AFTER a chaotic journey home from work for many - and a day of non-stop snowfall yesterday - it may finally be time to pack away the shovels and sledges. Forecasters predict South Yorkshire could have seen the last of snow.
Workers from across Sheffield endured a miserable commute last night, as traffic slowed to a crawl and bus services terminated.
The long trail home saw vehicles bumper-to-bumper on the Parkway, and traffic at a standstill on the ring road heading towards Gleadless and at Manor Top.
Traffic was jammed all around the city centre, and motorists could only inch along main routes.
Some buses bound for Broomhill, Crookes and Hillsborough crept from the city centre along West Street, only to terminate at the university roundabout. Others which ploughed on took 90 minutes to complete journeys which normally last 15.
In the city centre, an elderly motorist was taken to hospital after his car hit a hedge in snow near Park Hill. Fire crews freed the car from the hedge on Maltravers Way, and the man was taken to the Northern General Hospital for a check-up.
And a lorry jack-knifed on the A628 near The Dog and Partidge pub at Flouch just before 12noon, after flakes started to fall from around 11am.
But the snow was possibly the last in a very cold winter. A rise in temperatures today signals a long-awaited return of the sunshine.
Lauren Caldwell, a weather forecaster at Meteogroup, said: “Rain should clear the snow away early on so today is brighter.
“There will be sunny spells, perhaps the odd shower, and tomorrow should be a nice day - dry with sunshine.
“At the weekend, Saturday should be a bit cloudy but it will brighten up. Sunday should be a dry and bright day.
“When we do forecasts we look at the next 10 days, and as far as I can see it doesn’t look there will be any return of snow within that time.
“We should certainly expect the weather to improve towards the end of February and the start of March, so it could be the last of the snow.”
Temperatures are expected to reach a maximum of eight degrees tomorrow and on Saturday.
Recent weeks have brought the deepest snow Sheffield has seen for 17 years.
Since October last year, Sheffield Council’s gritters have been out on the roads on 72 days.
Gritters deployed on 18 snow days
January’s snowfall was the deepest Sheffield has witnessed since 1996
Sheffield has had the most number of days on which it has snowed so far this year since 2010
Sheffield Council’s contractors Amey have deployed gritters on 18 ‘snow days’ since last October, but in some cases it had fallen overnight
Priority routes covered by gritters in the first instances of snow cover 250 miles of the city, 59 per cent of the road network
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