The Beast from the East.

[sparky Paul]

We don't see any grit round here, that bit of melt and refreezing has turned bits of the road to glass. There'll be a few in ditches tonight, there usually is when it's like this.

[Jocko]

Horrendous here this morning. Heavy overnight showers have been scoured by the gale force wind into thin patches (which have frozen) and drifts. It is so bitterly cold the snow is that thin powdery way, and not compacting.
Got the missus to work and told her I'll come back for her in June! Car back in garage, as worst of snow is forecast for later on the day.

[Jocko]

The Beast from the East has broken the Queensferry Crossing weather web site! Showing 51 mph gusts but no temperature read out. Forth Road Bridge has had to be closed because so few vehicles were crossing it.

[madasafish]

-7.5C overnight low. Currently -5.5C.

My bees are all safely tucked in bed in insulated hives with a large amount of fondant to keep them happy..

[guest7267]

-19C overnight. Currently -18C and a beautiful sunny day here in Helsinki / Finland. Not more snow for more than a week now.

[richardfrost]

Our response in the UK to weather like this is pathetic. Cancelling trains because there MIGHT be snow! It is this sort of barmy decision that leaves commuters stranded, unable to plan or forced into their cars.

My main car is a Rav4 Hybrid with 4wd (due to electically driven rear wheels) and came as standard with all weather tyres. I am confident I can cope with up to a foot of fresh snow and any amount of compressed snow. Obviously huge drifts, icy conditions and the lunatic antics of certain other drivers are perils I could not want to deal with.

But we have known this bit of weather was coming for ages. So any council saying it was caught out is not telling the whole story.

As is usual, this is only a main news story because it is affecting the South East.

My wife was born in the great snow of 1963 in Catterick army camp. Her birthday is in late April. Halifax was gridlocked twice in the 1990s by late April snow. This is the middle of Winter. The weather people say tomorrow is the first day of Spring. What nonsense. This is the middle of Winter and heavy snows (at least up here) could be expected for 6 more weeks yet.

It's just weather. It is entirely predictable. It's not like there's no other news going on around the world.

[Jocko]

I remember, back in the 80's, we had heavy snow here in Fife, on June 4th. It only lay for a couple of hours but it was about 2" deep while it lasted.

[culzean]

Item on our local news - salt not really doing its job in some places as not enough cars out to spread it. This was followed by a "don't drive unless absolutely essential warning!"

Salt only really only works down to about minus 5 deg C (that's why polar seas freeze over) - I guess that is why Nordic countries don't use it and have winter tyres.

I can remember in bad winter 1982 / 3 it got down to -26 at Shobdon in Hereford and about -20 where we were,  had to use a hairdryer on the carburetor of Vauxhall to get it to start - lasted for weeks, we got so used to ice crystals floating around and settling on everything as hoar frost that we kind of missed it when it started to warm up.

[Jocko]

That's the Met Office just issued a Red warning for Central Scotland. A Red warning has never been issued since they introduced weather warnings. Picked my wife up from work and roads were far worse than this morning, despite the increased traffic. All the snow had been blown away from outside my garage, but there was a 6" drift inside the door!

[sparky Paul]

Bit rough here too now, being low down, we don't usually see that much. That easterly is gradually filling the carport with the white stuff!

[MartinJG]

The Scottish Transport minister has said that the Amber warning may be upgraded to Red, for parts of Scotland, saying, "That is a warning for snow that we have never seen since the modern system has come into place in Scotland.".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43200598

Jocko

'Def Con Red Alert', heh. Sounds serious. I am sure your Transport Secretary, Humza Yousaf, is an expert on Scottish weather conditions and has everything under control. Out of interest, which clan is that or is it a typo and should be McYousaf?

[guest5079]

Email from Canada. My Brother went to school with a chap in Sussex. They are still best of mates even though they are in their 50's and live thousands of mile apart. His mates name is Pete, who sent him the following.
Yesterday in a lane off the A272 an Audi 4 wheel drive with all the bells and whistles managed to find itself in a ditch. The Beast from the East had struck another blow. So Pete got his 1950's Nuffield tractor out and extracted said Audi. The driver ( bearing in mind the area in question is populated by those poor banker types with their parsimonious bonuses) then asked that Pete drive in front of him to make sure he got to the A272. Pete just said no I will follow you in case you scratch my tractor. The joke was not even understood.
We often discuss Insurance costs on the Forum. Would it not be good idea if Insurers before taking on such people as the Audi driver, that they insist that the people who buy these expensive toys have some idea of how to handle them.  You can buy a Ferrari and providing you can pay the premium no further driver training is required.

[culzean]

Email from Canada. My Brother went to school with a chap in Sussex. They are still best of mates even though they are in their 50's and live thousands of mile apart. His mates name is Pete, who sent him the following.
Yesterday in a lane off the A272 an Audi 4 wheel drive with all the bells and whistles managed to find itself in a ditch. The Beast from the East had struck another blow. So Pete got his 1950's Nuffield tractor out and extracted said Audi. The driver ( bearing in mind the area in question is populated by those poor banker types with their parsimonious bonuses) then asked that Pete drive in front of him to make sure he got to the A272. Pete just said no I will follow you in case you scratch my tractor. The joke was not even understood.
We often discuss Insurance costs on the Forum. Would it not be good idea if Insurers before taking on such people as the Audi driver, that they insist that the people who buy these expensive toys have some idea of how to handle them.  You can buy a Ferrari and providing you can pay the premium no further driver training is required.

People think a 4x4 will automatically be great in snow, but with summer tyres they are just as stuffed as everyone else - in fact worse off as when skidding and braking the extra weight of a 4x4  is a liability.  When we were out in Jazz in Pre-Christmas snow (about 300mm where we were,  but packed down in many places) we saw tractors and 'proper 4WD'  Defenders on the roads making good progress and a few high end 4x4 obviously with summer tyres on either off the road or with spinning wheels going nowhere,  should have seen their faces when a Jazz overtook them and carried on as if the roads were dry.

[Hobo]

Woke up this morning to lovely clear blue sky, few fine wisps of snow by mid morning, now looking out can hardly see the car looks more like a snow drift parked outside, it is dark grey sky and blizzard conditions can't remember the last time we had snow this heavy in Cornwall.

[Jocko]

I had to take my wife to her work this morning, despite the Red Warning and blizzard conditions. She works in the local hospital and they are desperate for staff. I managed reasonably well. Just kept it in 2nd for most of the journey and, despite my summer tyres, it just plodded along. As I returned home there was a bit more traffic, and a couple of cars were already stuck. By 8 am it will be gridlock. Personally, I think how you drive in snow is much more important than if you have summer or winter tyres on. The road I live on is a gentle incline, nothing really to speak of, but there was an Audi A3 with its engine revving and its wheels spinning as I came past.
I did have one problem though. As I tried to reverse back into the garage, the up and over metal door was caught in the gale force wind, and came down onto the back/roof of the car. I'll have to wait until it is daylight to check the damage, but at least the glass is intact. Think the problem was due to snow and ice on the bottom edge of the door, upsetting the balance.