National forecaster Météo-France added Oise in northern France to its list of northern départements orange weather alerts for snow, ice and freezing rain in its Wednesday morning bulletin.
Oise joined neigbouring four départements already on the forecaster’s second-highest weather warning level: Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Seine-Maritime and Somme.
A major snow episode is expected between Haute-Normandie and Hauts-de-France, Météo-France said in its early morning bulletin. The current orange weather alerts will remain in place – pending later updates – until early Thursday afternoon.
“Snowfall accumulations of 5cm to 10cm in general, locally 10cm to 15cm in Hauts-de-France, and even rising to around 20cm in the Pas-de-Calais department,” Météo-France said in its bulletin.
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“Dangerous phenomena are expected. Keep yourself informed of the development of the situation and follow the safety advice issued by the public authorities,” warned the forecaster.
Snowfall ‘may occur on the southern edge of the departments placed on orange alert’, but ‘without major consequences’ in most areas outside Aisne.
During Wednesday afternoon, precipitation will gradually move northwards, where temperatures will remain very low. In contact with this cold air, the precipitation is expected to turn to snow.
SNCF has warned that trains could be delayed or cancelled in Hauts-de-France, due to expected snowfall.
The Seine-Maritime préfecture issued a decree on Wednesday morning ‘prohibiting overtaking and imposing a speed reduction of 20km/h for heavy goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes on the entire road network in the department’.
On Tuesday evening, Hauts-de-France département announced it had suspended school transport on Wednesday. “Accumulations could reach 5cm to 10cm north of a Rouen-Laon line, locally more than 10cm, it said, and warned of possible restrictions on the circulation of heavy goods vehicles.
There are, however, no current concerns about for cross-Channel travel on either the Eurostar or ferries.
