Ice vs. plow showdown: ‘Roads are going to be messy at least through next week’
Winter mix remains on Downtown streets on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
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Memphis’ mix of snow and sleet became immovable ice blocks on neighborhood streets when temperatures remained low after the weekend’s precipitation, City Public Works Director Scott Morgan told reporters during a briefing Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 27.
“We’re lucky to not have the freezing rain” that caused power outages in nearby parts of north Mississippi and Tennessee, Morgan said. “… But we did get the sleet. Sleet, from a roadways standpoint, is very similar to freezing rain.”
Across the country, Morgan said, icy roadways present more challenges than snowy ones.
“Plowing ice just does not work,” he said.
At any given time, Memphis has 12 to 15 plows available for use on its 6,800 miles of roadways. Right now, the city has one lane in each direction open on certain major thoroughfares, Morgan said.
Staff are working to clear some “secondary” routes, like Hollywood Street, Sycamore View Road or Perkins Road.
Applying salt should help make the icy roads more slushy and plowable. Cooler temperatures at nighttime, though, threaten to diminish the melting capabilities of salt, which don’t work well when temperatures are colder than 15 degrees.
Thursday may offer ‘last hope’ to break ‘vicious cycle’ of nightly refreezing
Current forecasts suggest Memphis could be stuck in a “vicious cycle over the next couple of days” for the roadways, where a top layer of ice melts but then refreezes overnight, said Caitlin Dirkes, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Memphis.
“The roads are going to be messy at least through next week,” Dirkes told The Daily Memphian Tuesday afternoon.
Thursday, however, could be the “last hope” for roads to improve before temperatures dip again this weekend to near zero degrees.
“We have trended a little bit warmer with the latest forecast,” Dirkes said, which puts Thursday’s highs in the 40s.
For roadways, that day would be “the last shot at some meaningful melting before we get that arctic plunge again.”
The City of Memphis, Morgan said, continues to advise drivers to stay home unless they must travel. He drew a contrast to last year’s winter weather, which was mostly easier-to-plow snow followed by warmer temperatures.
To improve the roads, he said: “We’re really hoping on Mother Nature, sunny days, warmer temperatures.”
Topics
Winter Storm 2026 icy weather snowplowsLaura Testino
Laura Testino is an enterprise reporter on The Daily Memphian’s metro team who writes most often about how education policies shape the lives of children and families. She regularly contributes to coverage of breaking news events and actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. Testino’s journalism career in Memphis began six years ago at The Commercial Appeal, where she began chronicling learning disruptions associated with the pandemic, and continued with Chalkbeat, where she dug into education administration in Memphis. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Times-Picayune, The Tuscaloosa News and USA Today.
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