Beast of East landed in Co Durham

Well the Beast of East landed in Co Durham this week. It all started at the beginning of the week and there was another inch or so fell again this morning but the thaw now on as I am typing this. Myself, Jane and Angus has managed to attend work everyday and we have been out shovelling every morning from around 5pm. Wednesday morning I put my back out with the weight of it and have been in pain since. The lads and lass have done a fantastic job in the ploughs / gritters / shovels etc apart from Wednesday morning when I drove Jane through to work before 6am in a complete white out and visibility down to 20ft or so and minus 4 degrees. I could not see any roads / paths etc they just all blended into one with 6-8" of fresh overnight snow. They are still working 24 / 7 to try and clear the snow but up in Weardale there are 20ft snow drifts caused by the gale force winds we had for two days. Below are a list of roads still closed in County Durham -

A689 Killhope - Cowshill to Alston Cumbria - Closed at Cowshill

B6295 Cowshill - Cowshill to Allenheads Northumberland - Closed at Cowshill    

C21 Rookhope - Rookhope to Allenheads Northumberland - Closed at Rookhope    

B6278 Stanhope to Edmundbyers - Closed at Crawleyside Stanhope and at Edmundbyers

B6278 Stanhope to Egglestone - Closed at Stanhope and Egglestone

B6277Harwood - Teesdale to Cumbria - Closed at Middleton

B6276 Lunedale - Teesdale to Cumbria - Closed at Middleton

C27 Harthope - St John's Chapel to Landon Beck - Closed at St John's Chapel and Landon Beck

C28 Westgate to Newbiggin - Closed at Westgate and Newbiggin

C77 Rookhope to Ireshopeburn - Closed at Rookhope and Ireshopeburn

C78 Rookhope to Westgate - Closed at Rookhope and Westgate

C18A Dowfold Crook - Crook to Stanley Crook - Closed at Crook and Stanley

C11 Holmeside Lane, Quaking Houses to Wagtail Lane, Craghead

B6277 Cotherstone to Lartington

A179 Southbound slip onto A19 Sheraton Interchange

C18 A Church Hill Bank Crook

A690 Low Jobs Hill to Church Hill Crook

Low Jobs Hill to B6299

Unclassified Road, Trimdon Grange to Kelloe

A692 from Dipton to the junction with A693

I drove through to Seaham via Hetton Le Hole of Friday and noticed there are loads of minor back roads closed over there with drifting snow as well. As you can imagine I have not been able to get out on the bike or been for a run but hopefully back pain will go and the snow drifts melt alittle so I can get back out and about on foot and on the bike.

Below are some photos taken of the machines trying to get from Cowshill past Killope and up to the border with Cumbria towards Nenthead.

 

The two photos below are from Nenthead! amazing how the wind forms shapes in the drifts.

 

Alston has also been cut off for a few days as well from Penrith side and still closed from Co Durham side. The pool of water under high force also froze over this week.