Winter weather advice

Find helpful advice on different services that might be affected by cold weather and/or snow, as well as hints and tips on staying warm and safe. Stay up to date with the weather forecast for Southampton and follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Schools

In the event of severe weather, keep updated on all school closures 

Travel advice

Please plan any journeys carefully during winter weather. We will be gritting priority one routes and will monitor weather forecasts and conditions to determine if further gritting is needed. Though we cannot grit all roads, we have established priority routes to treat if required. This includes the main access routes for the city and access for Southampton General Hospital. Our focus will be on keeping these roads passable.

You can learn more about routes and local road maintenance in the winter on the gritting and snow clearance page. That page also gives details relating to gritting bins that residents can use to clear footpaths. We prioritise the gritting and clearance of main access footway routes and those with heavy pedestrian movement in times of prolonged severe weather. However, there is no guarantee that these routes will be kept clear of slippery conditions. Over 300 grit bins are strategically located throughout the city solely for use on public roads and footways and should not be removed for private use. You can find out where your nearest gritting bin is on the gritting and snow clearance page. That page also explains when gritting bins are filled and how to report a gritting bin request.

You can see real-time views of traffic cameras via ROMANSE. Householders can find information about vehicles and snow safety in the Met Office's Snow Code. For real-time information on road conditions please follow @scchighways on Twitter

Waste and recycling

If the snow settles we may have to temporarily cease our collections of waste and recycling and other services - such as commercial waste, clinical waste and garden waste collections - until conditions allow us to safely use collection vehicles once more. Should this happen then please bear with us, we will resume our normal collections and collect all missed bins as soon as possible.

For further information on services that might be affected by snow and cold weather, and for some handy hints and tips on staying well and warm please check out our latest Winter Weather e-alert. Sign up to our Stay Connected e-alerts if you'd like to receive this e-alert straight to your inbox or to get the latest updates on a variety of topics.

Rough sleepers

When the weather is set to get colder, members of the public who would like to help rough sleepers can follow the advice on our support for rough sleepers page.