A break in the clouds

Jan 5 2008 by Chris Robinson, The Journal

EXTREME winter weather across the North-East is expected to clear this weekend, forecasters say.

Sunshine will melt snow as temperatures rise above freezing in most parts of the region.

Instead rain is expected with bright spells breaking through.

But motorists on rural routes are still being warned to take extra care while driving on unsalted roads.

The weather change comes just days after traffic chaos on roads throughout the region.

On Thursday a seven-mile stretch of the A1 was closed from Gosforth, Newcastle, to Morpeth and southbound traffic on the road was at a standstill in Stannington, Northumberland.

Accidents also plagued roads as up to 12cm of snow had fallen in some areas. In County Durham there had been between 20 and 30 collisions reported to police, although none were reported at serious.

Dave Britain, forecaster with the Met Office. said: “Overnight we will begin to see rain push across the region and then clear spells developing in some parts along the coast.

“There will be sunny spells and a scattering of showers of rain. There doesn’t look like any further snow until the early part of next week.

“We will see quite a bit of breeze around keeping temperatures up.”

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said there were no problems on roads yesterday and that extreme weather desk had been stood down.

A spokesman for Northumberland County Council said: “We are well prepared for the weather and have several thousand tonnes of salt in store.

“But we do urge drivers to take care. Whilst salt is very effective on roads there’s no substitute for driving safe and it’s not possible to salt all the roads in a precautionary basis and drivers should be particularly careful on un treated roads.”