It's snowing!

[ian]

Well that was an interesting drive round the M25 this morning. J8-J5 was a constantly changing precipitation from wet sleet to fluffy flakes of SNOW. Driving was not fun and the roads were turning a slushy grey colour.

My wife will have fun then, she's just landed at Heathrow.

Snowing quite heavily here in the mountainous jungles of Easterly Snurrey, though it's mostly turning to soggy wet slush on the ground. It'll be 'interesting' when that freezes given the usual local driving standards. At least someone gritted the steep hill outside, though the flow of water might wash most of it away.

[Riggers]

We have sleet here on the south coast. Move along.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I think all this talk of snowmaggeddon is fake news.

We have clear blue skies here in Yorkshire.

[Kim]

I think all this talk of snowmaggeddon is fake news.

We have clear blue skies here in Yorkshire.

OOI, does anyone know if that includes Leeds? Asking for a friend...

[hellymedic]

Well that was an interesting drive round the M25 this morning. J8-J5 was a constantly changing precipitation from wet sleet to fluffy flakes of SNOW. Driving was not fun and the roads were turning a slushy grey colour.

My wife will have fun then, she's just landed at Heathrow.

Snowing quite heavily here in the mountainous jungles of Easterly Snurrey, though it's mostly turning to soggy wet slush on the ground. It'll be 'interesting' when that freezes given the usual local driving standards. At least someone gritted the steep hill outside, though the flow of water might wash most of it away.

Temperature here is nearly 3C and it's sleeting lightly.

Heathrow is about 15 miles away.

I imagine your wife will arrive to miserable cold wetness but little snowmageddon.

[ian]

Apparently was no snow at Heathrow. Slushy everywhere else. Still snowing here, but it's soggy stuff mostly already slush by the time it hits the ground. Cats unimpressed.

[essexian]

CBH just sent me up the shops (I say up, as our local shop is half a mile away up hill) to get some cat food..... yes, I know who is in charge here.... and frankly I am at a loss to know why most of our local schools are closed as while there is ice on the side roads, the main estate roads are passable with care.  I suppose it must be down to teachers not be able to travel....it can't be due to the little ones not being able to get to school as surely they walk....... 


I do fear for tomorrow however as we are supposed to be having -7 here tonight meaning everything will freeze and the roads will become very tricky unless they are gritted.....

2017-12-11_01-35-02 by essexian, on Flickr

[mrcharly-YHT]

I think all this talk of snowmaggeddon is fake news.

We have clear blue skies here in Yorkshire.

OOI, does anyone know if that includes Leeds? Asking for a friend...

Yes - I'm in Leeds centre now, it is cold (not got above 0 all day) but clear blue skies.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

The havoc a few snowflakes can wreak..

[hulver]

I'm just south of Sheffield, this was my local Aldi on Saturday, before it even started snowing.


(Image shows the bread shelves at Aldi, empty except for 2 loaves of bread)

[Kim]

Yes - I'm in Leeds centre now, it is cold (not got above 0 all day) but clear blue skies.

Thanks for that.  Barakta is on a train heading north as we speak.  The pavements are nasty and advanced ice-gripper tactics were required for the trek to the local station (buses seem to be a mess), but the local trains were no more rubbish than usual^[1], and the chaos level at Mordor Central is lower than expected.

Meanwhile I was helping my friend get his car moving.  This required a SHOVEL and more than a little pushing (the local roads are now compacted sheet ice, but the car was parked before the snowpocalypse, so it had to mount the ice to get moving).  Gritted main roads are fine.

I'm now watching how various cars cope with the ice rink that is the junction of the two minor roads I can see from my window.  So far the worst have been a small VW (down to spectacularly incompetent driving) and some sort of SUVish thing with silly low-profile tyres.  Interestingly, a Pruis seemed to manage fine (I suppose traction control makes up for high-efficiency tyres).  I assume the RWD BMWs are all stuck in their driveways.


