WINTER STORM: How and why the city decides when to salt the road

The City of Tulsa sometimes actually starts putting salt down on the roads before the storm actually hits, but that's the exception, not the rule.

Bob Bledsoe, a city spokesman, tells KRMG "occasionally, when we're expecting ice for example, they may actually put salt on some bridges and some intersections and hilly places before the ice actually forms to prevent it from forming."

That said, they don't want to waste expensive salt and man hours preparing for a storm that misses the area.

"You don't want to do it and put out a lot of expensive salt unless you're pretty sure that ice is going to form in the next few hours," he adds.

He says the maintenance crews spend a lot of time monitoring the situation and staying in contact with weather and emergency agencies in advance of a storm.

"They take the ground temperature, and the air temperature, and the expected  air temperature, and all that into consideration when they're deciding whether to put salt out on the streets."

He also pointed out that it takes time to deploy trucks and drivers throughout the city from the maintenance yards in east and west Tulsa.

Tuesday night's storm probably will not see early deployment of salt, because it's not expected to be a major event and because ground temperatures remain high for this time of year.