Salt trucks drop 1.3 million kilograms on icy Dutch roads

Dutch infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat poured over 1.32 million kilograms of salt and grit on the country’s major roads on Monday night and Tuesday morning. The organization’s gritter trucks had traveled across 19,703 kilometers of roadway by 9:15 a.m. as part of the operation.

Overnight temperatures fell to between 0 and -2 degrees Celsius across most of the country, though it was a bit warmer along the coast. It was likely to warm up to between 3 and 4 degrees everywhere in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Despite this, drivers were told to exercise caution as the road surface temperature could remain below freezing. This was particularly the case in southern Limburg which was under a code yellow weather warning for icy roads through 10 a.m.

Tuesday night was expected to bring fog throughout the Utrecht provincial area, as well as in the north and east of the country. Temperatures in those areas were expected to hit the freezing point headed into Wednesday morning, while the rest of the country was likely to drop no lower than 1 degree, according to meteorological agency KNMI