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2-3 inches of snow in southern England has paralysed the country, as usual, Ha Ha!

There's an overturned lorry on the road between me and Oxford, which runs over the Chiltern hills and has some pretty steep slopes. More snow forecast during the day...

Sadly I will miss the office canteen breakfast, which features black pudding on Fridays.

Of course this is nothing compared to what Chicago has got at the moment, or most of northern Europe and Canada in any winter.

Stay safe though.

I'm in Peterborough area and it's not even as cold as yesterday morning here. Yesterday my car was frozen over, today no frost at all. Think the south has got all the cold for the moment.

Well cheesed off. We were supposed to get a ton of snow here in Shropshire according to the weather reports at the start of the week and usually, being as we are, perilously close to the Welsh border and hills, we generally get a good crop of snow each year - with the Beast from the East last year, we had snow up to knee depth, which, as a transplanted Southerner, was the most snow I had ever seen. But this time, absolutely nothing. Monday turned out to be rain and nothing at all on Thursday when it all got dumped South of us. So unfair.

Well, I happen to be at the top of a mountain in Wales, and all we`ve had is about half an inch last night, unlike last year when we had about 2 foot.
Southern England seems to have had the worst of it.

I've just been out to move my car from the pay car park to a nearby street where it is free. That was a bit of a mission in itself. Some of the town centre has been gritted, but most of the roads and pavements are still snow and slush.

There is as much as four or five inches on some of the cars. Considering what we are used to in Oxfordshire, this means we have been slammed.

There is more snow coming at lunchtime.

My son's ju jitsu session was cancelled last night due to the expected extreme weather. We had (and I'm being generous here) less than 2 inches of snow overnight.

Work, on the other hand, not only didn't let us go early but we also had a fire alarm go off and had to evacuate to the car park...

It looks like it's already thawing out here in Yorkshire.
Which is a shame because my girlfriend and her daughter are coming to stay for the weekend and I thought we might get a chance for some snowball fights.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
2-3 inches of snow in southern England has paralysed the country, as usual, Ha Ha!

There's an overturned lorry on the road between me and Oxford, which runs over the Chiltern hills and has some pretty steep slopes. More snow forecast during the day...

Sadly I will miss the office canteen breakfast, which features black pudding on Fridays.

Of course this is nothing compared to what Chicago has got at the moment, or most of northern Europe and Canada in any winter.

Here it's serious snowing as well but here serious snowing means more like 50cm Though it's paused for a while but seems more coming later.

But having been in UK can understand why 2-3 inches freeze it. Not much snow usually there. The year I was only one day all winter and that was light enough you could see asphalt. And yet everybody went haywire over it.

Stay safe.

tneva82 wrote:


But having been in UK can understand why 2-3 inches freeze it. Not much snow usually there. The year I was only one day all winter and that was light enough you could see asphalt. And yet everybody went haywire over it.

Stay safe.

We are horrendous at dealing with snow. Laughably bad. Annual problem that everyone relying on public transport goes bonkers about but then forgets as soon as it's over so there's never the political enthusiasm to do anything to deal with it.

The UK simply isn’t equipped to handle it. It’s so infrequent the budget for dealing with it is minimal.

At least here in northern Michigan where we have 2 feet of snow on the ground with temps at -20F we can still go on with the daily routine as it’s the norm here.

I'm in the SE and whilst the schools are all shut (I work in one so yay) it hasn't snowed since last night. The forecasts all say light snow later (and in fact as I type I can see it starting), I guess it's slowly moving this way from the West as it seems Oxon/Berks has been hit hard all morning, and that's not too far from here.

Well, here, the 'polar vortex' has wandered off, which apparently means the road crews have too. Fairly light snow this morning, and yet the roads are the worst they've been all week, even the major ones that typically get done first.

Unamused.

For the last two days it was -25F (-31C) with wind chills of about -50F (-45C) so I worked from home both days (I live about 2 hours from Chicago).

Didn't even try to start my car.

Today it's back to 0F, so I am at my desk :/

yesterday when I left for work it was -8 F here in Philly. It was a lot warmer this morning at 4 degrees

i hate winter :(

Well, this part of the south of England avoided the snow (much to the chagrin of my children, who had to go to school). Just been drizzly and miserable all day so far.

On the plus side, I'm off work today so have been cracking on with some painting!

nfe wrote:

tneva82 wrote:


But having been in UK can understand why 2-3 inches freeze it. Not much snow usually there. The year I was only one day all winter and that was light enough you could see asphalt. And yet everybody went haywire over it.

Stay safe.

We are horrendous at dealing with snow. Laughably bad. Annual problem that everyone relying on public transport goes bonkers about but then forgets as soon as it's over so there's never the political enthusiasm to do anything to deal with it.

