Snow with you?

[Joseph_Pestell]

Back on topic, more snow falling here now. Chaos on local roads yesterday evening with some 400 cars stuck on the A303.

 

But been out this morning and the gritted roads were good to drive on. Even side roads perfectly passable in 2-wheel drive (rear) although much safer in 4wd.

[Colin_McLeod]

The train is stuck in a snow drift.

 

[bike2steam]

I couldn't resist double posting this pic from Purbeck Police taken at the waterfall at Kimmeridge Bay.

 

[John M Upton]

Still little more than a dusting here (go fifteen miles east or west and its a different matter!) but even still the local Royal Mail Sorting Office (Bognor) refused to come out to play this morning so no postal deliveries or collections likely until at least Monday despite all the roads being consistently clear and navigable.

[Oldddudders]

Still little more than a dusting here (go fifteen miles east or west and its a different matter!) but even still the local Royal Mail Sorting Office (Bognor) refused to come out to play this morning so no postal deliveries or collections likely until at least Monday despite all the roads being consistently clear and navigable.

 

If it's any consolation, yesterday when we had not much more than an inch of snow overnight, there was no postal service. And by the time they get here - seldom before midday - it had all gone anyway! Today there were two ladies in the electric van - and we had the usual banter. The other notable absentees yesterday were the contractors working on underground cabling of aerial power lines, who last week reduced part of my lawn to a fair representation of the Somme. With hire costs of plant being what they are, a day off was hardly good value, one imagines. Back today, though. 

[PaulRhB]

No, really, beetroot cake is nice. So, even more strangely, is Spinach Sponge Cake, a Portuguese delicacy.

But it's WRONG! Vegetables don't belong in cakes

[Dunsignalling]

Falling much heavier here now. Average depth approaching six inches but drifted to over double that against steps one side of my place.

 

Looks and feels like Boxing Day 1962 out there.......The snow is very fine, soft and sticky - fills up tyre (and wellie) treads instantly.

 

White Korean SUV abandoned just in front of the house - first car to attempt the knap in 2 hours. Driver only 1/4 mile from home reckons he'll be back to fetch it tomorrow.

 

The way things are progressing, I reckon he might struggle to FIND it tomorrow.

 

John

The Hyundai SUV has gone, thankfully. It was a bit too close to my own car for comfort. 

 

Took the owner the best part of an hour to clear the glass of the ice left by this morning's freezing rain. As he hadn't even brought a shovel, I anticipated some free entertainment might be on offer, and so it proved.

 

After nearly another hour spent kicking snow and spinning wheels (front only so presumably 2wd), he finally twigged that, if one can't get out uphill going forward, it might be worth a try getting out downhill going backward. Away at the first attempt.......    

 

John

 

Thought for the Day:  "Make gravity your friend". 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[tomparryharry]

The snow has been falling to varying levels all day here. The M4 has still maintained a very respectable 40-odd mph during the day. Once it gets dark, though...

 

Ian.

[MinZaPint]

Had a little thaw this afternoon, then it got cold again, made our shed look quite nice!

 

 

I. Cycle

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

But it's WRONG! Vegetables don't belong in cakes

 Pertaytoe Cake?

[Nearholmer]

Did other ‘snow gricers’ Notice that the type of snow falling this afternoon was different?

 

We’ve had five days of on and off snow of a very fine kind, very driven by the wind, but the wind direction changed around lunchtime and we’ve had a fair deposit of ‘traditional’ snow, bigger flakes, falling generally downwards instead of from east to west at about 40mph.

[Zomboid]

I don't trust anyone who doesn't like carrot cake. There is no better cake.

[4630]

I don't trust anyone who doesn't like carrot cake. There is no better cake.

I’ve always thought that carrot cake would get a far better reception if its alternative well known name was used more widely - passion cake.

[jonny777]

Did other ‘snow gricers’ Notice that the type of snow falling this afternoon was different?

 

We’ve had five days of on and off snow of a very fine kind, very driven by the wind, but the wind direction changed around lunchtime and we’ve had a fair deposit of ‘traditional’ snow, bigger flakes, falling generally downwards instead of from east to west at about 40mph.

 

 

Yes. That was the whole point of the "wrong kind of snow" excuse many decades ago. 

 

When the air is very cold and dry, the snow is either granular or in very small individual flakes. 

 

Most UK snow falls with temperatures within a degree of zero and a high humidity, which means the flakes are much more sticky and as they move around in the clouds and on their way to the ground, they stick together to form bigger and bigger flakes. The more turbulent the clouds, the larger the flakes will get. 

