Icy roads cause crashes, school cancellations in Louisville

A glaze of ice, snow and sleet accumulated across Louisville overnight Monday leading to traffic accidents and school closures.

Louisville Metro Police said officers responded to more than 30 accidents including a jackknifed semi truck along Interstate 71 South and the Gene Snyder Freeway. The interstate has since reopened.

Amid the freezing forecast, Jefferson County Public Schools called off classes for a “traditional snow day,” according to a tweet from the district. Other local school systems also closed for the day.

As much as a tenth of an inch of ice accumulated across Louisville overnight, according to meteorologist Jessica Lee with the National Weather Service of Louisville.

“So we did see some minor ice, some areas had minor sleet accumulation, some had minor snow on top,” Lee said. “So it’s just kind of a wintry mix.”

Freezing temperatures and light icy drizzle are likely to hang around through much of the day.

Ice storms often break limbs off trees and down power lines, but few outages were reported overnight.

Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities reported only 67 customers without power as of 10 a.m. Tuesday. Across the state, fewer than 10,000 customers lost power, according to poweroutage.us.

Wednesday’s forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 41 degrees. There’s the possibility of light rain and freezing drizzle back in the forecast Thursday.