_{[1] They share track with trains heading between Mordor and the south-west, so tend to get shafted every time the intercity services are delayed.}

[Quint]

RWD or |FWD, if you know how to drive you can handle the conditions, (for what it is worth we now own a 2003 Volvo V40 fwd) I have driven over 1,000,000 miles over 30 odd years professionally a lot of them on RWD, trouble is a lot of drivers just jump in and play with the pedals instead of learning how to cope with adverse conditions. Hey ho.

[Jakob W]

Bah, school closed for a second day tomorrow.

Anyone have recommendation for crampon thingies? I vaguely recall someone on here getting some a year or two back (possibly nikki?). It occurs to me it will be worth while trying to get some in in a couple of weeks once they've hopefully come back into stock and keeping them in the boot cupboard for the next big freeze...

[Quint]

Good idea, same as a studded rear tyre for my trike

[Jaded]

Bah, school closed for a second day tomorrow.

Anyone have recommendation for crampon thingies? I vaguely recall someone on here getting some a year or two back (possibly nikki?). It occurs to me it will be worth while trying to get some in in a couple of weeks once they've hopefully come back into stock and keeping them in the boot cupboard for the next big freeze...

I have some Bergsteigers
They are a bit tight getting them on the shoe (Medium on size 8.5/9 UK shoes)

[Aunt Maud]

It's snowing here and the plastering sand has gone like iron.   

[mattc]

RWD or |FWD, if you know how to drive you can handle the conditions, (for what it is worth we now own a 2003 Volvo V40 fwd) I have driven over 1,000,000 miles over 30 odd years professionally a lot of them on RWD, trouble is a lot of drivers just jump in and play with the pedals instead of learning how to cope with adverse conditions. Hey ho.

I think RWD (assuming front-engined!) only really suffers when pulling away in very low friction conditions. Once you're moving - as you say - it's more swings and roundabouts.

I had a pre-gadgets 3-Series which wasn't very good at this; BMW helpfully provided floor mats which they said were tough enough to use under the drive wheels in slippery conditions!

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I used to practice skidding in my Renault 4.  We had a a succession of severe winters. There was next to no traffic on the E. Anglian roads when they were snow-covered and being rural the edges were soft.  A front skid was easy to recover from but a rear wheel skid was another matter. It started a pendulum effect that got worse the more you tried to get out of it - quite scary if you didn't know what to do.  My brother had a rear wheel drive Talbot and couldn't go anywhere in it when the roads were icy.  Even tried putting sandbags in the boot but to no avail. 

[phantasmagoriana]

I think all this talk of snowmaggeddon is fake news.

We have clear blue skies here in Yorkshire.

Same here (well, not now - it's dark - but blue skies earlier). I don't think it's gone above zero all day, but it's been dry and bright.

[bobb]

Jesus fuck - I've just been to the shop and it's more slippery out there than any ice rink I've ever been to.

I did treat myself to a bag of Bobby's Onion Rings for 39p though. Damn they're good 

[nikki]

Anyone have recommendation for crampon thingies? I vaguely recall someone on here getting some a year or two back (possibly nikki?).

I have some cheapy things from some high street discount chain or other.

Something thusly for about £7 or similar and they make a noticeable difference

[Jakob W]

Ta! I took a punt on something similar on eBay; I figured for 3 or 4 quid it was probably worth a shot.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Very cool this morning, -3C.  That's about it really. 

[rafletcher]

CBH just sent me up the shops (I say up, as our local shop is half a mile away up hill) to get some cat food..... yes, I know who is in charge here.... and frankly I am at a loss to know why most of our local schools are closed as while there is ice on the side roads, the main estate roads are passable with care.  I suppose it must be down to teachers not be able to travel....it can't be due to the little ones not being able to get to school as surely they walk....... 


I do fear for tomorrow however as we are supposed to be having -7 here tonight meaning everything will freeze and the roads will become very tricky unless they are gritted.....

2017-12-11_01-35-02 by essexian, on Flickr

More likely is the bus companies that trek a lot of students in will not be running.

[numbnuts]

-4.2 here