Heavy snowfall overnight has caused treacherous driving conditions on major roads in the Harrogate district this morning.

Many areas woke up to a blanket of snow and ice, causing severe problems, especially in rural areas.

The North Yorkshire Weather Updates social media page showed dire conditions in Boroughbridge, with heavy snow covering streets.

Video by Carly Gibson

The same page also reported large vehicles were struggling to get up the hill on the A59 at Kex Gill due to hazardous road conditions. However by 9am the road appeared to be clear.

North Yorkshire Police warned people to drive carefully due to conditions on the A61 between Ripon and Harrogate.

The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire County Council, which is the highways authority, on which days it had gritted the roads since Christmas Day and what its policy is on deciding when to use gritters,

We had not received a response by the time of publication but the council has tweeted this morning that its gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day from October to April and are treating roads.

A similar tweet was posted on Christmas Day but nothing on travel since despite snow and flooding causing problems in the district.

Read more:

• Homes in Masham and Pannal in peril as flooding strikes
• Treacherous conditions on A59 near Harrogate

The Met Office issued a yellow warning for snow and ice yesterday and warned that up to four inches of snow could fall over the Pennines and North York Moors.

The outlook in the district looks set to improve throughout today with light cloud throughout the afternoon into the evening.

However, temperatures are forecast to drop below zero again overnight.

The police made 20 arrests over a single weekend on roads around Harrogate, Knaresborough and Skipton as part of a campaign to tackle drink driving.

The highest reading of the weekend was 144ug/100ml – over four times the legal limit – by a women from the Knaresborough area driving in York.

Operation Attention follows a summertime peak in drink driving. The efforts by the police are to put on a “show of force” to deter drink or drug drivers and catch offenders.

A total of 23 arrests were made between August 14 to 17. Out of those arrests, 10 were found to be over the legal alcohol limit – 35ug per 100ml of breath.

Other offences included speeding, with one driver caught driving at 80mph within a 30mph zone.

Traffic Sergeant Andy Morton from the Road Policing Group said:

“The results send a clear message that if people choose to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs and break the law, there are consequences to your actions and officers will catch you. We are here to protect the public’s safety on the roads of North Yorkshire and by catching these people. The local community can be confident that these drivers will pay the price by being given lengthy bans, significant fines and even prison sentences.”

Read more:

• One man has died and another is injured after a serious incident in Harrogate town centre on Sunday night. 
• A man from Boroughbridge has been jailed after taking indecent images of a three year-old girl. 

Last weekend’s operation involved specialist road policing officers, special constables and local policing teams and more than 50 drivers were stopped.

The operation has ran from July 13 to August 16, a total of 171 people have been arrested for drink and drug drive offences across North Yorkshire.