Floyd County woke up to temperatures above freezing and more rain than ice Monday morning as dire predictions of a crippling winter storm fell short of what actually dropped from the sky and coated the area.

Temperatures began rising before midnight and while rain froze when it struck the cold earth, it quickly became more water than ice, power stayed on and what is left of the ice is expected to vanish quickly as the thermometer climbs into the 40s Monday.

The Virginia Department of Transportation reports “minor” icy patches on secondary roads and bridges throughout the county but the weather brought down a tree on Virginia Rte. 8 at Parkview Road, NE, and closed the road while crews worked to clear the blockage.  Another downed tree blocked Merrifield Road.

While some counties around Floyd reported power outages, the map on Appalachian Power Company’s web site site showed Floyd County still up and running at 6:30 a.m. Monday.  Franklin County had 101 outages and Henry County saw 1,650.

Floyd County schools are scheduled to open two hours late Monday.

The National Weather Service lifted its “winter storm warning” hours before the originally-forecast 9 a.m. projected end.

An early m0rning tour of area roads before daybreak showed a few slick spots but no impassible areas except for the downed trees on Route 8 and Merrifield Road.

Was dire predictions of a crippling ice storm overkill?  As happens so often in area weather, it depends on where you live.  Areas near the West Virginia line and northeast of Roanoke felt more of nature’s wrath than Floyd County.  Our area lucked out on this storm.