Forecasts
The main lunchtime forecast for County Durham states the following
This afternoon will be largely cloudy with a few snow showers. Overnight there will be spells of snow, especially after midnight. The snow may fall as sleet at times at times in coastal areas and on the lowest ground inland. RSTs will be below zero for much of the time causing hoar frost and ice, with ice an especially large hazard where sleet does fall for a time. Tomorrow morning will see further spells of snow.
Additional information which is summarised below has been provided by the Met Office Civil Contingencies Advisor
It will remain very cold and grey today, with some light snow flurries around. The temperature will struggle again, only really getting above freezing for any length of time on low lying ground, close to the coast.
An area of slow moving snow will move northwards up the eastern side of the Country this evening. The snow flurries will become heavier and more persistent from the south arriving in County Durham 22:00 to 01:00
Ground below 100 m within 10 or so miles of the coast is likely to see a mixture of rain/sleet and wet snow giving some slushy deposits at times. Further inland and higher up, this will all fall as snow. The snowfall will continue all night, and for much of Monday. Total fresh accumulations in the affected areas will be widely in the range 5-10 cm, but the high ground could easily pick up another 15-20 cm.
The 5 day forecast states the following
Staying cold through the forecast period with RSTs dropping below zero on each night. Tomorrow afternoon will have outbreaks of snow with 2-5cm likely and a risk of 10cm on the highest ground. The most coastal areas may see sleet. Overnight there is expected to be further snow with further accumulations of 2-5cm, with 10cm on the highest ground. Again, sleet may fall on the lowest ground. The snow is expected to continue into Tuesday with 2-5cm further accumulation possible. The rest of the period is expected to see further snow at times, but accumulations should be less than on preceding days with perhaps 1-4cm per 24 hour period. Coastal and low ground may see sleet or even rain at times.
Highways Update
All routes have been patrolled/treated/ploughed throughout the morning.
In view of the forecasts it has been decided that gritters will continue to patrol and deal with the effects of any heavy showers this afternoon and will ‘snow-salt’ all priority routes later this evening in preparation for the sustained heavy snow expected later.
Priority 2 contractors and 2 additional DCC gritters will start work at 3am although they can be called out earlier if necessary,
Additional ploughing contractors have been advised that they may be called in the early hours.
The situation will be reviewed tomorrow morning.
Road Conditions including Roads Closed
No roads are closed.
Salt Bins
Gangs will recommence filling salt bins countywide on Monday.
Street Scene
(Sunday) Cleansing staff who would normally have been litter picking have cleared snow in main town centres
We have limited staff out today as most of the towm centre paths were salted yesterday and still OK
Regarding refuse – Refuse do not normally collect on Mondays, however some areas in the North of the county were missed last week due to weather conditions.
Householders have been informed to leave their bins out and collections will be done on on Monday. Weather conditions permitting.
I don’t intend to supply any further updates from ST Scene unless something changes.
Building and Facilities Maintenance
A relatively quite morning follow a quite night. There have been ten calls between Durham Housing Maintenance and Public Buildings Maintenance this morning five of which are due to heating problems the other ranging from intruder alarm activations to requests for boarding up.
The on call Service remains ready to respond should the situation change