WEATHER: Road temperatures could plunge to minus ten next week

Sheffield Council’s fleet, part of the Streets Ahead road resurfacing project, is to treat priority one and two roads from 6pm and chiefs urged residents to drive carefully.

Derbyshire County Council said it was forecast that road temperature surfaces to be as low as minus ten degrees on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Coun Dean Collins, cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said: “We’ve got plenty of grit in stock and we’ll be closely monitoring the weather over the weekend.

“We look at the weather forecast and we’ve got road temperature sensors which help us to make decisions about when we go out to grit.”

“We grit around 1,555 miles of roads – around half the roads we look after which is more than most councils.

“However we don’t grit all roads in the county so we’re urging people to take care when they are out and about, particularly at night when the temperatures fall. Grit is also less effective when road surface temperatures fall below -5 degrees celsius.

“In some places water running off the surrounding fields onto roads can also cause problems, so again we are urging people to take care on the roads.”

A Streets Ahead spokesman added: “The teams will be out tonight gritting the roads from 6pm as we are expecting temperatures to remain below freezing.

“The weather conditions will be monitored over the weekend and gritting will take place as and when it is needed.

“We do need the public to be aware this weekend that at the moment the forecast shows that temperatures will remain very low and this does leave a risk of icy patches on pavements and other surfaces.

“If you are going out this weekend please ensure that you prepare yourself for the cold conditions and also drive according to the road conditions.”