{"id":201835,"date":"2026-01-22T21:59:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=201835"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:49:03","slug":"winter-storm-watch-issued-road-crews-prepping-for-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/01\/22\/winter-storm-watch-issued-road-crews-prepping-for-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Storm Warning issued by NWS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As expected, the Winter Storm Watch issued by the National Weather Service on Thursday has been upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning for Van Wert County and the surrounding area. The times remain the same, 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this week, most models predicted heavy snow would affect the Cincinnati area and points south, while sparing northwest Ohio. However, those models changed and are now predicting somewhere between 5-7 inches of snow in Van Wert County. Snow is expected to begin sometime Saturday evening and grow in intensity overnight into Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"269\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Winter-storm-artwork-1-2014-e1769233089108.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47070\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>According to NWS Northern Indiana, travel is expected to become difficult, especially Sunday afternoon and evening. Residents are being encourage to delay travel, but if it\u2019s absolutely necessary, take a winter storm kit with you, including jumper cables, a flashlight, shovel, and blankets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local road crews are prepping for the storm, including those with the Van Wert Street Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe prepare for the worst but we hope for the better,\u201d Van Wert Street Superintendent Steve Thomas said. \u201cAll the equipment has been checked out to battle whatever may come our way. Better to be over prepared than under prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe ask that the citizens be patient and courteous to our plow drivers to clean the streets the best as possible,\u201d he added. \u201cIf this does become a major snow event the primary street will concentrated on first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If at all possible, residents should remove cars from streets to make room for street crews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>ODOT officials have been watching the forecast and they too are ready to go to work once the snow starts to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are doing everything we can to prepare,\u201d said Rod Nuveman, District 1 Highway Maintenance Administrator. \u201cWe ordered salt and liquids such as calcium chloride to ensure our facilities are topped off. ODOT crews are making brine, getting equipment repairs completed, and treating the diesel fuel with cold weather additives to keep it from gelling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe uncertainty of this storm is nothing new to us &#8211; we are used to the unpredictability of weather,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor As expected, the Winter Storm Watch issued by the National Weather Service on Thursday has been upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning for Van Wert County and the surrounding area. The times remain the same, 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday. Earlier this week, most models predicted heavy snow would affect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 06:05:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201835"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201883,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201835\/revisions\/201883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}