Although it had not been forecast, a large of Flanders woke up to snow on Tuesday morning. The snow fell in the early hours and by daybreak as much as several centimetres had fallen in some areas. Inevitably the unexpected snowfall caused longer than normal delays for commuters of our region’s roads during Tuesday morning’s rush hour. The snow changed to rain and covering of snow will gradually disappear during the course of Tuesday morning.
The Flemish Roads and Traffic Agency had only carried preventative gritting on roads in East Flanders. However, the snowfall was much more widespread. The advice to motorists and cyclists on Tuesday morning was clear: “Slow down and keep a safe distance”.
The weather and the fact that Tuesday is one of the busiest days of the week on the roads meant that it was a particularly difficult drive into work for many on Tuesday morning. There was around 500km of traffic on motorways and highways at one point during the rush hour. Although there were some accidents these were minor in nature.
The weather will become drier from the south during the course of the day. However, it won’t be until the evening or even the night that the weather becomes dry in the far north.