Short term forecast
Largely dry and cold this afternoon with variable amounts of cloud. Any sunny spells will be rather hazy as well. This evening will start with cloudy skies and only a few clearer breaks. Similar conditions early into the overnight period, however, cloud will start to recede towards dawn. Chance of mist and fog.
Tomorrow morning will see a few patches of overnight fog lingering; however, the skies will clear by the end of the morning. Dry with plenty of winter sunshine throughout the afternoon.
2-to-5-day forecast
Friday will see a calm day, with dry conditions and plenty of wintry sunshine. A similar day on Saturday, as it will be dry throughout, with sunny spells and variable cloud cover. Becoming windy into Sunday. It will be overcast, with spells of rain pushing in from the south-west, possibly falling wintry to start. A milder day than of late.
6-to-10-day forecast
On Monday we should continue to see wet conditions for most. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to see scattered showers, occasionally heavy. Thursday and Friday might see a continuation of scattered showers and unsettled weather in general, but there is still a high degree of uncertainty around it. Temperatures are expected to become much milder than of late on Monday. Trending around the seasonal average for the remainder of the week.
Turning to the gritting operations
Road gritting
The gritting teams had treated the primary and secondary routes this morning as planned and stood down, except for 1 gritting vehicle which continues to support the waste collection teams focusing on icy roads which are impacting the waste collection process.
Road surface temperatures have again struggled to rise above freezing during today and sub-zero temperatures are expected again overnight. Gritting of the priority network is again planned from 0400hrs tomorrow. it is expected the crews will be stood down around 0800hrs. We will keep a gritting vehicle on standby to support the waste collection service as required.
Footways
The crews have been treating the priority two footway routes but also supporting the waste collection teams to treat areas so waste collections can be undertaken safely, this approach is expected to be adopted again tomorrow.
Our highways contractor has been able to deploy some resource to refill grit bins but please bear with the team as it can take some time to get round to all 600 bins dotted around the borough.
Waste Collection & street operations
We managed to deploy a full collection service again this morning to focus on today’s rounds, and then drop back to recover missed roads from Monday. Tomorrow will be a similar approach; the crews will be sent out to do the normal collections for Thursday and then drop back to collect outstanding work from earlier in the week. The same approach is also planned for Friday. Veolia are also preparing resources to work over the weekend if necessary to ensure all rounds are completed.
Street cleansing services are suspended as the crews are treating footways, as we are seeing an improvement in the weather the service will start to move back to normal duties over the next couple of days.
Rest assured teams continue to work tirelessly in some very difficult and hazardous conditions to ensure the boroughs highways are as safe as possible and to minimise the impacts to our universal frontline services.
As mentioned above we are seeing a gradual improvement in the weather, with milder conditions over the weekend and services are starting to get back to normal this is intended to be my last update for this severe weather event. I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved with Croydon’s response to the weather and keep croydon moving.
I would also like to thank you to you all for your understanding and support during this difficult time.
Stay safe and a Merry Christmas to all.
Regards
Steve Iles MBE
Director of Sustainable Communities
