Snow causes chaos for the West Midlands
Saturday 18th December 2010, 12:00PM GMT.
Heavy snowfall hit the West Midlands today, causing chaos on the road and air networks.
Water supplies were cut off in Wolverhampton city centre because of a suspected burst water main, with some businesses fearing they may not be reconnected all day.
Flights were suspended at Birmingham Airport until further notice while snow was cleared from the runway, and drivers were reporting treacherous conditions on main roads including A41 Tettenhall Road and the A449 Stourbridge Road in Wolverhampton.
A number of main roads around the region appeared to have not been gritted, with motorists struggling on Wolverhampton, Dudley and Walsall’s ring roads.
Among the businesses without water was Nandos in Queen Street, which is having to serve a restricted menu. Staff at Madame Clarke’s in King Street were serving bottled water in tea and coffee and city centre hair salons were turning away customers.
Severn Trent Water said it was working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.
Forecasters said the West Midlands could expect some snow around midday but said it would escape the worst.
But it has continued to fall throughout the day and was showing no sign of letting up.
More snow is forecast today and tomorrow, and experts said temperatures will drop as low as -10C (14F) next week. They say it is “almost certain” to be the coldest December since records began.
Thousands of drivers spent the night on the M6 after a lorry jack-knifed. The northbound carriageway was closed after midnight between junctions 22 and 27 in Greater Manchester and was still shut at 9am today.
Flights were also cancelled from Gatwick and Heathrow, throwing the travel plans of thousands into chaos.
Aston Villa’s away match against Wigan was called off today and Stafford Rangers’ away game at Guiseley was cancelled.
The Black Country Living Museum in Tipton Road, Dudley, was closed from 12.30pm today and its traditional Christmas Evening was cancelled.
The museum said full refunds will be given for the pre-booked Santa Hunt and Christmas celebrations.
Ticket holders can contact the museum on Monday for further details.
Meanwhile, Met Office forecaster Tim Thorne said: “Temperatures today won’t get above freezing. It will be around -1C (30F).”
He said tonight would be bitterly cold once again, with the mercury dropping as low as -6C (21F).
Sunday is likely to be dry and cold, with temperatures not topping -1C.
“It is going to be perishingly cold again,” Mr Thorne continued.
“Sunday night could drop down to -8C (18F) or even into double figures such as -10C (14F).
“The cold weather will continue into next week.”
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“A number of main roads… appeared not to have been gritted”?
In other words, they probably have been gritted, but the snow is now so heavy that it no longer makes any difference.
Meanwhile, the usual clowns on the roads can be seen stopping on hills (fatal), then trying to start off in too low a gear (pointless because the wheels just spin).
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I agree Ray, grit is not the magical subtance that some people thinks it is, it can only cope with so much. People should learn how to drive in snow.
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Not really, no. The roads hadn’t been suficiently gritted. Snow and ice in December is hardly unexpected, and it’s not as if grit goes off. Pre ordering stocks of grit and then gritting the roads is a no-brainer. Even for the fools at the council.
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Well it is winter!!! lol
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Have the rds been gritted? or is the first sign of goverment cuts? it wasnt this bad last year…
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Merry Hill was finally closed after I stupidly went and witnessed several accidents on way home!
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“In other words, they probably have been gritted, but the snow is now so heavy that it no longer makes any difference.”
Nope…in Stourbridge roads were ungritted at 7am, and there’s been nothing round since.
Cost cutting or negligence..a total mess that has a huge knock on effect to places like Merry Hill and other towns on the biggest shopping day of the year. Well done Dudley for pulling out all the stops!
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Yes the roads have been gritted cause I’ve seen them but look at the amount of snow on top of the grit.
Don’t forget grit wagons are also vehicles and they to have problems moving in thick snow.
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does any one no if any busses have been cancelled as i haven’t seen any yet and i have to go to work
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was told the shops in walsall was closing early because they were taking the buses off because side roads were bad.best to phone centro
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not many buses running most have been cancelled thanks dudley MBC for pulling out all the stops!
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never seen merryhill so dead today but it took us 3 hours to drive back to tipton because of everyone getting stuck in the snow and sideing everywhere
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I work in Merry Hill and the appalling road conditions put off thousands of shoppers today…on what should have been our busiest trading day of the year it was dead. The traffic leaving was dreadful, many drivers were getting stuck on the hills and having to be pushed…the buses were stopped, taxis weren’t running and all cars stopped from entering car parks…yet Westfield would not close the centre…we were eventually allowed to shut at 5pm…bloody ridiculous how this country grinds to a halt…anyone seen the grit on the roads? or the snow ploughs? no, because the councils were not prepared…yet again..
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no they have not been gritted..live on a main rd..not seen any thing..
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Has anyone thought maybe some roads were gritted but not all, the ones by me were not as I was waiting before I slid down the hill.
But who cares, unless you need to work or have urgent travel requirements, then I guess you have to be careful.
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There are no buses in Sandwell as I know
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To all those that cant wait to knock the council. Look around you first. When there is a solid mass of cars that cant move the gritters cant get past you. The drivers do their best and there will always be someone somewhere that thinks that they are entitled to have a lorry waiting to clear their road. The simple fact is that with the amount of snow we have had the salt has no effect. temperatures below 6degrees ruin all the work the drivers do because the salt has no effect. Also the salt needs the cars to drive over it before it does any good.
