The Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) issued a 'code yellow' to warn of slippery roads across Belgium on Friday. Several accidents occurred in the provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders due to freezing rain and sleet.
Anyone who has to take the car on Friday should watch out for slippery roads, particularly in West and East Flanders, where the warning level was temporarily upped to 'code orange,' but is now down to yellow again.
"We expect freezing precipitation over at least half of the territory of those provinces," announced David Dehenauw, VTM weather reporter and head of forecasting at the RMI, on Thursday evening. The police have since confirmed this, as various traffic accidents occurred in several West Flanders municipalities last night.
'Code yellow' will remain in force until at least 14:00 on Friday, meaning that localised ground slipperiness is expected, making it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists. Road traffic will likely also be delayed and "may even become dangerous."
"Given the freezing temperatures, the precipitation that has fallen will probably remain. As a result, it will remain slippery at least into the morning." In the centre of Belgium, around the Brussels-Capital Region, a few millimetres of snowfall was recorded, said VRT weather reporter Frank Deboosere: "just enough to briefly make everything white."
"In any case, slippery conditions everywhere on the road, so be careful," he stressed. Temperatures will peak above freezing temperatures during the day, reaching a maximum of up to 1°C, but it will freeze again next night.
The Roads and Traffic Agency confirmed that the gritting services had a busy night, as they spread salt on 16,000 km of roads and cycle paths over the past 24 hours. "An in places where it snows, we drive out again."
