It's snowing!

[Kim]

The Fiat Of The Apocalypse was surprisingly good in the snow.  Assuming it would start.  I attribute that to light weight, sensibly-shaped (if not actually grippy) tyres and a general lack of gizmos^[1].  The Brompton-esque brakes didn't actively hinder, either.

Modern cars have silly wheels and are all far too heavy.


_{[1] The sum total of its bad weather driving features was the rear demister, which was broken.}

[rogerzilla]

I had no issues driving a Metro in the deep snow of March 1987.  A modern car would get stranded in such conditions.  Traction control is useless when there's no traction to be had.

[Mr Larrington]

A rally car on SNO tyres looks like an elephant perched atop four dustbin lids.  And its offspring help keep the car clean.

[orienteer]

Old fashioned narrow tyres cut through the snow, while over-styled, wide, low profile tyres stay on top of it.

I recall the wild winter of 1962/3, when even the buses kept running with few problems.

[Pickled Onion]

It was a bit tricky getting ashore this morning. The boat abeam mine has no non-slip paint on the gunwales and a cratch on the foredeck so nothing to hold on to. I had to climb across carrying my bike, it was a little sketchy but I remain dry.

[Mrs Pingu]

Another layer overnight. Just heard a gust of wind and now it's horizontal.

[Polar Bear]

Another gentle sprinkling of icing sugar.  It's sodding cold here though and there is a lot of ice outside.

mllePB has just succumbed to firing up the boiler.  I'll not complain.

[rogerzilla]

It's been colder outside but warmer inside the last two days.  Must depend on wind direction.  The stove got the lounge from 14.2^oC to 20^oC in two hours (it also heats the rest of the house to a lower temperature - the layout of this house is fortuitous in that respect, with stairs off the lounge), which is quicker than the heating could do it.

[rafletcher]

No more here, but unusually the village road is still mostly covered in snow and ice. Speaking to a neighbour yesterday, they’d been out on Monday night, and the taxi back refused to come into the village, leaving them with a 200m walk on the ice.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Snow offers relatively good grip.

Ice is poorer.

Wet ice is terrible.

A 'really bad, wild winter' usually results in constant supply of new snow (which offers similar traction to tarmac with a bit of sand on it).

What we have here is a bit of rain, a bit of sleet, below zero overnight. Worst of all worlds.

[T42]

It's been colder outside but warmer inside the last two days.  Must depend on wind direction.  The stove got the lounge from 14.2^oC to 20^oC in two hours (it also heats the rest of the house to a lower temperature - the layout of this house is fortuitous in that respect, with stairs off the lounge), which is quicker than the heating could do it.

Same sort of thing here, with help from two electric heaters.  Annoying thing is that our chimneys are so tall that while we have a terrific draught we also get a hell of a lot of creosote in the top third, which means that we can't stoke up as well as we'd like to really heat the place. We've had a couple of chimney fires in the last 30 years and MrsT is scared stiff of them.

Anyway, with a whole centimetre of snow on the road we've just had the municipal snow-plough round.

[Jurek]

It took 6 hrs for my CH to raise the temperature here from 14°C to 20°C  yesterday.
Much of the snow which fell on Sunday is still present without any fresh snowfall.

[Mr Larrington]

Sunday night/Monday morning's SNO still seems mostly present and correct on the roof of my porch and Sheds.

[T42]

Snow's still there but this afternoon it changed to light rain which has now frozen. Traffic proceeding very gingerly.

[ian]

Got a grit refill (probably a benefit of having a councillor living up the road) – partly a shame, because I wanted to see the idiots who nicked the last lot to do their drives and parking spaces die a horribly slidey death trying to get down the subsequently ungritted, iced hill.

As a plus, we don't have to use our salt stash, from which I usually subsidise the idiots (not entirely altruistic, we like to be able to get our car up and down the hill).

[Mr Larrington]

This year I haven’t actually heard anyone sliding through the end of the skating rink that is Larrington Gardens Road and having their progress rudely arrested by a vehicle on the main road but there’s still time before things warm up a bit.

[Mrs Pingu]

Horizontal sno again. Sounds like type 2 fun on the roads in the shire with drifting accross roads.

[T42]

Another few cm overnight. Caught sight of the village gritter this morning: a farm tractor with a blade on the front and a seed dispenser on the back.

Glad they didn't get confused with the muck spreader.

[Pingu]

More wet snow today.

[T42]

Law here says that householders have to clear the footpath in front of the house by 07:30, otherwise we're liable if someone slips and injures themselves.

Cardiologist says "snow clearing? At your age? Are you mad?"

MrsT & I just cleared our bit of pavement.

Conclusion: yes.

[De Sisti]

Law here says that householders have to clear the footpath in front of the house by 07:30, otherwise we're liable if someone slips and injures themselves.

Which country does that apply to?

[rafletcher]

Law here says that householders have to clear the footpath in front of the house by 07:30, otherwise we're liable if someone slips and injures themselves.

Which country does that apply to?

T42 is in France.  Similar rules apply in the USA.

[Auntie Helen]

Law here says that householders have to clear the footpath in front of the house by 07:30, otherwise we're liable if someone slips and injures themselves.

Which country does that apply to?

T42 is in France.  Similar rules apply in the USA.

and in Germany.

[MattH]

Whereas here, I believe (could be wrong, this was told to me many years ago...) that if you clear the nice grippy crunchy snow and it leaves a patch of frozen ice e.g. where the remnants of snow melted then refroze, you then become liable, whereas if you'd not touched it you're fine.
Would actually be vaguely interested to know if that's true.

[Kim]

I definitely know that getting up at bollocks o'clock in the morning to shovel snow when I would otherwise be warm in bed is liable to result in bad swears, if not actual injury.