Wyre Forest News
Gritters ready to hit the streets
4:10pm Friday 3rd February 2012
GRITTERS are ready to hit the streets over the next 24 hours with snow forecast for Worcestershire tomorrow and sub zero temperatures set to continue.
Between two and five centimetres of steady snowfall is predicted for a few hours from around 1pm on Saturday before turning to rain that's expected to persist until the early hours of Sunday morning.
The authority's 31 vehicles are planned to roll out on Saturday morning to treat designated routes ahead of the forecasted snow before returning to depots and quickly fixing vehicles with ploughs to head out and clear roads from lunchtime.
Temperatures are then expected to dip well below freezing overnight on Saturday/Sunday so the teams will once again stock up on salt and head out gritting highways when rain has ceased – forecast for around midnight.
Sufficient salt levels for tonight are already on designated routes across Worcestershire following several runs over the last few days.
In addition to the usual highways gritting, county council staff will be spreading salt in pedestrian areas in Worcestershire's town centres early tomorrow morning before shops open doors.
Jon Fraser, county council customer response manager, said: "The MET Office are predicting the first real significant snowfall of the winter to hit Worcestershire tomorrow afternoon so we'll certainly be kept busy. It's expected to be very cold before and after the snowfall so, as is usually the case, we're asking motorists to take care and temper their driving according to the conditions.
"The simple message to everyone is to never assume it's safe to travel at normal speeds even if you think a road has been treated with salt."