Interestingly, there is hardly any snow on the actual road on any of the shots on the video - course, that may be because the TV crew (and helicopter??) might not be able to get to the deep snowdrifts(?) that are actually blocking the road. Heard on the radio that there were 36 mile queues either side of Jamaica Inn.
Also read an interesting article in the Telegraph yesterday about how the authorities had stockpiled salt and were extra prepared for any snow we might get with gritting lorries "at the ready". Is that why there was no sight of any salt or gritters this morning on the A429 near Cirencester, but 3 cars in the ditch/fields? And that was in about half a centimetre of snow
Phil
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>>Is that why there was no sight of any salt or grittersthis morning on the A429 near Cirencester, but 3 cars in the ditch/fields? And that was in about half a centimetre of snow
Generally the first spell of bad weather catches a few out then, after that, we all practice what we should have known all along.
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Simple, they don't want to get caught out again like they did in 1987. They're probably sick to death of seeing the clip of Michael Fish saying 'There isn't a hurricane on the way...'.
Far easier to exaggerate everything, then they can't be accused of not predicting severe weather.
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Seems to have caught out several thousand in Cornwall, Devon, Wales and Scotland despite all the "preparations" by the Highways Authority and the forecast of snow in these areas 24 hours earlier.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005...l
Phil
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Certainly not OTT, spot on for this morning in Taunton,Somerset, Snow, Snow and more snow.
Having spent many a winter in Norhern Norway (6 in total) when the weatherman says it's going to be cold you know it's going to be cold, not -5 more like -25, at least when it's that cold it doesn't snow.
A few weeks ago the weatherman was talking about a cold blast down to -18 with associated snow over the xmas break. Sorry but from personal experiance it stops falling around -12.
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My brother was very grateful, made Sandbach back to Southend in just over 3 1/2 hours this afternoon, reckons it was one of his best times and put it all down to everyone staying at home due to the 'severe driving conditions'!
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"A few weeks ago the weatherman was talking about a cold blast down to -18 with associated snow over the xmas break. Sorry but from personal experiance it stops falling around -12"
'Too cold to snow' is a misconception. The reason it gets really cold is because there?s no cloud cover - hence no snow - not because it?s too cold.
"Too cold to have a fag" though is very real. When I was a smoker I used to nip out for a sly one in the evenings but when it reached -25 unless you can smoke a fag in 90 seconds, forget it.
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It was ridiculous down here. About two inches of snow fell during a two hour period this afternoon and melted within another couple of hours. The local radio station, Radio Pembrokeshire, stopped playing records and devoted the whole day to reports on the weather causing widespread panic. There were traffic jams all afternoon as people left work early, the local town (Haverfordwest) shut down completely, event the superstores like Halfords packed up at about two pm.
I had promised to get a wiperblade for SWMBO's Saxo on the way home and not a single car shop was open, even the main Citroen dealer had sent their parts staff home. When I left for home myself at about five the roads were deserted and there was hardly a trace of snow about. Lord knows what would have happened if we'd had any really bad weather.
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The temperature in Cornwall was around -2°C this morning.
A thick blanket of snow covered the road outside our house this morning. This evening some 100 cars were stuck on Bodmin Moor. Police organised road clearences and blankets for occupents of cars. People were complaining that the police didn't do enough. Well all the radio stations were warning people of the conditions all day, and advising them to stay at home, so IMO they took their chances and got stuck. From what I saw the Police and RAF did a cracking job in helping them.
Also Today, I was supposed to be going on someone's roof, but I decided this was not a good idea. After all it's a bit difficult to replace slates when they're covered in snow.
Having said that I was working on the client's guttering in the pooring rain yesterday. It's only when you're standing underneath the roof without guttering in the rain when you realise why guttering was invented. After I finished that part of the job getting completely soaked through in the process, the rain stopped.
The gang of workmen digging a trench for the new water main outside the house decided to pop off home at lunchtime after working in blizzard conditions for the morning.
OTT weather forecasts - erm no I don't think so ;)
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Ok, Hugo, the forecast was right for your area but why do the weather forecasts have to be such a shotgun approach? As an example, I had to go from Leics to Bath today. (My usual commute is 5 miles down the road) So, 6am today thought I would have a look at the forecast. BBC website said cold, windy, sunny intervals, maybe showers. Met office site said same but no showers. However, met office also had "severe weather warnings" for midlands and south west saying "heavy snow, blizzards, drifting snow, gales". Local news said drivers were advised to "stay at home". So, fleece, woolly hat, gloves, thermals, boots, shovel etc loaded and I set off, thinking, I'll turn back if it gets bad. Apart from a light dusting of snow in the Cotswolds (is that snow or frost??) I didn't see a snowflake there or back. Nice (chilly)sunny day(Didn't stop a couple of cars going through the hedge though)
How do we know what to believe? And couldn't anyone forecast that accurately? (Sunny or rain showers or snow)
Phil
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I work outside, typically having to drive 60 miles to get to the site, and the job is very much affected by the weather; hence I look at the BBC online and theyr.net forecasts to avoid a wasted journey. I just don't know why I persist in bothering though, as it is rarely accurate enough to give me any useful, specific local guidance.
Despite the technology, I don't think much has changed since the days when, if you said 'Today will be about the same as yesterday', you were right in as many cases as the weather forecast.
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Weather is very localised and can vary within comparatively short distances.
I'm lucky enough to live on the North West coastline and we rarely get any extremes of weather, yet from less than 10 miles away going inland it can often be dramatically different.
In fact we've have an expression that if there's six inches of snow here it's six foot deep anywhere else.
No weather forecast can cover such extremes of conditions accurately.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I have to say that I agree with Armitage Shanks on this one.
Here in sunny Leeds I have been mentally preparing myself since Tuesday for all of the problems that significant amounts of snow bring, such as the usual traffic gridlock etc, but more specifically the fact that I live on a hill, and my drive is on a slope off said hill, which in the past I have on one or two occasions barely been able to stop the car from sliding into the house. With more worry about my three boys who are relatively speaking novices at driving in such conditions.
And what do we get. A very cold day on Thursday , and quite a cold sunny day yesterday.
I keep meaning to not watch the weather forecasts and take each day of weather as it comes as the two usually don't match.
Reggie
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Possibly ever since the infamous 'a lady called today to say she'd heard that a hurricane was coming - well don't worry there's not!!!' incident forecasters seem to give a 'worse case scenario, to cover themselves perhaps. I love the summers ones -- large high pressure area, scortching temperatures clear blue skys but still a 'chance of a shower later' forecaster covered just in case!
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