Winter Facts
Last updated | 22/11/2011
Gritting Roads
There are over 1,500 miles of road in Perth &
Kinross. About a third of this gets gritted 7 days a week.
There are:
- 42 snowploughs
- 24 pavement snowploughs
- 3 snowblowers
We decide whether or not to grit based on
- information from 11 roadside stations that measure things like
road surface temperature.
- weather forecasts from a specialist weather forecast
provider. We are also in regular contact with
them.
- inspections of the roads to see what the actual conditions
are.
But we cannot be everywhere at once and conditions can change
very quickly to form cold pockets of air - and ice!
Don't become an accident statistic.
Severe Winters
The last three winters have been the most severe for over
30 years and the coldest since 1978/79. Gritting/snowclearing
and the amount of salt spread on the roads were about 50%
higher than in the run of winters that we had become used to
.
Even if the 2011/12 winter gives a return to the previous trend of
milder wetter winters, the temperature will still drop below
zero and wetter roads means more risk of ice.
