, says Charlie Gischlar, of the Maryland State Highway Administration. While clearing travel lanes is important, he says, “The shoulders are where the drainage inlets are. And if you don’t get that water off the roadway, and you have this wet ground, you could have ponding on the road.”
WTOP’s NEAL AUGENSTEIN called the transition from snow to rain “messy and unpredictable.” Ice still coated the trees despite the rain near The Plains, in Fauquier County. And in Middleburg, there was still plenty of ice on the sidewalks as temperatures were at 31 degrees midmorning.
And before the sun came up in Montgomery County, ice was like a sheet over the main roads, side roads and sidewalks alike. Since then, WTOP’s Nick Iannelli says that the main roads have mostly recovered, and side roads were improving, but the sidewalks are still dangerous for pedestrians.
Gischlar says pavement temperatures are finally catching up to the warmer air temperatures, so the main danger now is ponding and possible flooding from the heavy rain.
He adds that the moisture and fluctuating temperatures are causing potholes, and expanding existing ones, including a bad situation on the Beltway between Connecticut and Georgia avenues that led to the closure of two lanes and a gathering of up to 12 cars on the side of the road with flat tires.
He says you can contact them to report a pothole, or file a claim for damages, at roads.maryland.gov.
ELLEN KAMILAKIS, of VDOT, tells WTOP that “some of the roadways are wet; some are slushy; some are icy. You don’t want to play roulette with it.”
If you do have to go out, she says, you’ll need to factor in a lot more time, and reduce your speed. “We saw a decent number of accidents (Monday night) where people were overdriving the conditions, thinking that it was just wet.”
