Be careful out there!

[rob16584 42]

It took me around 45 mins to get into work today by car. I had no choice as I was on taxi duty all afternoon

De-icing the car after 4 days wasn't too bad, but the snow under the car had turned into a sheet of ice around 5 inches thick. The car just wouldn't reverse over the ridge. I ended up having to drag emma out of bed to sit in the car whilst I pushed it. That didn't go down very well at all!

It's just started snowing heavily again here in Pontefract in the last 15mins.

[The red barron 41]

My school was shut wednesday but open yesterday and today. I think we are due heavy snow on sunday but not sure so my school my shut on Monday :nea: some of our staff couldn't get in so I have had a few cover teachers. we have a bit of snow still but some of it is sheet ice. I can now see the tarmac on our drive at last, decided to go to school in my boots today as I got no grip in my school shoes. Lunch was a masicare of snow balls and it really heated up once two of or male PE staff got involved! :dance: RUN!!!

[allardjd 1,853]

As a veteran winter driver (who doesn't have to worry about such things any more), I have to say that I much preferred the older rear-wheel drive cars. Compression braking at the rear wheels was a beautiful thing. If it was getting snakey you could just take your foot off and the rear end wants to stay behind you where it belongs.

When driving in fresh snow, seeing a vacant parking lot was often too much temptation to resist and I'd have to pull in and do a few donuts. My daughter would invariably say, "We're all going to die!", but we never did.

John

[rob16584 42]

I'm glad you agree about the read wheel drive thing John. I got a bit fed up of people saying they couldn't get into work because their car was RWD. If you can't drive it, don't buy it!

[allardjd 1,853]

Both have advantages. Front wheel drive cars have the weight of engine and transmission directly over the drive wheels, so that benefits the traction a little, but the effects of compression braking on a slippery road can make it want to swap ends on you if you're not careful.

I really prefer the rear wheel drive in ice and snow but acknowledge there are advantages to the other way too.

I always got a kick out of people with 4-wheel drive vehicles who were too stupid to understand that they could go better, but when it came to stopping we're all the same.

For driving, the worst snowstorm of the year is the first one - they're all re-learning winter driving after a summer off.

John

[allardjd 1,853]

Life in Northern Michigan

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after a severe snow storm ...

The Mining Journal, Marquette, Michigan

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern part of Michigan we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

Obama did not come; FEMA did nothing; no one howled for the government; no one blamed the government; no one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit; our Mayors did not blame Obama or anyone else; our Governor did not blame Obama or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or even report on this category 5snow storm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards; no one asked for a FEMA Trailer House; no one looted; nobody - I mean nobody - demanded the government do something; nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, no Bill O'Rielly, no Oprah, no Chris Mathews and no Geraldo Rivera. No Shaun Penn, no Barbara Striesand, no Brad Pitt, no Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water. We sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for "sittin' at home" checks.

Even though a Category 5 blizzard of this scale is not usual, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

-----

EDIT: I would point out that most of Canada is even further north than this.

JDA

[Aircraft Aviation 2]

Life in Northern Michigan

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after a severe snow storm ...

The Mining Journal, Marquette, Michigan

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern part of Michigan we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

Obama did not come; FEMA did nothing; no one howled for the government; no one blamed the government; no one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit; our Mayors did not blame Obama or anyone else; our Governor did not blame Obama or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or even report on this category 5snow storm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards; no one asked for a FEMA Trailer House; no one looted; nobody - I mean nobody - demanded the government do something; nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, no Bill O'Rielly, no Oprah, no Chris Mathews and no Geraldo Rivera. No Shaun Penn, no Barbara Striesand, no Brad Pitt, no Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water. We sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for "sittin' at home" checks.

Even though a Category 5 blizzard of this scale is not usual, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

-----

EDIT: I would point out that most of Canada is even further north than this.

JDA

Heheh! And we Brits worry about a few inches of Snow (although it's probably because we're not prepared for this level of the stuff).

Hope your car wasn't one of the "Engulfed in snow" cars.

[allardjd 1,853]

I live in Florida now, but it took me about 55 years to wise up. I lived in Michigan but not that far north. I've seen my share of snow and don't need any more.

John

[mutley 4,498]

That is serious snow John, due to farcical local and central government we have all but run out of salt/grit for the roads now so they are starting to put less down on fewer roads.

Our town was in the news as the local supermarket has run out of the basic food stuffs because the delivery trucks could not get through and local dairies are pouring milk into slurry pits because the tankers cannot reach them. It's not as though you can ask the cows to cross their legs!

Maybe another week to 10 days of this?

[allardjd 1,853]

Yours is plenty serious, and as pointed out above, at least the regions where this is normal have the equipment to deal with it in some fashion.

We had just a light dusting of snow here in central Florida this morning. The ground is warm enough that it didn't stick there but there was a little on cars and lanai screens and that kind of thing. In over six years here, this is the first hint of snow we've seen. We've been below freezing for about six nights running - three in a row last year was the worst we'd seen since moving here. It's not supposed to reach 40 degrees today - and won't. It is supposed to begin to warm up about on Thursday or Friday here.

