We receive a lot more detailed information, but sadly the accuracy is the same as you see in the various forecasts. I've been making decisions on winter action for 28 years now. In that time it has gone from making a decision on one county, then it became making a split decision on one county, it then developed into making five decisions covering eight counties because of the different climates, topography, ground conditions etc and this year using thermal mapping sees it being made on 33 different routes across the eight counties because of those same differing climates, topography, and ground conditions.
Going further forward, the Met office and other agencies have already broken those 33 routes into smaller sectors and in the background we can monitor if we needed or didn't need to do various sections and we can then decide on possibily doing it slightly different in the future
One thing I can assure all of is that we never take a chance on not doing it, I can honestly say I have never not salted to save money (a full run costs £30,000 - 40,000), but I can also say that I have salted when with hindsight I didn't need to, but I don't need anybodys death or serious injury on my mind