Have you noticed many of our area roads are getting salted today? They look lighter in color as road crews pre-treat them to make the incoming winter weather less of a headache. Here's why salt works:
Snow plows and salt trucks head out to treat Louisville roads during an ice storm. Feb. 3, 2022.
The salt makes contact with the surface of the ice and forms a brine (salty water mix) with the molecules there on the surface. That salt brine lowers the freezing point of the ice because it makes it harder for the water molecules to stick together and freeze. So it makes it difficult for more ice to form on top of that, and it helps to melt the existing ice. Instead of the ice freezing at 32ºF, when salt is added, ice won’t freeze until the temperature drops closer to 15-20ºF. We will see temperatures at and below that level over the next few days, too, so please pay extra attention and be careful when driving.
To be fair, there are different products available that I've just called "salt" here. Crews can use rock salt (which is what it sounds like), liquid brine (salt and water mixture), or even sand. In fact many state Departments of Transportation use slightly different combinations of these things when they pre-treat based on typical temperatures and snow/ice amounts in that part of the country.
We thank all the folks working this weekend to ensure we can travel as safely as possible when the cold and snow try to work against us.
