Falkirk Council gritters will be out and about tonight for the first time this season as temperatures take a chilly plunge.
They'll be treating roads across high levels of the district from 8pm with the mercury expected to drop to 1C in the likes of Shieldhill and Slamnanan.
Councillor Paul Garner, spokesperson for the Environment, at the local authority says they're ready for what the winter throws at them.
He told Falkirk Live: "We plan every year for poor weather and the disruption that it can bring to local communities.
"There is a lot of work put in prior to the winter season to make sure that we’re ready when bad weather does come. Our salt dome has a capacity of 8000T and is regularly replenished throughout the winter to ensure resilience.
"On average we use nearly 4000 tonnes each year.
"We use advanced weather forecasting systems to predict where we should be focussing our efforts most and when to treat our roads for maximum impact.
"Residents can visit www.falkirk.gov.uk/gritting for information on location of grit bins; live tracking of gritters; how to get your grit bin refilled and what are our priority routes.
"We must prioritise treatment of main routes such as routes to Police and Fire stations; hospitals and ambulance depots; larger schools and care homes. We also treat town centre footpaths and footpath routes to schools as priorities.
"There’s more than 600 miles of roads to cover with more than 200 considered a priority. These priority routes will always be treated first and then tackle secondary routes and footpaths.
"Our roads teams work very hard in often extremely dangerous conditions and at unsocial hours to ensure these vital routes are treated.
"There’s also the wider implications of bad weather in local communities and we actively encourage residents to be good neighbours looking out for more vulnerable neighbours if we go through a long period of weather disruption."
