Travel Alert: Icy Commute In Northern New England Now

Ice and crashes closed parts of Interstate 91
in Vermont this afternoon. Image from Valley News 

A cold rain was falling in much of the Northeast late this afternoon and in some areas, it's freezing.

That's causing some really dangerous conditions on the roads.

For the evening commute, patches of ice could be anywhere on the roads in northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

The worst of it, though, appears to be in the northeastern half of Vermont, much of the northern two thirds of New Hampshire and western and northern Maine.

In those areas, steady rain has moved in with temperatures hovering near or just below 32 degrees.

As I write this at 4 p.m. EST,  a section of Interstate 91 around Fairlee, Vermont was closed because of ice and crashes. Earlier, Interstate 89 in much of Vermont outside the Champlain Valley, but especially between Waterbury and Hartford, were icy, with slideoffs reported.

A section of Interstate 89 near Montpelier, Vermont was closed for a time early this afternoon, but has since reopened.

Images on Facebook showed slideoffs and crashes on U.S. 4 in West Rutland, Vermont.  Images posted to Twitter show slick ice underfoot in Lyndonville, Vermont.  Temperatures were hovering near 32 degrees along most of Interstate 93 in New Hampshire, so conditions are surely icy there.

The road might look just wet, but assume it's icy this evening. The ice won't accumulate enough to break trees and power lines, but it only takes a tiny bit of ice to turn a road into a dangerous skating rink.

Temperatures will warm a bit overnight, so things should melt off. On and off rain is likely Wednesday, transitioning to snow Wednesday night.

Valleys in northern New England will probably get barely a dusting to two or three inches at most out of this snow Wednesday night and and Thursday, but higher elevations, including many of the ski areas, could luck out with four to eight inches of snow by Thursday night.