By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain falling throughout today, Greater Cincinnati will have a white - but slick - Christmas.

Up to 4 inches of snow could accumulate today in parts of Southwestern Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.

"There is a possibility of some icing on the roads," said Myron Padgett, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "You'd be better off it was all snow."

The snow was expected to begin falling early this morning. Today's high temperature will be in the low 30s.

In anticipation of the bad weather, the Hamilton County Engineer's Office expected to have 60 salt trucks loaded and ready to go as soon as it begins snowing, said Steve Mary, maintenance engineer.

People traveling to northern Ohio and Michigan will run into light snow today, while those heading south of Lexington will encounter rain, with severe storms in the Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia, Mr. Padgett said.

On Christmas Day in the Tristate, there should be nothing more than light snow flurries, with temperatures hovering in the 20s.

Cincinnati gets a white Christmas an average of one out of five years. The last one was two years ago.

Most Tristate residents traveling long distances for the holidays are already at their Christmas destinations, said Sandra Guile, spokesman for the AAA Cincinnati Automobile Club. "Last Friday was the heaviest travel day," she said.

Most people requesting AAA's TripTiks last week were going to Florida, Ms. Guile said.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Greater Cincinnati is $1.40 per gallon, the same as the national average, according to AAA figures. Locally, prices are 29 cents per gallon lower than 2001.

AAA estimates 45.9 million people will travel by motor vehicle this holiday season, a 3 percent drop from last year. Another 11.2 million will travel by air over the holidays, a 7 percent increase over last year.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com

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