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AS snow hits the south today more than 100 staff and 45 lorries are being prepped for a major salting expedition.

The ice-busting Hampshire County Council team armed with 225 tonnes of salts will be taking on the mammoth task of keeping the county’s roads clear of ice.

With Syberian winds whipping the county, a minus eight degrees chill factor forecast and the prospect of ice and snow the gritters are poised for action.

Major bus routes, A roads and roads to vital services are routinely treated but others only get salted after prolonged freezing conditions which are expected to last long into January.

The council uses the Icelert system as an aid to deciding when to salt roads. Icelert is made up of a number of roadside sensor sites, which look at road conditions such as surface temperatures, wind speed and direction, rainfall, humidity and ice formation.

This winter a new system is also being utilised which tracks gritting vehicles and allows greater efficiency in gritting Hampshire’s roads.

The data tracking software, ‘DataTrak’, shows the location of the gritters, which direction they are heading in, at what speed and whether they are currently spreading salt.

Councillor Mel Kendal, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for environment, said: “Keeping roads safe in winter is a priority for the council, but I would urge everyone on the roads to be more cautious in very cold and frosty conditions and remember there is no such thing as an absolutely safe road surface.”

Tomorrow the road surface is expected to drop to around minus eight degrees.