On the morning of January 7, 2026, residents across Sheffield awoke to a city transformed by a treacherous sheet of black ice, the aftermath of a rare and disruptive weather event. For Glen, a local living on the steep incline of Springvale Road, the day began with a metallic thud that would set the tone for much of the city. Rushing outside after hearing the noise, Glen slipped on the ice himself—an experience he described with a wry sense of humor—only to discover his car had been struck by a neighbor’s vehicle that had lost control on the untreated, slick road surface.
“I heard a bump in the morning and thought that can’t possibly be my car. But I came down about 20 minutes later—slipping on the ice—to see that my driver's side was dented. It’s drivable, but the floodlights and sensors will need to be replaced,” Glen told YorkshireLive. When asked if he felt Sheffield City Council had done enough to keep residents safe, Glen simply offered a knowing smile and said, “They never grit this road.”
Glen’s story was echoed by many across the city as a combination of heavy rainfall and sudden freezing temperatures left Sheffield’s streets and pavements dangerously icy. The incident was far from isolated. Jade Jerry Jackson was another victim of the conditions, slipping on black ice as she left her house and cracking a rib in the process. In a lighthearted TikTok video, Jade quipped about her ordeal, saying she felt like she was “skating” her way down the street and that her “neck, back, toes, and knick-knacks were in a twist.” She joked, “Get your knives, pitch forks and hiking boots, ski poles—the lot out—because the paths are black ice… I have never felt more unprepared for a moment in my life.”
But the humor belied a serious situation. Across Sheffield, at least six primary and secondary schools issued warnings about late starts, citing concerns for “pupil safety” as students struggled to navigate the icy conditions. Schools like The Birley Academy and Sheffield Springs Academy advised students to “arrive when they could” rather than risk injury.
Social media was awash with reports of vehicle incidents within a 24-hour window: a milk van collided with a tree in Oughtibridge, a forklift struck another car at a local yard, a learner bus slid on ice along Abbeydale Road, and a triple-car pileup occurred on Vauxhall Road. Remarkably, these incidents resulted in no serious injuries. However, the city’s health services felt the strain. The minor injuries unit at Royal Hallamshire Hospital and the A&E department at Northern General Hospital were forced to close their doors temporarily due to the volume of injuries related to the icy conditions. According to a spokesperson for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, more than 400 patients were seen by early afternoon—exceeding the usual 370 patients seen in a typical 24-hour period.
For many locals, the chaos was an all-too-familiar winter occurrence. Lee, the owner of The New York Deli on Commonside—strategically located at the intersection of both halves of Springvale Road—described her shop as a “halfway point on flat land” for those worried about venturing further. “I came in late enough to miss the action, but I had customers coming in saying how they were stuck because a car had slid sideways coming down Springvale Road from Crookes, and another had been crashed into down the bottom of the road,” Lee told YorkshireLive. She noted that the problems extended citywide and pointed to a “severe lack of grit-bins,” adding, “I have been here for 17 years and every year it is getting worse and worse—across the whole city. There is a severe lack of grit-bins, which I can’t understand because it's not like this is hard to predict.”
In response, Sheffield City Council cited the “very rare weather event” known as freezing rain as the root cause of the widespread ice. A council spokesperson explained, “This rare weather event happens when air temperatures are above freezing, but precipitation falls as rain onto pavement and road surfaces, which are at temperatures below freezing—creating a significant risk of ice.” The council emphasized that their five weather stations, equipped with advanced forecasting technology, had detected the risk, and “treatment actions were set in motion accordingly in alignment with national best practice recommendations as soon as the forecast was issued.”
The council maintained that gritters were deployed three times overnight from January 6 into January 7, covering priority one and two routes, which account for 60% of Sheffield’s road network—a figure they noted is “significantly more than Leeds & Manchester by way of comparison.” Despite these efforts, the council acknowledged the limitations of salt treatments in freezing rain. “Salt alone is usually insufficient to tackle freezing rain, as the rainfall itself works against the treatment as it dilutes and washes off the salt as it is being applied. This makes it a particularly difficult weather condition to manage, even with sustained repeated treatments across the highway network.”
As the city braced for further wintry weather, including the arrival of Storm Goretti on January 8 and 9, the council assured residents that “fleets” of gritters would be out in force. The gritting fleet gritted all priority routes three times—at 6:30am, 6:30pm, and again at 6:30am on January 9—and ploughed routes repeatedly through the night to keep roads as safe as possible.
Elsewhere in Yorkshire, the Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for ice and snow, with Leeds remaining under alert until 3pm on January 11, 2026, and a further warning for snow and disruption from 2am until 3pm on January 12. Dan Stroud, a Met Office meteorologist, told LeedsLive, “Wintry showers will continue to affect some coastal areas on Saturday, although these will increasingly become confined to northern and eastern parts as the day progresses. Elsewhere, after a cold and frosty start, it should be a mostly dry day with variable amounts of cloud. It will be a widely cold day, with frost lingering across parts of the country.”
The impact of Storm Goretti was felt nationwide, with tens of thousands still without power as of January 10. About 28,000 properties in the South West, close to 1,700 in the West Midlands, and roughly 150 in the East Midlands remained without electricity, according to the National Grid. Downing Street stated that support was being offered to affected homes. Forecasters also warned that melting snow and rain could increase the risk of flooding in the coming days.
For those navigating the icy streets, safety advice abounded. The NHS recommended walking like a penguin to minimize the risk of slipping, while experts from Davanti Tyres advised motorists to carry survival kits, check their tyres and batteries, and consider postponing non-essential journeys. Sheffield City Council’s website provided up-to-date information on gritting schedules, with teams on call 24/7 from October through April.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Glen wondered aloud why anyone would attempt to drive down such a steep hill when black ice was clearly present, regardless of the council’s efforts. His sentiment captured the frustration and resilience of many Sheffielders facing another winter’s test. As the city looks ahead to more unsettled weather, the hope remains that lessons learned—and perhaps a few more grit-bins—will help keep residents safer in the storms to come.