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Nearly All the roads in smethwick are terrible and as usual you got the young drivers out thinking there great and wheel spinning and handbraking. Just think this country is not capable.
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Very bad. Cars sliding everywhere. Almost had an accident.
Hate it when some muppit keeps tail gating. I just want to drive slow and safe.
On some roads, you can’t break, so don’t risk it.
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A good gritter will have a snowplough front, winter tyres and be capable of spreading loads of grit & salt …I just get the impression that the local councils don’t want to pay for ENOUGH resources to do the job properly. The ineptitude of local councilors has cost local businesses millions!!
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If the roads are blocked because of cars, how on earth do you expect a snow plough to get through?
Just throwing salt on the road isnt enough, it needs to be “ground in” by passing traffic to make it effective.
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Steve Briscoe, Wolverhampton ring Road wasnt gritted a number of times last year. Nowt to do with cuts.
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Had to laugh ITV news have just said there is plenty of grit but gritters don’t have the time, Eh? These guys are called upon maybee 2 weeks per year.Lets hope we never get invaded. With just about everything these muppets who run the country be it government, local authorities,judges,councillers who just don’t have a clue and make judgement on what they want and not what the people want this country has no doubt had it.POWER TO THE PEOPLE BRING ON A REVOLUTION.CITIZEN SMITH.
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if you could catch a plane you could fly to brisbane where i live now for a warm weather with lots of rain. Every month since august has been a record breaking wet one with monthly average rainfall within first 5 days of every month. We had one of the coldest winters on record with some of australia having record snowfalls. Colder than average year, 8c below average temps here last month. Global warming your having a laugh.
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Snow stopped at 3pm In wolverhampton. Main trunk roads slushy but passable. Not one gritter between 3pm and 2am on ring road, or anywhere.- disgraceful Wolves council should be answering some questions. No grit on pavements – but then that has hardly happened during an of the feezing patches – who on earth is in charge of this shambles of a civic council.
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Roger Lawrence and his band of Merry Muppets of course!!!!
Who else can course such a shambles but labour.
Local businesses should put claims in against the council for loss of revenue
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Ok first up it needs cars on the road to turn the snow that makes the grit work. But the amount of people i saw on the roads that don’t know how to drive in bad weather is the shocking. Wrong gear to much on the gas pedle and they wonder why they get stuck. Problem is they cause problems to people that know how to drive in this type weather is.don’t forget the heros. In there 4×4 that think they can go anywhere.fact is 99% of them are only used for the school run.
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why do they shut xmas attractions such as black country museum come on isnt this traditional scenes of christmas the kids and adults would have loved it is it all because of health and safety im sure people would be sensible and signs could have been put up at your own risk and this would covrer any daft claims they dont cancel santa in lap land cause of snow do they im also wondering if the zoo is shut to. poor santa doesnt he no longer like the snow
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Our main roads in Wolves don’t appear to have been gritted, they were just slushy on Saturday but today they are worse. I had to go to the station this afternoon and witnessed the collective stupidity of drivers who don’t really have a clue about driving in snow. Anybody know where I can get snow tyres fitted?
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One inch of snow and the english nation panic…
Makes you laugh!
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having previously worked in the department responsible for gritting before it was passed to contractors what i cant understand is why snow ploughs were not used before applying the grit.this used to be normal practise.
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MAROONED, IS THIS THE SECOND CITY?
As of 17:00 on Sunday the following services were terminating short: 22, 23, 24, 29/A, 61, X62, 63. Unless conditions improve overnight it is likely that these services will also be disrupted on Monday morning.
22, 23, 29/A: Terminating at Barnes Hill
……61: Terminating in Northfield
Can somebody get a snow plough to South Brum ASAP
We understand that all National Express services that run into the city centre are operating as normal???????????
How come the residents of Bartley Green/ Northfield/ South Birmingham are stranded then with NO bus services to the area for THREE DAYS (including Monday)
Don’t this city council have snow ploughs if the grit aint workin????…?????????? if so WHERE ARE THEY???????????
“We cannot plough the snow until a depth of around 50mm (two inches) is reached” 5 inches still lay on some A roads here. HELP we are cut off from the rest of the city
Second city, what a shambles.
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I agree with Gary from Brum, where are the snow ploughs??? There is more than 2″ of slush remaining on the majority of ‘A’roads throughout the Dudley and Sandwell area’s.
We live in a side road and the hill is steep no matter how careful you are it is a death trap to negotiate, if a snow plough could come down the hill it would at least give us a chance to be able to negotiate 2″ of slush instead of the 5-6″ we have now.
Rocksalt /Grit is in-effective after -5, its no use spreading grit on 5″ of snow we need the snowplough first then spread grit. I witnessed a snowplough on the Queslett Road in Great Barr on Saturday it was fantastic and did the job! Pity it wasn’t on my side of the road heading towards Sandwell Hospital which was a absolute nightmare!
Amazingly when you reach junction 10 of the M6 Walsall is near enough clear on the main roads.
Come on Dudley Council get it sorted!!!!
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RECORDED A LOW OF 9′F .LAST NIGHT. LOWEST SINE I WAS DOING MY WEATHER SINCE 1979.WHEN IN DECEMBER 81 WAS 12′F
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