Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is affirming the city’s preparedness ahead of the winter storm expected to blanket Middle Tennessee starting early Friday.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for much of Middle Tennessee, including Nashville, early Thursday morning. The weather service is warning residents about “big travel impact” starting 4 a.m. Friday in most areas and extending through Friday night.
The NWS is forecasting a 50% to 75% chance that at least four inches of snow will hit Nashville, and a smaller chance of up to six inches. Anywhere from three to six inches of snow could drop in other surrounding areas.
Though there’s that much snow on the horizon, O’Connell voiced confidence in Nashville’s ability to clear roads in a statement to The Tennessean Thursday morning.
“We’ve got more snow plows ready to go on more routes than ever before,” O’Connell said. “My hope is all Nashvillians will stay weather-aware and exercise patience. If we do have a winter storm event, we will be ready.”
O’Connell said Nashville currently has 40 plows that will be operating along routes that go deeper into neighborhoods. That’s eight more than the Nashville Department of Transportation utilized during the major snow event that hit the city in January 2024.
NDOT also expressed its readiness for the coming storm in a news release Wednesday. That release notes roadway pre-treating is expected to wrap up Thursday, after which crews will be on standby to salt and plow as the weather arrives on Friday. Crews will work in 12-hour shifts throughout the storm until routes are clear.
NDOT recently updated its primary and secondary snow removal routes to cover more of Davidson County; of the more than 5,800 miles of roadways NDOT is responsible for, about 2,475 miles of them are listed as snow removal priority routes.
NDOT is also moving from call-in snow removal requests to a “post-secondary” list this winter. That means that once the top-priority primary routes and secondary routes are cleared to a reasonable degree, NDOT will start operations on newly-identified post-secondary routes.
Reports can still be made to hubNashville and will be used for data gathering and evaluation to inform NDOT’s response during future winter weather events.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville winter storm: Admin says city is ready for weather