 

This sticky snow is good for building snowmen, but the very dry powdery kind is useless as it does not stick together, but does blow into the smallest of gaps and pile up in machinery left outside in the wind, often rendering said machinery unserviceable. 

Edited March 2, 2018 by jonny777

[eastwestdivide]

I don't trust anyone who doesn't like carrot cake. There is no better cake.

True and false respectively, I'd say.

However, we're out of cake here, so I may have to venture out for the first time since Tuesday. That or persuade someone to make her excellent fruit cake.

Hoping for a bit of snow left on the ground Saturday lunchtime, as there are two steam specials due through, and the website put up a notice today to say they're still running.

[Horsetan]

[Not Jeremy]

[Horsetan]

Meanwhile, a letter in The Irish Times:

 

Sir,

 

The inability of the Irish people to plan for bad weather has been demonstrated once again by the fact that every supermarket was sold out of bread over the last two days, and not a single supermarket was sold out of toilet paper. So if we do all get snowed in for several days at the end of this week, people will presumably be wiping their backsides with all the stale sliced pans they have lying around the house.

 

Yours, etc,

 

KATHARINA GREINER,

 

Gorey,

 

Co Wexford

[chaz]

Did other ‘snow gricers’ Notice that the type of snow falling this afternoon was different?

 

We’ve had five days of on and off snow of a very fine kind, very driven by the wind, but the wind direction changed around lunchtime and we’ve had a fair deposit of ‘traditional’ snow, bigger flakes, falling generally downwards instead of from east to west at about 40mph.

 

 

Yup. Exactly that pattern of weather here in snowy Eastleigh. Seemed warmer today although that might only be that the wind had dropped somewhat.

 

Spring? Not yet!

 

Chaz

[Coryton]

Spring? Not yet!

 

 

Well it's only spring now if you're a meteorologist...

[Steadfast]

Eerily quiet, nothing on the mainline just the sound of 66s idling in the yard


Jo

Edited March 2, 2018 by Steadfast

[Southernman46]

I have to say that even though I am one of SWR's harshest critic's - I have found the way that Wessex has collectively just come out with it's hands raised in surrender especially today particularly galling .....................and I can say this from a position of strength as an experience rail operator for over 30 years ............ trying to get home this morning after a night shift on a railway that does work when the snow falls was a lesson in sheer frustration - a 3 hour wait for the first train down the WOE line and even then it lost a further 3/4 hour en route in a 1&1/4 hour timetabled journey is simply shite in anyone's book .................... and no I wasn't being irresponsible by travelling - I didn't have a choice - I mistakenly assumed that they could cope with running the limited service already implemented

 

I don't want to start some great discussion on the why's and wherefore's but where the f*** has our ability to run a railway on anything but a precipitation free day with nothing but a light soft breeze gone ................ there were a few inches of snow .................. we've made it work better in feet of snow before.

 

Points don't work, shoegear fails, there are no loco's (let alone suitable loco's) to rescue things, none of the stock works with other stock, there's nobody on the ground making it work ..................... (RhB's valiant effort's at S'Bury excepted) ........................ come on SWR & NR ............................. FFS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited March 2, 2018 by Southernman46

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I live near Wimborne in Dorset and it started snowing yesterday (Thursday) around 5.30am. As the school I work in was closed I popped down to Poole and this was the scene around 1pm:

 

 

Got back home just before it started to snow really heavily. Eventually we had about 4 inches.

 

Today, as our school is still closed, I walked down to the River Stour about 10 minutes away from my home:

 

 

Still 4 inches of snow on the ground - seems to be in two layers; a hard crispy top with much softer snow beneath.

 

 

 

 

 

[uax6]

The snow is falling in West Norfolk, and my drive in to the box was interesting as the A10 was completely covered at 2120Hrs. Been massive delays around here as the wires were down, and then a set of unheated points failed....

All up and working again, but I am left wondering how long my drive home is going to take, but at least its in a low horsepower, rear wheel drive, skinny wheeled moggy van, which hopefully will rise to the occasion and get me home.

 

This is the most snow we have had here, and its not stopping, the depth isn't vast, about an inch and a half, but its the sticky wet stuff, and man is it falling....

 

Andy G

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I don't trust anyone who doesn't like carrot cake. There is no better cake.

That's fighting talk. You and me at dawn with cake of choice, and you'll be bruised and bleeding in ten seconds when you face the Dundee...

I’ve always thought that carrot cake would get a far better reception if its alternative well known name was used more widely - passion cake.

That's why this country has an advertising standards authority, to prevent such unscrupulous deceptions. I was once told that carrot cake was devised to imitate an Indian cake made using mango, no idea if it is true, but I can credit it in flavour terms.