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So guys as many of us here know in the U.K. we’ve been hit quite badly with snow the last couple of days, here in the southwest we had a red warning and it came down pretty fast and deep.

Haven’t seen snow like this for a while and despite warnings it seems like local councils couldn’t be arsed to get the gritters out. But what amazed me was seeing all the local people getting together clearing roads by hand, pushing stuck vehicles out of trouble, we’ve had people checking up on all the older folks to make sure they’ve been ok,

There’s been an owner of a Land Rover that spent the best part of the day and whole night getting staff to the local hospital as staff couldn’t get anywhere near the place so a big thumbs up to that guy. We’ve had the sledges out as the schools were shut so I’ve dragged the snow board out and been going down the hills with the lad and his school friends.

So it’s nice to see that despite being in a world where we are told there’s no community spirit anymore there was in fact bucket loads of it. So once again a big thumbs up to the 4x4 drivers across the country that have been doing the same with their vehicles.

A bit of a long winded post but I felt it need mentioning,

This is what happens when Chuck Norris fever breaks

 xKillGorex wrote:

Haven’t seen snow like this for a while and despite warnings it seems like local councils couldn’t be arsed to get the gritters out.

I keep seeing people saying this, and as an ex local council employee I feel the need to correct this.Councils have been out night and day gritting and plowing. Unfortunately grit does not work well with this kind of cold fine snow. Grit needs water to work, and this snow just says cold. Once it starts to thaw the grit will start working. That is why alpine and Nordic countries don’t grit or plow down to tarmac on many roads, but plow the snow flat and people use studded tyres or chains.

 Steve steveson wrote:

 xKillGorex wrote:

Haven’t seen snow like this for a while and despite warnings it seems like local councils couldn’t be arsed to get the gritters out.

I keep seeing people saying this, and as an ex local council employee I feel the need to correct this.Councils have been out night and day gritting and plowing. Unfortunately grit does not work well with this kind of cold fine snow. Grit needs water to work, and this snow just says cold. Once it starts to thaw the grit will start working. That is why alpine and Nordic countries don’t grit or plow down to tarmac on many roads, but plow the snow flat and people use studded tyres or chains.

We have three main routes through the town I live in and not one had any form of grit or plowing, of course I can only speak for this area.

I'd hazard a guess you don't have nearly the number of plows and grit-spraying vehicles to deal with real snowfalls. About a decade ago Toronto got hit with a big snowstorm after ten years of fairly light winters, and they were ill equipped to deal with it because they had reduced their fleet of vehicles over that time. I can only imagine a country that doesn't get regular, serious snowfalls has only a small fleet of vehicles for dealing with it.

So you'll be running your trucks 24/7 and still not be able to keep up with it. And if it's cold enough, grit is useless - heck, if it's cold enough, salt is useless.

It sucks, but your local government can't keep equipment and staff for 'worst case scenario' weather.

Only the main dual carriageway was gritted near me, there’s nothing on most roads or pavements. Roads have mostly cleared by the volume of traffic.

That said the reaction has been hysterical. Londoners just can’t cope at all with snow. There’s literally an inch of snow and people are saying they can’t leave the house. The Evening Standard had the headline ‘get home by 6’ before anything was even starting to stick.

 John Prins wrote:
I'd hazard a guess you don't have nearly the number of plows and grit-spraying vehicles to deal with real snowfalls. About a decade ago Toronto got hit with a big snowstorm after ten years of fairly light winters, and they were ill equipped to deal with it because they had reduced their fleet of vehicles over that time. I can only imagine a country that doesn't get regular, serious snowfalls has only a small fleet of vehicles for dealing with it.

So you'll be running your trucks 24/7 and still not be able to keep up with it. And if it's cold enough, grit is useless - heck, if it's cold enough, salt is useless.

It sucks, but your local government can't keep equipment and staff for 'worst case scenario' weather.

No I’m sure there aren’t many vehicles but to be fair it’s pretty rural and have seen a few farm vehicles taking that job on the last couple of days. Going back to the main point of the post it’s nice to see people pulling together.

 John Prins wrote:
I'd hazard a guess you don't have nearly the number of plows and grit-spraying vehicles to deal with real snowfalls. About a decade ago Toronto got hit with a big snowstorm after ten years of fairly light winters, and they were ill equipped to deal with it because they had reduced their fleet of vehicles over that time. I can only imagine a country that doesn't get regular, serious snowfalls has only a small fleet of vehicles for dealing with it.

So you'll be running your trucks 24/7 and still not be able to keep up with it. And if it's cold enough, grit is useless - heck, if it's cold enough, salt is useless.

It sucks, but your local government can't keep equipment and staff for 'worst case scenario' weather.

Its budget issue. If you don't need something then get rid of it. I.e. like in House of Cards where they get rid of the Disaster Relief Fund and just hope that a Hurricane doesn't hit. In which if if a disaster happens then the government's crapped on for not being prepared. In every event where it doesn't happen they get crapped on for wasting money by the opposition, and other under funded areas suffer.

Charlie Brooker (the Black Mirror guy for those outside of the UK) did a short run series called "Blackout". It was a representation of what would happen if the National Power Grid went under here. The short answer is that there's no official plan for dealing with situations like that, its all reactionary. In that show the whole country was on the verge of anarchy before the first week was up.

I wish we had snow here. I love snow.

Oxford was super gritted. There was more grit on the footpaths in Hinksey Park than the whole 20 miles of the A4074 and A4130 back to Henley.

In Henley itself there was no grit on any of the roads or pavements except outside one of the churches and Waitrose.

I wrote to the local paper to suggest the council buy half a dozen push-along spreaders, and a couple of tow units for the parks people. We could find volunteers to grit the pavements if the equipment as available.

I’ve enjoyed a more or less complete week off work, albeit utterly unexpected.

Boss wouldn’t let me come in, on account of long commute. On the bright side, it has increased my chances of maxing out my overtime by the end of March, as a bunch of cases will tick over into next week, giving me loads to do. Which is nice.

Ya’ll use grit and not salt?

 kronk wrote:
Ya’ll use grit and not salt?

Yes, because of the type and rarity of the snow.

Here in Michigan sometimes even the salt won’t work due to temperature.

It's a mixture of grit and salt. In some cases we use grits.

Or gruts, in Scotland.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
It's a mixture of grit and salt. In some cases we use grits.

Or gruts, in Scotland.

Pretty much the only reasonable use for grits.

How this story was reported on Fox news in America.

"Tonight on Hannity: A wave of socialism sweeps England! Anti capitalist hordes take to the streets rather than see private corporations clear roads more efficiently than government could! How long until Queen Elizabeth becomes Comrade Elizabeth? Capitalism, the bedrock of all true civilization and the basis of the human soul itself now teeters on the brink of a Communist apocalypse! "

My letter got published!

 Kilkrazy wrote:
My letter got published!

You must not have sent it to my local paper then...

(that's a slam on my local paper which has a severe bias in letter publishing)