Posted: Sat 9th Dec 2017

4 inches of snow tomorrow – Be aware as Amber weather warning in place

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Saturday, Dec 9th, 2017

Heavy snow is due tomorrow with 4 inches of snow due lower in Wrexham and 8-10 inches possible on higher ground.

Update 6pm: Councillor David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment & Transport has been in touch giving some detail on the Council’s plans: “We are expecting snow to fall across the county on Sunday morning, All our crews are being deployed from 3am and will concentrate on our priority gritting routes, (details are on our website). All our crews will be double manned (for safety reasons) and fitted where necessary with snow ploughs.”

“Please be aware there maybe significant disruption to the road network and the met office have issued an amber warning. Our crews will continue to be deployed throughout the day.”

The is a public interactive gritting route map here on the Council’s website.

North Wales Police have also just put a notice out in the last few minutes saying: “Due to the current forecast for tomorrow #UKsnow we are advising motorists not to travel unless absolutely necessary, this is to ensure your safety and allows us to deal with genuine emergencies.

Original information below…

The snow is due to start falling again from 5am and to last throughout the day. The heaviest snowfalls are due from 6am until 3pm going by current forecasts.

The Met Office say: “A spell of snow is expected over a central swathe of the UK on Sunday. This snow starts to develop during the early hours of Sunday with the heaviest and most persistent snow then likely during Sunday morning.

“10 cm looks likely quite widely within this warning area, with 15-20 cm in places. This warning has been updated to extend it a little further eastwards and pull the northern limit southwards.”

Temperatures are due to be down to -2C overnight, with it climbing to zero during tomorrow.

The Met Office has published this forecast animation:

For those interested there is a public interactive gritting route map here on the Council’s website, with their policy explainer here.

The full winter policy linked to (created in October 2014 – dated 2014-2015) is on this PDF, the document includes details on what gets gritted as a priority.

Priority 1 routes are roads carrying substantial volumes of traffic having characteristics, which require protection from frost throughout the night. These routes form the spinal road network of the Authority and merit high priority to sustain the free flowing movement of traffic. They include:-
• Trunk Roads (50 kms)
• Class A Roads (110 kms)
• Class B Roads. (143kms)
• Strategic/ Important Bus Routes (8 bus services or more per hour)
• Main access roads to schools or establishments of higher education
(where logistically practical)
• Town centre access and distributor roads
• Industrial Estate Roads
• Main Council maintained Car Parks
The 11 Priority 1 precautionary gritting routes total 40% or 500kms of the total highways network.

Bearing in mind the information on the document is dated 2014-2015, it notes: “The Council owns a fleet of 14 large gritting vehicles, 4 small demountable gritters, 2 towable gritting units and 6 quad bikes fitted with towable gritting appliances which are currently stored at one of the 3 operational depots in Wrexham Indust Estate, Llay and Chirk.”

There is an option to activate a ‘Extreme Weather Protocol’, this would mean: “On receipt of a severe weather warning a control room will be established and manned by staff from the Streetscene Division who will act as a dedicated point of contact for the Contact Centre staff. ”

We are aware of conference calls between the Council and emergency services this afternoon with tomorrow’s weather in mind, with ongoing planning to ensure the impact is managed as best as possible.

As always we will be keeping an eye on Wrexham & the surrounding area and will post updates…



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