Butler County wakes up to deep freeze

Sun, 12/08/2013 - 1:47pm — Diane Dyer

Sunday morning the good folks of Butler County and the surrounding area woke up to frigid temperatures and a icy wonderland. Temperatures Saturday night again nosedived below freezing and set the stage for freezing rain. According to Beech Tree News Meteorologist Landon Hampton what happened was “ We had warm moisture flow up from the Gulf of Mexico and it settled on top of the Arctic air mass which was already in place and as the moisture fell it froze to anything it touched”. “A several power outages were reported along with some spotty road conditions mainly in the north west corner of the County”.

Silas Alexander who was traveling through the County on his way home from work Sunday morning said “ We had a couple of icy spots towards Logan County but the roads really weren’t bad at all”.
In speaking to Timmy West at the Butler County Road Department, Timmy told us that “We started salting the roads on Friday night and gave priority to hills, curves and intersections and some of 25 or so tons of salt that we had put down stayed with us throughput the weekend. The Department is responsible for over 400 miles of road and about 175 miles of blacktop that can be salted. Tree damage was minor and in the areas where we have been slope mowing right of ways it did a lot to prevent worse damage.”

With this past weather event a person quickly learns about things like black ice and not to walk on sidewalks that are normally in the shade. More wintery weather is surely to come but Butler County appears to be prepared.