Preparations to keep the North East's roads moving as temperatures plummet are well under way.
Durham County Council's Wolsingham depot houses a fleet of gritters and snow blowers serving rural areas in the low and high Pennines.
Across all the council's six depots, 42,000 tons of salt is ready to be spread on the roads by a fleet of vehicles including 37 power gritters, 33 trailer gritters and six snow blowers - all driven by 75 drivers who will be on duty around the clock to keep the 38 priority one routes across the county clear.
From coastal areas in the east of the county right up to the high Pennines in the west, these routes added together come to a total of 1711km. The A1, A19 and A66 roads are managed by Highways England.
As temperatures begin to drop across the UK as winter begins to takes hold, the team is fully prepared for the first widespread snowfall of the season.
The forecast warns snowfall "mostly confined to upland regions" is likely by the end of the week, while wintry showers are also expected from Thursday.
Highway Services manager Mark Readman, from Durham County Council's winter maintenance team, revealed how he and his team are gearing up for the predicted cold, harsh weather this December.
He said: ''Wolsingham depot is one of our six strategic winter mainenance depots, it covers the low and high Pennine domains where we have some of the most challenging conditions. Our season starts on the first of October and runs through till the end of April.
''Our Priority One network covers 45% of all roads which is 1711km, we have 38 routes across the county from the coast right through to the high Pennines.
"On average we complete 80-100 treatments annually, but that's determined by the weather.
"Our fleet of vehicles is 37 power gritters, 33 trailer gritters and six snow blowers.
''This particular depot at Wolsingham has a salt barn with 5,000 tons of salt but county wide we have six depots which contain 42,000 tons of salt.
''During the winter period we are on duty 24 hours a day, right through the period from October through to April, our guys generally do a morning shout and an evening shout but to be fair if the weather is really extreme we would work all day on a rota basis.
''In total we have 75 drivers who work for Durham County Council, in addition to that we have some local subcontractors who also support our service during difficult times.
''Our managers and drivers are on 24 hour duty, we take the weather forecast from our providers Meteo group who give us the weather forecasts regularly.
"Our main forecast is the 11am forecast and that dictates our action for the adverse weather that's heading this weekend, we will have guys on duty throughout the period to make sure that we grit the roads in a timely manner.
''If there was a message for the travelling public it would be to be prepared for your journey, check the weather forecasts, check our action and drive in accordance with the conditions, keep up to date by visiting our web page durham.gov.uk/winterinfo, you can also follow us on social media - Facebook and @twittergritter.''
