On Air The Afternoon Show Alex Brindley | 3:00pm - 5:30pm

The white stuff is coming!

Snow is expected to arrive later in the Island today (Friday).

In the meantime, it's being battered by very strong winds.

The Mountain Road is closed from Ramsey Hairpin to Creg-ny-Baa in bad driving conditions.

Police shut the route at around 9pm last night and will make a decision on re-opening the road before 8am this morning.

Forecasters are no longer expecting a heavy snow covering. Rain and sleet should turn to a snow by the afternoon giving a covering of a few centimetres by the end of the day with some drifting in gale force winds.

It's been a changing picture - this time yesterday a blanket covering for the whole of the Island was on the radar yet last night forecasts suggested only southern parts of the Island likely to be affected.

So the white stuff is coming, but a lighter fall than expected - or many children hoped!

The schools are open today - that decision made yesterday afternoon by the Department of Education on advice from the Met office.

That key decision is a difficult one for Head of Administrative and Legal Services John Gill.

He says closing the Island's schools means thousands of parents having to take time off work, an unpopular move if snow doesn't fall during school hours:

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