Icy Conditions Cause School Closings, Delays

Patchy fog and melted snow froze on some roads in the Washington suburbs overnight, leading to cancellations and delayed openings for several public school systems.

State highway officials said main roadways were dry and clear after snowfall yesterday that measured only one to two easily sweepable inches throughout the region. But school officials said back roads -- and school parking facilities -- were slippery in spots.

As a result, public schools in Prince William and Fauquier counties closed for the day. Schools in Fairfax, Calvert, Charles and Washington counties, and Manassas City, opened two hours late, and Manassas Park City schools had a one-hour delay. Many private schools canceled classes or delayed their openings as well.

Calvert County "is a county of country roads," said Leon Langley, director of transportation and athletics for the schools there. Langley said he drove the roads from 1:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., and ordered a two-hour delay as a result of what he saw.

"There are patches of ice. There's also patchy fog," he said. "If I had just ridden the state roads, the numbered roads, no problem. But we don't just travel the main roads."

George Kisha, an associate superintendent in Prince William County, said the problem of ice on the side roads before dawn was compounded by icy school bus lots and parking lots at school buildings.

The school system's director of transportation toured the county at 2 a.m. and "said he was extremely concerned," Kisha said. They considered a two-hour delay, Kisha said, but "he said he couldn't guarantee that he could get all of our buses out of those lots in two hours."

The ice came from three different sources, meteorologists said: road salt, friction from traffic and "freezing fog."

Both the salt spread on asphalt to melt snow, and the heat generated by passing traffic, can turn even a light snowfall into moisture and slush that will freeze as temperatures dip.

Similarly, if it is foggy and very cold, as it was in Manassas, Southern Maryland and Frederick County overnight, fog can condense and turn to ice.

"When the surface is that cold, any moisture on it will freeze," said Sarah Rogowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, which issued a "freezing fog advisory" until 7 a.m. for parts of the region.

"Anywhere that you had snow yesterday -- where the snow melted because of cars going over or because it was salted -- anything like that where there's still moisture, that could freeze as well," Rogowski said.