Parts of the country are already covered with a white layer, later today it will also snow in Drenthe. Spreading crews are ready to hit the road tonight.
The stocks of road salt had already been replenished for next winter, but part of it will still end up on the road tonight. So there is no shortage of salt. “We have at least 5,000 tons of salt in stock, so there won’t be any problems with that,” says Patick Bottema, coordinator of ice control at the province of Drenthe.
ready
The province is responsible for N-roads, provincial roads and bicycle paths. “We are completely ready. We are expected to hit the road early in the evening, we follow developments closely. The drivers are ready and the equipment is ready, after a phone call everyone is on the road within an hour and a half. gone,” says Bottema.
The coordinator hadn’t really counted on action this year either. “It’s surprising, especially after the weeks of good weather we’ve had you don’t expect this anymore. But the spreading season is from November 15 to April 15, so we are ready to take action.” Despite this, Bottema calls on road users to make a good assessment of the situation on the road themselves. “We as a province are doing everything we can to keep roads accessible, unfortunately we cannot prevent slippery conditions everywhere. Please be careful and keep your head up.”
Code yellow
The KNMI has issued code yellow for almost all of the Netherlands from the afternoon and evening due to the risk of slippery conditions due to the winter showers. In Drenthe, the weather warning applies from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. tomorrow.
“Most of the precipitation that falls now is rain, but now and then there are also some of those flats wet snow in between,” says RTV Drenthe weatherman Roland van der Zwaag. The proportion of wet snow increases during the morning. “At a height of five kilometers it is 30 degrees below zero, and this afternoon the temperature will get lower and lower. Then the precipitation will continue and I really assume that around three or four o’clock the temperature will be low enough to make it white here and there.”
It is difficult to predict where the snow will remain. “I expect that the intensity of the precipitation will decrease tonight. Then it really has to happen between 4 pm and 8 pm, then the road surface temperatures will be close to zero. Then it will be slippery in Drenthe,” warns Van der Zwaag. “Tonight there will be light snowfall for an hour or two with temperatures around freezing point, then the meadows will certainly turn white. It is difficult to calculate whether that will also happen on the roads. make sure that a layer of a few centimeters remains.”
Spring?
Tonight it will continue to snow lightly. “The temperature will drop just below zero. That means that the chance of slippery conditions is high, tomorrow morning it will continue to snow cowardly. The wind is strong today, it will continue tomorrow.”
Next week the winter conditions will be over. “Spring will return next week in the sense that we will go back to 10 degrees and we will also get rain,” concludes Van der Zwaag.