After a whole day of snow, the skies are blue over most of Belgium, but the aftermath of the heavy snowfall is still being felt.
The risk of slippery roads on Thursday persists – for the time being – due to freezing snow or wet road sections, as well as the fact temperatures remain below zero.
The Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) has issued a code yellow for Thursday morning, which will remain in place until this evening in the province of Luxembourg, where wintry precipitation continued to fall during the night.
"Some snow (one to four cm) will also fall in the south-east of the country this morning," the RMI noted.
'Remain very cautious'
In Wallonia, the code red will be maintained on roads due of the weather forecast, the Walloon Traffic Authority (AOT) said on Wednesday evening. It advises everyone to "limit movements and remain very cautious if they have to be on the road in the coming hours, and especially Thursday morning during rush hour in Wallonia."
In Wallonia, trucks longer than 13 metres also remain banned on certain traffic axes to "ensure the safety of motorists and truck drivers as much as possible, facilitate gritting operations and keep traffic moving on regional roads".
Credit: Belga/ Bruno Fahy
The Flemish Agency for Roads and Traffic (AWV) also advised road users to be very careful and adjust their speed and keep sufficient distance. "The road surface temperatures are already going firmly below freezing again which means there is a high risk of slipperiness the coming night."
The AWV's gritting services were again deployed in several places on Wednesday night. Over the past 24 hours, the agency has already used a total of 4,600 tonnes of salt and brine to keep roads and cycle paths safe. Cyclists have been advised to keep off cycle paths until in the afternoon, when temperatures are expected to rise slightly.
In many places, however, the gritting vehicles are still on the road, the Flemish agency reported Thursday morning. In Brussels too, gritting vehicles rode out en masse on Wednesday.
Public transport still disrupted
In Brussels, Wednesday's heavy snowfall is still causing limited disruption on the STIB network. Some bus routes are interrupted (and bus 43 is cancelled) while tram services are experiencing slight delays as they are not able to travel at the usual speed.
National railway operator SNCB is struggling with delays, but is not experiencing structural problems. However, the SNCB website was down on Thursday morning due to a technical problem, which was complicating people's commute.
As snow was still falling during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Walloon transport company TEC is maintaining phase four in its severe weather plan. The buses of the Walloon Brabant network will not be running on Thursday as the company cannot guarantee road safety.
In Charleroi, bus traffic is heavily disrupted and only the metro is being regularly served. In the other provinces, most buses have been cancelled.
In most of Flanders, De Lijn is no longer inconvenienced by the winter weather on Thursday morning but in southern Limburg, there is still a "very difficult morning rush hour" due to the slippery road surface.
Air traffic at Brussels Airport is again running almost as normal on Thursday morning after several flights were cancelled on Wednesday due to the heavy snowfall. "All runways are treated and open. There are also enough trucks on hand for de-icing and snow removal," the company noted.