Let me assure you I was positively terrified sitting in bus going down steep hill with standard summer tires in that snow in a road that was so damn narrow if car came ahead bus had to go to pedestrian part...That would be illegal down here!

Never been as relieved to get out of bus!

 Nostromodamus wrote:
The UK simply isn’t equipped to handle it. It’s so infrequent the budget for dealing with it is minimal.

At least here in northern Michigan where we have 2 feet of snow on the ground with temps at -20F we can still go on with the daily routine as it’s the norm here.

Budget, plus drivers get maybe a day or two's practice at driving on snow once every few years... The roads get fun!

Mind you, the last time it snowed I managed to get away with drifting my car on the motorway in front of a police land rover... Fun times, not sure I'll be able to pull that one off again.

We hit something like -28 for about 3 days - a lot of the state shut down Wed and Thurs. My wife got a 3 days weekend in the middle of the week.

Driving has sucked, the sun slightly melts stuff and then it refreezes into glare ice pretty much immediately. I've slid a bunch.

 Ouze wrote:
For the last two days it was -25F (-31C) with wind chills of about -50F (-45C) so I worked from home both days (I live about 2 hours from Chicago).

Didn't even try to start my car.

Today it's back to 0F, so I am at my desk :/

Boy, you can complain when you had a whole week of -20C and wind and were forced to go to work, work outside, or worse, were in bootcamp survival week.

I'm in W. Central London and haven't had any snow to be honest, we had a heavy snowfall last night but nothing's settled. Plenty of rain today and likely snow again tonight but again I doubt we'd get anything settling.

Build snowmen! Sculpt in snow! Grab the moment while it lasts.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
For the last two days it was -25F (-31C) with wind chills of about -50F (-45C) so I worked from home both days (I live about 2 hours from Chicago).

Didn't even try to start my car.

Today it's back to 0F, so I am at my desk :/

Boy, you can complain when you had a whole week of -20C and wind and were forced to go to work, work outside, or worse, were in bootcamp survival week.

-20C is pretty common here during winter. This is actually the first time I ever worked from home due to severe cold: -45C wind is not common here at all. The news kept mentioning 4 minutes outside would require medical attention. Super glad I have an indoor job. My dad was a roofer, and froze every winter and burned every summer.

Do Americans use winter tyres or snow chains?

They are compulsory in a lot of European countries.

They're not legally required anywhere that I know of here, but yeah, in some states you need them.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
For the last two days it was -25F (-31C) with wind chills of about -50F (-45C) so I worked from home both days (I live about 2 hours from Chicago).

Didn't even try to start my car.

Today it's back to 0F, so I am at my desk :/

Boy, you can complain when you had a whole week of -20C and wind and were forced to go to work, work outside, or worse, were in bootcamp survival week.

Are you gatekeeping being cold..

also as a southern californian

what is snow?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Do Americans use winter tyres or snow chains?

They are compulsory in a lot of European countries.

As Ouze mentioned, they may or may not be compulsory. At least for your typical car. Commercial vehicles are required to use them in certain areas when snowy conditions are present though. As I recall from the few times I have passed through Lake Tahoe the signs did mention that Snow Tires are not sufficient and chains were required for the trucks.

That said, even if the chains weren't legally required, they are definitely required to actually make it through those areas. You literally won't make it up certain roads without chains. The signs are more for the benefit of those not used to those conditions to tell them to put them on.

Snow tires are more for driving in light snow. but if you've got heavy snow/ice and/or steep hills then they aren't going to cut it. You'll need chains. Frankly its better to skip expensive Snow Tires and just use chains. Snow tires are a rip off.

 Desubot wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
For the last two days it was -25F (-31C) with wind chills of about -50F (-45C) so I worked from home both days (I live about 2 hours from Chicago).

Didn't even try to start my car.

Today it's back to 0F, so I am at my desk :/

Boy, you can complain when you had a whole week of -20C and wind and were forced to go to work, work outside, or worse, were in bootcamp survival week.

Are you gatekeeping being cold..

also as a southern californian

what is snow?

The stuff to keep armies out if you are russian, to make money with if you are swiss and austrian, and to make a huge deal about 2 cm when you are a brit.

And the stuff to suffer through winter RS, with survival week in the worst case scenario.
Jesus, i belive i had a lung infection afterwars, as did my whole company.
Still traumatized.

Not allowed to use chains on public roads here in Michigan. I think it has something to do with the increased wear on the asphalt.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Do Americans use winter tyres or snow chains?

They are compulsory in a lot of European countries.

In much of the US it's more common to see signs forbidding them (chains, at least) then requiring them. Towns don't want the extra road damage
Winter tires largely fell out of fashion in the 90s.

It differs a bit along a line from Washington State to Wisconsin and a few other places in the northern reaches, but it's the kind of thing that can vary from state to state or even town to town.