With heavy snowfall forecast for Tuesday, the Touring mobility organisation recommends telecommuting and postponing or even cancelling unnecessary travel. The snowfall risks disturbing rush-hour traffic in particular, it said on Monday.
The Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM) forecasts two to three centimetres of snow on Tuesday throughout the country. The disturbance will reach western Belgium in the morning, before moving eastward, then out of the country by the end of the day.
Touring thus advises the population to telecommute and avoid non-urgent travel.
“We shall mobilise more patrollers on the roads and beef up staff at the telephone centre this Tuesday,” said Touring Spokesperson Danny Smagghe. “Today (Monday) we’ve already had many requests. We estimate there will be 3,500 calls by the end of the day as against 1,500 or even 2,000 on a regular Monday, mainly for battery problems.”
The mobility organisation recalled that it was better to shelter one’s vehicle in a garage overnight, wherever possible, and to equip it with winter tyres. According to a recent poll, 57% of vehicles have them.
The disturbance zone will reach the country towards 6 a.m. along the coast and in West Flanders. Two hours later, snow will be falling in Flanders as well as in Brussels, Hainaut and Walloon Brabant, before spreading to Liège, Namur and Luxembourg Province.
IRM warned against localised patches of ice and patches of frost.
The Brussels Times
