We had hail breifly yesterday, steady light rain here.
Anyone been watching the new series of Ice Road Truckers? Now -40, thats cold.
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2.15PM, It`s here just South of Leeds
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Even the mild West Coast isn't... well... mild anymore.
This is the third time this year that the hills have been white.
www.camvista.com/scotland/scenic/eileandonancastle...p
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2.24..Now it`s rain..
Early this morning though, I had a clear view over about 40 miles, West, to the Pennines. You could see white Cumulus clouds boiling up to the summit and protruding over.
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No snow in sunny Biddulph.
No sun in sunny Biddulph.
Lots of cold wet rain..
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im on the south coast and i cant remember the last time we got snow this far south.
i have miles of open countryside behind the house and a good blanket of white would look nice for a few days only.
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Quite a lot of snow here in Warwickshire. The Beestlets and I were out on our bikes this morning and got thoroughly piddled on, but only wet, not white. Came home, dried out, thought no more of it; but now the hedges and verges and most of the garden have changed from green to white. Left the car on the drive, so with luck this will remove the coating of road salt it picked up on the M40 last week.
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Its now snowing in Northampton, for last half hour and its laying. Crazy time is here.
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Meanwhile, in my second home, Belgrade, which is notorious for cold harsh winters, it's going to be sunny and 24 degrees centigrade tomorrow. Madness for late October. If only I could bunk off work and get a cheap flight out there for the rest of the week.
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Mind you I think we need more items on the national news demonstrating that the Southeast gets it (whatever it is) worse than anywhere else.
You might be in luck drbe. Messages are coming in from those leaving the office that the A14 and A11 around Cambridge (is that south or east enough for you?) are particularly bad tonight and I haven't actually seen any snow yet. Just the rumour of snow seems to be enough...
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Look like welliesinboot day is going to be earlier than normal even though many of the leaves are not only still on the trees though are still green!
There is one welliesinboot day every Winter, normally December or even as late as early January, likewise there is one welliesbackinshed day normally around early March.
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Its snowed here (Staffordshire/Cheshire border) pretty hard at lunch time and its now frozen. Just had to deice the car to come home. Frozen snow on a canvas hood was crunching as I drove aswell as making the interior freezing so its a good job MINI has a good heater.
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We've just had the thinnest veneer of sleet. Local news has just had the 'take warm clothes, food, drink and a shovel'
Now. I've never carried a shovel and the only time I've got food in the car is on the way home from Morrisons (can't afford Waitrose). How I've survived all these years is beyond me!!
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Just had an excited call from daughter - snow covering the cars in Camden - coming down thickly. So there is the snow in the south!
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Started snowing lightly here in Basingstoke around 9pm. It's coming down quite heavy now and settling. If our forecast is correct, the precip is here until around 4am.
Kevin...
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An inch or so on mine overnight in Windsor froze rock solid overnight and very early this morning it took some shifting; most of it is still on the car 125 miles later. M40 closed J4 to J6 both ways with snow and ice on high ground plus an accident. Yep winter is here.
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Half an inch of snow on the car this morning, which had then frozen solid. Roads treacherous and again the gritters seem to have been caught with their pants down despite this weather being first being forecast on Saturday! Volvo's traction control was blinking on a light throttle at 1500 RPM in 3rd gear on two motorway slip roads, for heaven's sake!
Saw 7 minor accidents on the commute this morning. One guy had parked a Corsa up a bank on the M25-M40 slip this morning. Had an unpleasant 4 wheel loss of grip there myself at 30 mph. Roads completely untreated. Three guys off motorbikes, one of whom looked seriously poorly (emergency services all in attendance).
All in weather forecast days in advance! I despair!
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Had a moment where the ABS kicked in this morning on a road where it normally wouldn't at a speed at which it normally wouldn't. I took that as a warning to calm it down for the winter. Doubley so considering it's a new car and I'm not familiar with how it handles on the slippy stuff.
Loss of traction on the work car park also nearly had me landing on my bum, no longer in the car at this point.
