0:33Hold tight to those steering wheels and go easy on the accelerators.
Perilously slick roads won't be improving any time soon despite round-the-clock efforts by Twin Cities public works departments. Sidewalks and bikeways also pose a threat.
"Sometimes in a case like this, Mother Nature wins for a while," said Mike Kennedy, director of transportation maintenance and repair in Minneapolis. "Everything was right to cause the wrong conditions."
Because of the volume of traffic and the preponderance of on-street parking in Minneapolis and St. Paul, city streets have been in a bad way for the past few days.
Before the salt can start gnawing into what Kennedy called the "bulletproof" ice pack now on the roads, the sun must come out and temperatures need to hit at least 15 degrees. That, however, remains a few days off; Sunday's temps barely tasted the teens.
Road salt is utterly ineffective on ice when temperatures stay below 10 degrees. Temperatures Monday will be well below that mark, lingering around zero for most of the day. As the week progresses, highs are forecast to slog into double digits. The National Weather Service forecasts the mercury soaring to 23 degrees next Sunday.
From the start of the snowfall in the middle of last week, however, conditions set up the region for jaw-clenchingly slippery, bumpy roads. As the snow fell, the temperature hovered in the 30s, creating a watery slush.
In St. Paul, city spokesman Joe Campbell said the water washed away much of the salty brine crews had used to treat the streets. The pre-storm treatment aims to create conditions that prevent the snow from bonding with the roadway.
