Teesside is braced for a icy temperatures which could see power cuts, travel disruption and rural communities cut off this weekend.
Both an amber and a yellow weather warning is in place for the North-East this weekend with the Met Office warning of travel delays, power cuts and rail cancellations. The amber snow warning is in place between 9pm on Saturday, January 4 and 11.59pm on Sunday, January 5 and covers areas including Stockton, Darlington, North Yorkshire and Durham.
A Met Office spokesperson said: “Much of the warning area can expect 3-7 cm of snow. Areas above about 150 m will likely see 15-30 cm, with 40 cm for ground above 300 m, before snow begins to ease and clear by the end of Sunday. For some lower-lying areas, such as the Vale of York, snow may mix with rain at times making estimations of snow depths here more difficult. Regardless, travel will likely be difficult, with power line icing an additional impact.”
A yellow weather has also been issued for snow and ice. The warning is in place between 12pm on Saturday until the end of Sunday. According to the Met Office, heavy snow and some freezing rain is likely to cause some disruption over throughout the weekend. Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton are all included in the warning, along with most of the region.
However, according to the hour-by-hour forecast for Middlesbrough, the town will not see snow on Saturday. Temperatures will hover around the freezing mark but there is a very small chance of precipitation.
Elsewhere, snow is expected in Darlington for much of Sunday morning. According to the Met Office website they’ll be snow from 3am to 12pm.
Here is an hour-by-hour weather forecast for Middlesbrough this weekend:
Saturday
6am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 11mph 1C.
7am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 11mph 1C.
8am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 12mph 1C.
9am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 12mph 1C.
10am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 1C.
11am: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph. 2C.
12pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 12mph 3C.
1pm: : <5% chance of rain. Wind: 11mph 3C.
2pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 11mph 3C.
3pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 11mph 3C.
4pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 12mph 2C.
5pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 2C.
6pm: <5%% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 2C.
7pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 2C.
8pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 1C.
9pm: <5% chance of rain. Wind: 13mph 1C.
Sunday (an hour-by-hour weather forecast wasn’t available at the time of writing)
6am: ≥95% chance of rain. Wind: 28mph 1C.
9am: ≥95% chance of rain. Wind: 29mph 2C.
12pm: ≥95% chance of rain. Wind: 32mph 2C.
3pm: ≥95% chance of rain. Wind: 31mph 3C.
6pm: 90% chance of rain. Wind: 30mph 3C.
9pm: 90% chance of rain. Wind: 28mph 4C.
The Met office has issued safety advice and urged motorists not to drive, a spokesperson said: “It is safer not to drive in these conditions, but if you need to make an essential journey, consider alternative forms of transport, to keep you and others safe. If you must drive, do this more safely by: using dipped headlights; accelerating gently, using low revs and changing to higher gears as quickly as possible; starting in second gear to help with wheel slip; maintaining a safe and steady speed, keeping distance from other vehicles; using a low gear to go downhill, avoiding braking unless necessary; steering into skids, not taking your hands of the wheel, and avoiding slamming on brakes.”
Northern Powergrid said it is ready to respond 24/7, as quickly as possible to keep the power on should the weather cause disruption. A spokesperson said: “We have extra teams ready to go with our 4x4s and specialist access vehicles so we can get peoples’ lights back on and carry out repairs if our network is damaged as a result of the wintery conditions.”
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