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They were gritting on the M25, J14 - J12 last night around 10pm.
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A good inch or so around Wokingham during the night. Roads and pavements had cleared themselves by dawn, but some icy patches on the back roads (leading to one scary nanosecond). As per Windsor above, it froze on the car, and I managed to crack my windscreen trying to free the wiper from it...
Edited by smokie on 29/10/2008 at 11:51
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The A339 between Alton and Basingstoke was absolute hell this morning. Traffic was completely backed up Northbound, and there were 4 separate accidents - looked like the typical thing of losing control on a bend. Two cars had gone straight on at two different bends and demolished walls.
The strange thing was that it looked like some parts of the road were gritted but not others. My work colleague had to give up on the other part of the A339 north of Basingstoke, as his bus got stranded.
Why do we struggle so much when we know the cold weather is coming?
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Why do we struggle so much when we know the cold weather is coming?
That's a very good question. We used to live in a hilly part of south Yorkshire and every year it would snow and every year there would be gridlock. It always seemed to be a surprise to the local council.
We now live in the Scottish Highlands and the snow ploughs are on standby long before there is any snow.
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Some of the replies here show that many people rely completely on the nanny state to do everything for them.
Whats wrong with a bit of self sufficiency, i don't expect such from city dwellers who have possibly never had to face even mildly icy conditions on the road, but surely most of us older ones can cope with a flurry of snow, there's enough information out there to enable people to equip themselves and their vehicles especially tyre wise for all possibilities.
Its not only the councils that need to plan ahead, how many have checked the strength of their anti freeze for example, or wondered why their windscreen washers don't work thismorning?
The winter does arrive every year without fail.
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Some of the replies here show that many people rely completely on the nanny state to do everything for them.
I was aware when I made my comment that it could be interpreted like this.
I drove 30 miles on icy, untreated roads this morning without incident and am quite capable of doing so. Of course people should drive to the conditions, but that's not the point.
What I object to is that we pay a small fortune in motoring taxes, and this important safety related service fails at least once, every year, almost without fail. This cold weather was first forecast on Saturday evening. When it finally arrives more than 72 hours later, there is no excuse for major motorway routes to be so icy that accelerating in third gear on a gentle throttle, from idle, on a flat surface is difficult.
In a country which constantly obsesses about safety, and puts untold resources into inane risk reduction projects, all the time while extorting a fortune from motorists in taxation, it makes me downright angry, quite frankly.
Edited by DP on 29/10/2008 at 13:16
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this important safety related service fails at least once every year almost without fail.
But thats my point, we spend vast amounts and for what, to have a display of pretty gritting lorries covered in safety reflective paint and flashing beacons, with probably more layers of management overseeing them than there are driver/operators, all parked up in central depots...great.
Yes there are failures every year, so the simple solution is don't rely on them, i do agree with you about the value we motorists don't see from our vast contributions.
Its not exactly as if all of our public services are super efficient anyway, if i expected them to be efficient i know well i'd be disappointed.
I'm thinking of the M11/A14 fiasco a few years ago, heavy snow falling and things getting dicey, why on earth didn't people get off the motorway and find some alternative routes, i did, took me many hours but i got home that January night.
I don't like being jammed in on a motorway or dual carriageway in conditions like that, once someone gets stuck across the road thats it, get off the major trunk roads and you can do a bit of ducking and diving, mind you how many now carry a decent map and rely instead on that spawn of the devil the sat nav.
And as for the winter being a bit early in the next post, this has been happening for several years now, summer suddenly giving way to a very brief autumn and then a particularly cold snap a few weeks before Christmas, this is only about 3 weeks early.
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The winter does arrive every year without fail.
Except it is Autumn, not yet Winter.
www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29/commons_climate_c.../
" London got its earliest snowfall in 80 years .... the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922 "
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Snowing just North of Madrid when I came through at midday today. I chickened out as the car thermometer dropped to 0 degC, and paid the toll to use the tunnel on the A6 rather than risk it going over the top
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