Salt shortage

Riverhead took delivery of 80 tons of road salt this afternoon — enough to treat all town roads with a salt-sand mix before today's melt freezes overnight.

A warming trend in the days ahead will gradually melt the snowpack, but freezing nighttime temperatures will make for icy roadways, worrying some officials about already-scant salt supplies.

With salt supplies at critically low levels and winter storms bearing down on the area tonight through Thursday evening, the sole supplier of road salt to municipalities across Long Island — as well as NYC, Westchester and Rockland — has told local highway officials not to expect any deliveries.