David Adams, EMA director for Escambia County, released the following update about the upcoming winter weather:

“The National Weather Service has forecast the rain to become freezing rain and sleet near 3 a.m. on Tuesday with temperatures to be in the upper 20’s. This will lead to ice accumulations between 0.1 and 0.25 inches on Tuesday morning. This will make travel difficult at best. The temperature will hover near freezing during the day Tuesday, not allowing much if any thawing. Early Tuesday evening the precipitation will transition to a snow and sleet mixture with accumulations between 1 and 3 inches with the temperature in the low to mid 20’s. This snow will be on top of any ice that has collected. Driving will be very dangerous in these conditions.

“The high temperature on Wednesday is forecast to be in the mid 30’s only allowing for minimum thawing with temps dipping on Wednesday night to below freezing. This will cause any water from melting to refreeze and give rise to the possibility of “black ice” Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

“According to the NWS, travel during this time ‘is not recommended.’ Most schools have announced closings for Tuesday and Wednesday as have many government offices.

“Please limit travel to essential functions only. There is a good possibility of power outages due to lines down from ice or falling trees. Please prepare your generator if you use one and make sure you have food products available that do not need heating to prepare. Also, if you take any medications, make sure that you have a supply to last several days as, not only will travel be dangerous, but if the power is out the pharmacy may not be able to fill the prescription.”