Forecast for snow overnight - Take care when travelling (February 9/10)

Motorists are being urged to take care on the roads, especially during tomorrow's busy morning period, with forecasts predicting between two to five centimetres of snow in parts of Worcestershire this evening and overnight.

Snow is expected to fall throughout the night. Flurries could persist until around 9am on Friday (February 10). Road surface temperatures are expected to drop to -2.

As always, the authority's gritting teams will be out treating the 800 miles worth of designated routes across the county but low temperatures and an accumulation of snow on roads when low numbers of traffic are on them is expected to make conditions challenging for drivers.

The 31 gritters will be rolling out from 3.30pm this afternoon (February 9) to treat designated secondary routes before returning to restock to then treat precautionary routes later this evening.

Following these runs teams will then be on standby to grit and plough throughout the night and into tomorrow morning as needed.

Whilst we expect school transport to operate as normal, it may be that some areas are not accessible by our coaches due to the difficult driving conditions and settled snow. We would suggest that students living in areas that are difficult to access make their way to a more accessible stop on the route (i.e. a main road stop) to ensure that we can collect as many students as possible. School transport drivers may have to make decisions throughout their route as to what is safe to drive and what to miss out dependant on local road conditions. Vehicles may also run slightly later than normal throughout their route as drivers will be taking extra care on the snow.

Cllr John Smith OBE, County Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, said: "As ever, our gritting teams will be doing their jobs this evening and overnight treating and ploughing roads when needed across the designated routes.

"Forecasts are predicting a significant amount of snowfall during tonight and tomorrow morning so the simple message to everyone is, as ever, to take care on the roads and temper speeds according to the conditions. It's never safe for motorists to assume they can travel at normal speeds even if they might think a road has been gritted.

"Gritting roads has never been, or will never be, a miracle fix so it's vital that everyone drives safely, especially during tomorrow's busy period when journeys to work, school and meetings are happening."

For more information about gritting operations visit the dedicated section on the County Council's website www.worcestershire.gov.uk/gritting.

'Gritter Twitter' will continue to be updated with details on what gritting  teams are doing to make things safer on the roads and safety advice. To follow Worcestershire County Council on Twitter simply visit www.twitter.com/worcscc.

Anyone with an enquiry about a service can call Worcestershire's Customer Service Centre contact number from 7am on the morning of Friday 10 February: 01905 765765.

Updates on County Council services, if affected, will appear on the front page of www.worcestershire.gov.uk If severe weather is experienced and you urgently need to access a service, it is advisable to contact that service before travelling.

For a full weather forecast visit the Met Office website.

To help anyone making journeys this winter simple advice is on offer to ensure people are not caught out when freezing conditions bite.

It includes:

Maintenance checks

Before you set off on your journey, do you have:

• Anti-freeze in your cooling system?
• Screen wash additive in your windscreen washers?
• At least 1.6mm depth of tread and the correct air pressures in your tyres?
• Clean lenses on your headlights?
• Properly working heaters and demisters?

Making journeys

Planning your journey is vitally important in adverse conditions. Taking the following steps before you leave could prevent problems out on the roads:

• Check the local weather forecast.
• Check the driving conditions on your route with your local radio station
• Take extra equipment with you, eg. mobile phone, spade, towrope, torch, flask, warm and highly visible clothing and spare pieces of old carpet to place under your wheels for traction in case you get stuck in snow
• Make sure someone at your destination is expecting you at a certain time.

Adjust your driving to the conditions

Driving on ice or snow needs extra care:

• Use dipped headlights and drive more slowly than usual
• Allow up to ten times your normal stopping distance
• Keep your distance from vehicles ahead of you
• To avoid skidding, brake very gently or ease off the accelerator early
• If you have to abandon your vehicle try not to block the road; snow ploughs, gritters and emergency vehicles may need to come past.  
• Keep windscreens clean.