Drivers warned to hunker down as icy winter storm hits northern Wisconsin

Officials are urging drivers in northern Wisconsin to stay put as an icy winter storm moves through the area today. 

The National Weather Service has placed a winter storm warning on Iron, Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland counties in Wisconsin from Tuesday, February 22nd until midnight CST. Wind gusts as high as 35 mph are expected along with 6 to 14 inches of snow, particularly in northern Ashland and Iron counties. 

Officials warn that the severe weather could make travel “very difficult” and “significantly reduce visibility.” Wind chills as low as 20 below zero are expected, with near white-out conditions predicted lakeside. 

Drivers were securing their spots in northern Wisconsin as early as 4 p.m. yesterday ahead of the predicted severe weather. 

“I’ve been over on the east coast when they had that last storm and just all kinds of trucks in the ditch. That’s not safe. You could kill yourself, you could kills someone else,” said trucker Christina Moore, who lives in Texas and has only been driving a few months. 

“Well Roehl always says safety first so stop, pull over, find a safe place to park and wait it out,” she continued to ABC 27 News.

Officials say that travel will be extra dangerous because of the predicted icy rain. Not only will it make the roads extra slippery, but chemicals, ice, and plowing ahead of the storm won’t do any good because their efforts will just be rained on and frozen over. 

“Ice storms aren’t great and we don’t see them all that often here in Wisconsin thankfully,” said City of Madison Streets Division spokesperson Bryan Johnson.

“We’re going to have these waves of this freezing rain all night long, and all through the day tomorrow,” Johnson said. “So any work we’ve done now will just get covered over and frozen over again.”

“Pull over,” Moore added. “There’s no load worth a life. It’s a great day but it’s not a great day to die.”