THE budget for keeping key York roads safe from snow and ice this winter has already been spent - with more snowfall looming later this month.

City of York Council set aside £399,550 last year for its 2017/18 winter maintenance budget but £338,441 had been spent on 59 gritting runs by February 1, with each run costing an average £5,700.

At least another 14 runs - costing approximately £80,000 - have been needed since then as the cold winter nights continue.

Now forecasters are warning that the region may be blasted by bitterly cold easterly winds in late February and early March, which could mean York seeing its first really significant snowfall of the winter.

The council says that by the end of January, it had already spread 3,060 tonnes of rock salt on the priority road network, compared to 2,160 tonnes in the whole of last winter,with another 858 tonnes spread since February 1.

A spokeswoman said there were only 48 treatments in the entire, milder, winter of 2016/17, which cost the authority £275,376.

She said that while this year’s full winter maintenance budget of £399,550 was an estimate, there were some reserves in case the winter turned particularly cold.

“We have a contingency budget to ensure that our priority gritting routes are treated as and when needed throughout the season,” she said.

“Our grit store currently has approximately 2,200 tonnes of grit ready to use. We continually replenish this to ensure we are ready for the weather.”

The spokeswoman said the harshest months of the winter were generally December, January and February, but it has emerged that changing weather patterns indicate that the winter is set to tighten its grip in coming weeks, just as spring approaches.

The Met Office said major circulation changes in higher parts of the atmosphere meant high pressure should migrate next week to Scandinavia, with a possibility of a colder easterly flow developing over Britain after mid-week. This could eventually bring a risk of snow showers from the east - and these tend to affect York and North and East Yorkshire particularly badly.

Most of the snow so far this winter has come in on north-westerly winds and stuck mainly on higher ground in North Yorkshire. In York, much has fallen as sleet or wet snow which has quickly melted.

Easterlies could lead to colder weather and snow sticking at lower levels, and forecasters say there continues to be signs of high pressure over northern Europe in late February and early March, with a greater frequency of easterly winds. These would bring a further threat of snow showers crossing the region from the North Sea.

*This weekend is set to offer a slight respite from the winter chill, with temperatures expected to reach a maximum of 8C in York today and tomorrow in mostly dry conditions.