BLOOMINGTON - Freezing rain Monday morning led to numerous accidents on area roads before the weather warmed up midday, but it was a bicycle on a partly ice-covered pond that worried emergency officials the most in Bloomington-Normal. | Photo gallery: Search at pond

A bicycle abandoned on a retention pond in north Normal led authorities to call in search-and-rescue drivers, but nothing was found.

"What we think happened was that some kid just left the bike out there," said Mick Humer, Normal Fire Department assistant chief.

Firefighters were called to a retention pond shortly after 10 a.m. Monday at Raab Road and Bradford Lane in front of Constitution Trail Centre.

The McLean County Emergency Management Agency's command vehicle came to the scene, and the Hudson Fire Department's dive team helped Normal firefighters and police.

The bike was on the ice about 10 feet from open water where a fountain is located. Nothing was found in the water beside a second bicycle, Humer said.

Shortly after arriving, officials learned the bike had been there since at least Sunday night. An employee working nearby spotted it Monday morning.

The last crews left the scene about 1 p.m. Monday.

The slick conditions Monday morning came after rain fell shortly before dawn when temperatures were well below freezing. Later Monday, local and area police reported no accidents with serious injuries resulting from the ice.

"The roads are just really, really slick, so I decided to pull off and let the salt trucks do their job," Robert Harvey, who was traveling from DeKalb to Danville, said Monday morning. Harvey, who pulled off at the LeRoy exit of Interstate 74, said, "There were a mess of cars strewn across the highway around the second or third mile marker just north of Bloomington."

Slippery ride home?

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is warning that falling temperatures, new snowfall and gusty winds may make for hazardous driving starting Tuesday afternoon.

Colder air is expected to move in later Tuesday, when rain will change briefly over to sleet and then to snow, with new accumulations likely to stay under an inch, NWS reported.

But gusts up to 30 mph in some parts of Central Illinois are expected to blow around any snow that does accumulate late Tuesday afternoon or early this evening, NWS reported.

The combination is expected to produce some slippery driving conditions starting late Tuesday afternoon, with lows hitting the low-20s tonight.

Patti Welander contributed to this report.