None of this is anything like what you are getting, of course and I wish everyone there well. Be careful.

John

[wisemanp 0]

Amazing pictures John! I have friends in Montreal who tell us how the massive snowploughs come down the roads after the storm, pushing all the snow onto their drives, which they then have to dig away, often a wall of snow!

Something interesting happened today; usually when the weather gets bad, most of the Scottish football matches get cancelled while most English ones survive. Today, there were more on in Scotland than England! I'm pretty sure it's because a) they're better prepared for this weather and B) the crowds are much smaller and travelling shorter distances...

Today we saw a chartered steam special on the line from Birmingham to Gloucester. Some amazing views as the sun appeared, the white steam matching the snow beautifully!

[allardjd 1,853]

Phil,

Hope you got some photos of the locomotive...

John

[wisemanp 0]

Slight failure actually. Whilst sledging, I broke my camera screen, so decided I would just set the camera up and take video. When I got home, I found there was no memory card... The camera would have told me, if the screen had worked!

Dad also took video with his proper video camera. However that seems to have not worked either! We do have a picture taken by mum, but it hasn't been uploaded yet.

[rob16584 42]

Amazing pictures John.

It makes me laugh how a few inches of snow fall and the London Underground get's closed :blush:

It's a complete joke how the local authorities have handled it this year, we were given ample warning that cold weather was on the way yet they did nothing about it. Not see a gritter at all around my town, and I can bet when the council tax bill comes through it will have gone up again.

A friend of mine who works at an airport in Canada said they were close to closing it the other day because it got to -50 celcius and the plan fuel will freeze/turn to sludge at about -60. And this was the only thing that would have caused the airport closure.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail, maybe our government should take notice!

[allardjd 1,853]

In their defense, it's not a good use of funds to be optimally prepared for a once-in-a-generation WX event. It's a dilemma how far to go down that road, and the more rare the event, the more the general public should be accepting of being inconvenienced by it. An airport in Canada that is not properly prepared for heavy snow would be negligent - one in southern England that doesn't have sheds full of snow removal equipment, fully maintained and ready to go, might reasonably be forgiven for that.

John

[simi_av8r 0]

In their defense, it's not a good use of funds to be optimally prepared for a once-in-a-generation WX event. It's a dilemma how far to go down that road, and the more rare the event, the more the general public should be accepting of being inconvenienced by it. An airport in Canada that is not properly prepared for heavy snow would be negligent - one in southern England that doesn't have sheds full of snow removal equipment, fully maintained and ready to go, might reasonably be forgiven for that.

John

good point John, however it's not just a once in a lifetime event. Yes, OK so this winter is definitely more harsh than those we've experienced in the last couple of decades (so my parents say anyway, i'm only 25 as it is!), but the same thing happens every year when the weather turns nasty. Only this time last year (late feb-march) did a similar harsh winter hit with unexpected snow levels. Both me and Mrs Av8r hadn't seen proper snow for 15 or so years, and yet here in Oxfordshire we had 5+ inches of snow in just a few days. The same seems to have happened again this year, except the government has been warned of heavy snows since December yet failed to do much about it at all.

[allardjd 1,853]

A recent photo sent by a friend. He's retired from the Burlington Northern railroad. He says, by way of explanation...

This is one of our Nebraska division locals that didn

[SlimNasty 0]

Hi Guys,

I thought I would add my little bit here, last Tuesday I left work normal time at 5.00pm had to nip in somewhere (which was a mistake) and it took me five and a half hours to get from Portsmouth to Southampton which normally takes me thirty minutes, that is TEN times longer. The first part of the journey took me three hours just to get to the top of the M27 where it goes to four lanes, it was absolute chaos.

The reason is to say the COUNCIL didn't do anything, I saw one gritter, not a snow plough a gritter out on Tuesday and that was around the corner of my house. There was nothing on the Motorway network or the major A roads in Hampshire. If you went as far as the A3 in Petersfield people stayed in their cars over night stranded and then had to be rescued the next day by the Army.

Around the M27 the POLICE commandeered a bulldozer to clear Junction 9, where they cleared the snow, moved about 50 cars up with the aid of some hired Land Rovers then re-bulldozed and started all over again. Emergency Rest centres were opened by Junction 9 and by Petersfield apparently.

Wednesday the councils finally moved into action and I saw Snow Ploughs out, albeit a day late. Our works closed by 10am the next day as the weather was starting to worsen again (First time in the 20 year history) and then again a 4pm on Thursday, most of the staff have only just started to return to work.

Now I am one of the furthest away from work, but I made it in everyday and there are a few, even one 4 minutes away with a four wheel drive Subaru that didn't make it. I think quite a few people can't be bothered and then whinge and stay at home.

The only thing I have to Whinge about with the council is they probably saved millions of pounds by not doing anything on the first day. Most of the roads are now useable, but this is more to the fact that cars have been using then which has cleared them that way, rather than snow ploughs being used. Especially around Fareham!

Rant Over...