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Stay Home If You Can; Black Ice Is Pretty, But Perilous

Rebecca Martinez

Whether your road has been plowed or not, you might want to think twice before heading out today, and to be really careful if you do. There's black ice everywhere.

(I took a spill in the parking lot just outside our studios, which was plowed yesterday.)  

After clearing main roadways of the heavy snow yesterday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation Department plows will hit neighborhoods today.  

But NCDOT Spokesman Steve Abbott warns that black ice will make driving risky throughout the morning.

"Don't be distracted by what you're doing in the car until this ice goes away," Abbott says. "A break we'll have is that we're going to be above freezing today, so it should quickly melt, but in the meantime, just be really careful."
 

Most Triangle schools are closed again today. Classes in Johnston County will start two hours late.

 
The National Weather Service says temperatures should hover just under 40 degrees by late morning. But snow melt is expected to re-freeze on roads again tonight.

 
So if you can wait till after 10:00, when the slippery black ice starts to melt, to get out and about this morning, it could be a good idea. And easier on your hip.
 

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Rebecca Martinez produces podcasts at WUNC. She’s been at the station since 2013, when she produced Morning Edition and reported for newscasts and radio features. Rebecca also serves on WUNC’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability (IDEA) Committee.
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