Code yellow icy roads warning everywhere except Zeeland; Multiple accidents in the north
Icy roads, bridges, bike paths, and sidewalks will cause issues for most of the Netherlands on Thursday. Slippery conditions are particularly likely in the northeastern half of the country, where it is snowing in several locations. The icy roads already caused multiple accidents in the north last night.
The meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow icy roads warning for the entire country, except Zeeland. For Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, and the Wadden Islands, the slippery conditions will persist until at least Friday afternoon. For the rest of the country, the code yellow warning should lapse today by late morning or early afternoon.
The KNMI expects around 1 centimeter of snow in the west, two centimeters in the north, and up to four centimeters in the east. “In several places across the country, it is snowing, or has snowed, making it slippery,” the meteorological institute warned. “There is a risk of accidents due to icy roads, cycle paths, sidewalks, and bridges.”
The slippery conditions already led to several accidents last night, NOS reports. In Tiendeveen in Drenthe, a vehicle went off the road and crashed into a canal. The occupants are missing. The authorities are searching for them with a sonar boat.
A car also ended up in a ditch in Nieuw-Amsterdam in Drenthe. No one got hurt in this accident.
At around 7:00 a.m., the infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat reported that the highways were twice as congested as typical for a Thursday morning. “There are no major incidents, but weather conditions appear to affect the traffic conditions.”
The road users’ association ANWB, which monitors traffic on all Dutch roads rather than just the highways, reported 70 traffic jams covering 432 kilometers at 7:30 a.m.
Thursday will be cloudy with light snow across the country in the morning. The snow should stop in most places by the afternoon, but the northeast will see occasional snowfall into the night. Maximums will range between just below freezing in the northeast and +3 degrees Celsius in the southwest. The wind will be light to moderate from the east.
