***It's SNOWING - Tales From the Drift 2010***

[Laxie]

Seems to be posted all over the shop.  May as well have a thread dedicated to it on blonde. 

Love it or hate it, the snow has landed.  Here's a place for ranting over your day's disruptions or thrill in your day's delights thanks to the snow.

Will kick it off with an advert seen around the place.  If you think your morning started out tough....

[TightEnd]

It's winter, It's Snow. It was forecast


Why do we (as a nation, the authorities planning for it) get it so wrong every time?

I give you:


Further snow and freezing temperatures are causing major problems for road, rail and air services in much of the UK, and hundreds of schools are shut.

There are icy road warnings, and up to 15cm of snow could fall in some areas.

Some 400 lorries are stuck on the M25 in Surrey, Gatwick and Edinburgh airports are closed and some rail passengers were stranded overnight.

The Met Office has issued heavy snow warnings for much of the eastern side of Britain and some central areas.

Gatwick will not reopen until at least Thursday morning, while Edinburgh Airport is shut until at least 1800 GMT on Wednesday.

In England, heavy snow warnings are in place for Yorkshire and Humber, the East Midlands and north-east England.

In Scotland the warnings apply to Grampian, Central, Tayside and Fife, Strathclyde, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders.

Thousands of Scottish children will have a third consecutive day off as many councils keep schools closed.

Hundreds of skiers took to the slopes near Aviemore in the Cairngorms on Tuesday, and an avalanche warning has now been issued.

Supt Chris Moon of Surrey Police said the county's conditions were the worst he had ever seen and were likely to get worse. He said people should not travel unless they had to, adding: "I have put out several severe weather warnings in my career, but this one I really must stress."

Police have issued the same advice in Kent and in South Yorkshire. In Kent some roads in the west and north of the county are impassable due to snow and ice.

Hospitals in South Yorkshire are asking patients not to attend unless it is urgent, and they have asked off-duty medical staff to make their way into work if possible.

Thousands of rail commuters face severe disruption to their journeys in London and the south-east, including delays and cancellations to Southeastern services operating out of London Victoria and Charing Cross.

BBC weatherman Liam Dutton said up to 10cm of snow could fall in East Anglia and south-east England, with up to 15cm possible in north-east England and south-east Scotland.

"Temperatures will be barely above freezing across the UK and when you add in the effect of the wind chill, it will feel much, much, colder than that," he said.

Overnight, temperatures hit a low of -20 in Altnaharra in the Highlands.

However, south-west England, Wales, western Scotland and Northern Ireland should enjoy sunny spells.
Airports closed

On Tuesday across the UK, many commuters worked from home, thousands of children could not go to school and motorists faced travel chaos as a number of roads were impassable. The disruption on Wednesday includes:

    * Severe disruption for air passengers at Gatwick Airport where its runways are closed until 0600 GMT on Thursday. Edinburgh Airport is also closed until at least 1800 GMT. Guernsey Airport and Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster are also shut, while other airports are disrupted. Passengers are advised to check with their airline.
    * Schools in many parts of Scotland are closed for a third day
    * Up to 300 schools are closed in South Yorkshire, about 330 in Essex, 100 in Surrey, 195 across Tyneside, Wearside, County Durham and Northumberland, and 280 schools and colleges in East Yorkshire, Hull and northern Lincolnshire
    * The M3 southbound will be closed between J2 and J3 at Bagshot in Surrey until about 1000 GMT, following a police incident
    * The M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh is down to one lane in each direction and the Forth Road Bridge has been closed in both directions
    * The M25 in Essex is blocked with heavy traffic anti-clockwise between J30 - A13 (Lakeside) - and J29 - A127 (Romford) - because of a jack-knifed lorry
    * The Dartford River Crossing is closed with traffic being diverted through one of the Dartford tunnels
    * Massive delays on the A2 at Cobham after a lorry jack-knifed under the M25 flyover
    * Surrey Police advise motorists to avoid the clockwise section of the M25 between junction six and eight and the anti-clockwise section between junctions nine and seven because of congestion which built up overnight
    * In North Yorkshire, the A169 is shut in the Whitby area because of drifting snow.
    * In Cumbria, the A592 Kirkstone Pass is closed between the Troutbeck junction and the Hartsop junction, because of snow. One lane remains closed on the A66 between A6108 and A685 junctions. The A686 Hartside Pass Langwathby is also closed
    * There are delays and cancellations to Southeastern services, which operate out of London Victoria and Charing Cross. No Southeastern trains are running between Victoria and Dartford, Charing Cross and Hastings and between Strood and Paddock Wood.
    * Passengers trying to travel from Newark to Lincoln faced a night sleeping on the station after all connecting road and rail services cancelled.
    * Rail firm Southeastern said at least three of its trains travelling from London to Kent were stuck for around five hours overnight, stranding about 60 passengers, who have now been taken off the trains. Train services are still severely affected.

