The Ile-de-France prefecture has asked the inhabitants of the region to favor teleworking in anticipation of an episode of snow and ice.
Whereas snow and ice fell on part of the country, it is now the turn of Ile-de-France to be affected. The snow and freezing rain will hit the region this Tuesday evening, according to the Weather Channel*.
The Ile-de-France prefecture on Tuesday evening asked all the inhabitants of the region to limit their movements Wednesday and to favor the telework, in anticipation of this episode. She recommended to Ile-de-France residents to favor public transport on Wednesday and to remain attentive in the event of ice.
The N118 closed
The national road 118, which connects Les Ulis (Essonne) to the south-west of Paris will be completely closed to traffic from 10 p.m. on Tuesday, added the regional prefect in a press release. In February 2018, 950 vehicles, i.e. nearly 2000 people, had been snowed in and had to spend the night on this main road with marked slopes and many bends.
Vehicles of more than 3.5 tonnes for the transport of goods and dangerous materials are prohibited from circulating on the entire regional network, the prefecture has also announced.
Transport disrupted
Air traffic should be “very disturbed” Wednesday at the departure and arrival of the Parisian airports of Orly and Roissy-Charles De Gaulle, according to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation which invites passengers to postpone their trip if possible.
The Minister of the Interior also announced that transportation disruptions will be expected on Wednesday at the end of the day, due to the FIFA World Cup semi-final between France and Morocco. “A large part of the ring road doors will undoubtedly be closed from 6:30 p.m.” as well as several metro and RER stations, indicated Gerald Darmanin. School transport will also be suspended on Wednesday in Meuse, Moselle, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin, prefectural sources said.
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Snow in Ile-de-France from 5 a.m.
Snowfall will fall all night in Lower Normandy and will approach Ile-de-France around 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to the weather organization.
The “amounts of snow will remain low in the region” but the temperatures will be particularly freezing. It won’t thaw all day. “Due to very low temperatures, the snow will stick to the ground, with accumulations of up to 5cm. The episode should continue the following night and until Thursday.said the prefecture.
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21 departments on snow orange alert
The Weather Channel has placed 21 departments on “orange alert” for snow and ice. Caution is therefore advised on the roads. MétéoFrance, for its part, has placed 33 departments on orange vigilance from this Tuesday, 6 p.m. and for the whole day of Wednesday. Bison Futé called on motorists to be particularly vigilant.
Three dead in Burgundy on Tuesday
Snow and ice also disrupted Tuesday road traffic and rail in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Lozère. Early in the morning, three people died in separate accidents in Saône-et-Loire, where roads were made slippery by bad weather, according to the local Traffic Engineering and Management Center (CIGT).
A motorist died after hitting a heavy goods vehicle near Dommartin-lès-Cuiseaux (Saône-et-Loire) on the A39, firefighters said. And two truck drivers died in the frontal collision of their trucks on a departmental road at the exit of Romenay (Saône-et-Loire). “This sector was indeed slippery”said the firefighters.
Many traffic jams were also observed on the roads of the Rhône-Alpes region. In Lozere, the A75 was cut off in both directions early in the morning due to two HGV accidents. One of them, overturned on the track on a viaduct west of Mende, was hit by a van around 3:30 a.m. last night. Three injuries were to be deplored. Traffic gradually resumed at midday in these areas, but with significant slowdowns.
In the metropolis of Lyons, all the buses stayed at the depot for a good part of the morning to avoid accidents. School transport lines were also severely disrupted despite the “winter maintenance device” put in place by the metropolis which made it possible to salt the roads at night on the main axes. Bus traffic resumed at midday but was still disrupted, according to the Transports en Commun Lyonnais (TCL) network.
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For the TER, the weather conditions have “impacted all the lines in the region (Tuesday) morning” with “many delays and deletions”said the SNCF.
*The Weather Channel is a property of the Figaro group.