Brownwood News – The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Brownwood District has begun winter weather preparations throughout the nine-county district as a cold front moves into West Central Texas, bringing freezing temperatures, wind chills in the teens and possible precipitation Tuesday and Wednesday.

TxDOT crews are pretreating roadways, bridges and overpasses on Interstate 20 (I-20), and all US and state highways throughout the district to prepare for this possible winter weather. This will include highly traveled state highways, the heavier traveled farm to market roads, and US highways.  This pretreating will be in town as well.  The Brownwood District includes the counties of Brown, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Lampasas, McCulloch, Mills, San Saba and Stephens Counties.  Motorists are urged to be on the lookout for slower-moving TxDOT vehicles involved in the pretreatment process, which began Monday morning.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a winter storm watch on Monday which includes Eastland and Stephens Counties.  Across most of the Brownwood District, winter precipitation and very cold wind chills are expected Tuesday night through Wednesday.  According to the NWS, a mix of rain, snow and sleet is initially expected to develop Tuesday evening north of a San Angelo to Coleman line, with mainly rain to the south. A changeover to snow is expected overnight through Wednesday morning across the area north of a line from Ozona to Brownwood, with a mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet south of that line. Any snow and sleet accumulations will make for hazardous road conditions for motorists.

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Travelers are encouraged to plan ahead and check roadway conditions prior to travel Tuesday and Wednesday.

TxDOT reminds motorists to follow these helpful tips when traveling in winter weather:

• Give yourself time to reach your destination and account for possible travel delays. Have patience and share the road with other drivers.
• Drive with caution, reduce speed and increase travel distance between your vehicle and others on the road (at least three times the normal following distance).
• Do not use cruise control.
• If you start to lose control, ease off the gas pedals or brakes. Steer into the direction of a skid until you can regain traction, and then straighten your vehicle.
• And if you don’t have to travel, stay home.

TxDOT roadway conditions statewide are available at DriveTexas.org or by calling 1-800-452-9292. The Brownwood District Twitter feed (@TxDOTBWD) will be updated as road conditions change. Other TxDOT Twitter feeds and the TxDOT Facebook page are also valuable resources for travel conditions across the state.

More winter weather travel information is available on the TxDOT website.