On Tuesday evening Max Cross, from Portsmouth, said he took seven hours - five of them on the M25 - to complete a journey which usually takes 90 minutes to Gatwick Airport.

Drivers were also stuck on the A2 near the M25 in Kent. Truck driver Nigel Waller, who was on his way to Bradford, told the BBC at 0100 GMT that traffic was slowly starting to move.

"I'm doing 15 miles an hour which is the fastest I have driven in hours. I have been stuck since 1730," he said.

"I haven't seen any gritters and it's getting slippery because it's freezing and there's slush. I saw a truck trying to overtake a broken down car - he went straight through the central reservation."

Motoring organisation the AA said it had received an average of 1,350 calls an hour on Tuesday. The RAC said call-outs to breakdowns peaked at 2,000 an hour.

Halfords said an additional 16,600 sledges were being shipped in to meet increased demands. 

[TightEnd]

Hundreds of skiers took to the slopes near Aviemore in the Cairngorms on Tuesday, and an avalanche warning has now been issued.

Serves them right for not staggering their goes on the slopes imo. Or perhaps they are all heavy skiers

[TightEnd]

Halfords said an additional 16,600 sledges were being shipped in to meet increased demands. 


16,599 of the sledges were fine but one kept banging on about Breaking Bad, climate change, tennis and Linux and was sent back to the factory to be melted down, as defective

[Laxie]

Slow morning Tighty?  

[TightEnd]

Slow morning Tighty?  

Noboldy is in to answer my emails.

[Longy]

We are so unprepared because it costs money to be prepared and in general it is a false economy when a lot of years there is snow on the ground for 2 or 3 days.

[byronkincaid]

discussion on some other forums about winter tyres. apparently grip and traction a lot better than normal tyres at 7°C or less and the insurance companies are insisting on people fitting them in some other countries. could well be brought in over here in the next few years. would mean having to find space to store 4 tyres (summer ones in winter, winter ones in summer) or paying someone to store them for you, as well as costs involved in swapping them over. much hassle for 3 and 4 car families i imagine.

[TightEnd]

Winter tyres same cost as standard tyres, or you pay a premium?

[gatso]

Winter tyres same cost as standard tyres, or you pay a premium?

this is the uk so almost certainly will be ripped off by a premium

in normal countries though they cost about the same and storage is done for a nominal fee

difference in grip is so huge I've never understood why people don't use them over here. always used to have them on for 4 or 5 months of the year when I lived in snowy countries as did everyone else meaning we'd all just drive around normally rather than the whole country stopping everytime a cm of snow fell

[byronkincaid]

not a huge price difference from what i can see

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&cart_id=48080272.110.23098&m_s=3&tyre_for=PKWWi&s_p=Winter_Tyres

apparently you can use them year round in the UK but braking in hot weather is slightly affected and they will wear out quicker in the summer.

some people are saying the difference is similar to 2WD v 4WD in the snow

[Josedinho]

Stopping differences don't seem anything special.

Never had them in Holland, I know it's not that cold but they do have some daft ice skate marathon over canals when it's so cold the ice is thick enough (Boldie might no know more) but it is the law in Germany?

I find snow annoying. I find people who say "How come when we have a little bit of snow the country grinds to a holt?" life tilting.

[trafficjam]

Slow morning Tighty?  

Bloody Ell I was worn out reading Tighty's weather forecast I am so tired I think I will go back to bed!

[byronkincaid]

it's not the stopping it's the going

quote from a 911 driver

On Wednesday I overtook an X5 that was spinning all 4 wheels on packed snow trying to go uphill on a backstreet in London and failing.  For the look of astonishment on the drivers face  alone as I went calmly by they were worth the money.  The peace of mind they provide in bad conditions is fantastic but I accept they won't stop some other idiot going into the back of me.

[gatso]

Stopping differences don't seem anything special.

it's not all about the stopping. it's general control. you can drive a car normally in snowy conditions without worrying about it just kicking out and spinning

admittedly you don't really need to worry about that in the uk anyway but only because you spend all your time on snow days sat in a queue of traffic because no-one can get anywhere on their summer tyres

they also allow you to drive on hills safely