Snow makes a fleeting visit (From Malvern Gazette)

Snow makes a fleeting visit

4:06pm Monday 14th January 2013 in News By Sarah Davies

IT MAY not have been enough to go sledging, but Worcestershire has received its first snow of the season.

The county was transformed into a wintry wonderland today when between two and five centimetres (1-2ins) of the white stuff fell overnight .

Worcestershire County Council's fleet of gritters were out treating roads from 2pm yesterday as temperatures plunged to -2C.

However, the snow was short lived and there was little trace of its presence come lunchtime.

Forecaster Paul Michaelwaite of netweather.tv, which has a base in Pershore, said temperatures would be staying low but there was little sign of more snow on the horizon.

He said: “We’ve had cold air arriving over the weekend and bringing with it a little weather front from the north west

“It brought rain, sleet and snow, and will be sliding out tonight. Most of Worcestershire just had a dusting of snow. We might get snow overnight so there could be a small covering by the morning.

“Temperatures will be barely above freezing and it’s going to staying cold for the next week, but there will be brighter spells.”

Mr Michaelwaite said there could be chance of the snow returning later this month as the country entered the coldest time of year.

Gritting runs were carried out from 6pm on Saturday, 2.30pm yesterday and 3am today to ensure Worcestershire’s road networks stayed open.

Jon Fraser, county council highways customer and community manager, said it had been one of the busiest weekends so far for the gritters.

He said: “The weather forecasts anticipated a busy weekend for the gritting crews and it turned out that way. All of the designated routes, which take in around 800 miles worth of road across the county, were covered on Saturday, Sunday and during the early hours of today. It's been one of the busiest weekends of the season so far.

“To date we've used around 2,000 tonnes of the salt we had in stock at the start of winter, which leaves us still with about 11,000 tonnes in the depots.

“It does look like it's going to remain cold for the rest of this week and, as usual, we'll be monitoring things around the clock with gritters on standby to roll out when needed. I expect the teams will be out and about over the next few days.

“As ever, we'd urge motorists to take care as they are out and about on the roads when freezing temperatures bite. The message is still the same but not less important – don't assume it's safe to travel at normal speeds just because you think it's been treated with grit. Always temper driving and respect the conditions.”

For the latest gritting news, visit worcestershire.gov.uk/gritting or the council’s Twitter account @worcscc.