Tonight, Erie drivers are dealing with a dangerous glaze of ice across much of the region.<\/p>\n
Some areas are under a winter weather advisory, while others face a full storm warning.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said crews have been out since early this morning, but temperatures hovering right around freezing are making every decision critical.<\/p>\n
With the weather system moving through on Friday, residents of Erie County probably noticed their cars with frozen windshields and slippery roads.<\/p>\n
Community Blood Bank offers gift cards for blood donations <\/a><\/p>\n Friday was forecasted for some icy conditions, which means PennDOT was in full swing to try and get out in front of it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always based on the forecast and what\u2019s already down on the roadways, so sometimes there\u2019s a lot of material left over from the last time we were out there, so that\u2019ll help us get a head start,\u201d said Jill Harry, press officer for PennDOT. \u201cOther times, the rain has come through and washed a lot of it away, so we assess the conditions of the roads and the forecast as it\u2019s moving into the area.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, the worst of it is definitely east of the I-79 corridor, south of I-90,\u201d said Jet 24 meteorologist Craig Flint. \u201cBecause I think the freezing rain and sleet are gonna linger the longest there. Near the lakeshores and north of I-90, the lake actually helps a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n The best thing drivers can do in this situation is drive slowly, and if you don\u2019t have to, you should not drive at all.<\/p>\n Asbury Woods\u2019 Winter Wonderland postponed Friday due to weather <\/a><\/p>\n To help enforce this, PennDOT put restrictions in place at 10:00 a.m. on Friday to lower speed limits on the highways.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 10:00, we put restrictions into place on all of the interstates,\u201d Harry said. \u201cSo, especially up here in the northwest corner of the state, where we\u2019re predicted to get the weather in some of the earliest parts of the storm as it moves in, so, at 10:00, there was what we call a tier 3 restriction on all the interstates.\u201d<\/p>\n For those who were checking the weather earlier today, it said it was actually supposed to be above freezing. However, the ice is still sticking, and that\u2019s because, as Flint said, the higher temperature is staying up there in the sky compared to down here, where it\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it\u2019s above freezing upstairs in the atmosphere, but down here at the surface, it\u2019s right around 32, and that\u2019s the conundrum that we face this afternoon,\u201d Flint said.<\/p>\n