Snow in England Pictures

   / Snow in England Pictures #2  
Lots of great pics and yes, lots of snow. Perhaps some of the car accidents are because you drive on the wrong side of the road over there? :confused2: :confused3: :):)
 
   / Snow in England Pictures #3  
For me, part of the irony is the UK is a "Northern" country.

London England 51deg 30 Min. N

Toronto Canada 43deg 42 Min. N

If those Wikipedia coordinates are correct, and I remember high school geography still, that puts London north of Toronto.

Friends of mine were in the UK 1 or 2 winter's back, for their son's graduation. Same deal, they got one of the last flights out of Heathrow, before it closed down completely.

Major storms will slow down anyplace. Limited snow removal equipment, and no snow tires ?

Snow Day/Week ! :thumbsup:

Looks like folks (adults included) were having some fun with the snow.

Rgds, D.
 
   / Snow in England Pictures #5  
For me, part of the irony is the UK is a "Northern" country.

London England 51deg 30 Min. N

Toronto Canada 43deg 42 Min. N

If those Wikipedia coordinates are correct, and I remember high school geography still, that puts London north of Toronto.

Friends of mine were in the UK 1 or 2 winter's back, for their son's graduation. Same deal, they got one of the last flights out of Heathrow, before it closed down completely.

Major storms will slow down anyplace. Limited snow removal equipment, and no snow tires ?

Snow Day/Week ! :thumbsup:

Looks like folks (adults included) were having some fun with the snow.

Rgds, D.

You are spot on Dave :thumbsup:

When I was younger the UK, we seemed to get really good snowfall every year - friends of mine even remember food parcels being dropped by helicopter to them in the Forest of Dean the year before we moved there. But then for about 20 years we didn't get very much snow at all - maybe the odd day here and there where it caused a problem, but not much. It seems to have come back to normal the last few years though and I strongly believe that the trouble / problems are because many British people have forgotten how to cope with snow!

One of my closest friends still lives in the Forest of Dean, and works nights on the local authority gritter lorries and snow ploughs. Despite his home being very remote, he still manages to drive out in the deep snow & ice to the yard to collect his plough and clear the roads for everyone else, while most people in the area get stuck on the first incline even after he's gritted it!

Many of you guys in the US & Canada get far worse snow than the UK - but as a result you have the experience to deal with it...

Oh - and the reason Canada gets more snow than the UK, despite being further North is because of the effect of the Gulf Stream on the UK (although if we believe the "experts" that might be changing)! :thumbsup:

Here is a BBC vid of the snow in the Forest yesterday - not the most I've seen by a long way, but pretty good for recent years :D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-21093664
 
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   / Snow in England Pictures #6  
You are spot on Dave :thumbsup:

When I was younger the UK, we seemed to get really good snowfall every year - friends of mine even remember food parcels being dropped by helicopter to them in the Forest of Dean the year before we moved there. But then for about 20 years we didn't get very much snow at all - maybe the odd day here and there where it caused a problem, but not much. It seems to have come back to normal the last few years though and I strongly believe that the trouble / problems are because many British people have forgotten how to cope with snow!

One of my closest friends still lives in the Forest of Dean, and works nights on the local authority gritter lorries and snow ploughs. Despite his home being very remote, he still manages to drive out in the deep snow & ice to the yard to collect his plough and clear the roads for everyone else, while most people in the area get stuck on the first incline even after he's gritted it!

Many of you guys in the US & Canada get far worse snow than the UK - but as a result you have the experience to deal with it...

Oh - and the reason Canada gets more snow than the UK, despite being further North is because of the effect of the Gulf Stream on the UK (although if we believe the "experts" that might be changing)! :thumbsup:

Here is a BBC vid of the snow in the Forest yesterday - not the most I've seen by a long way, but pretty good for recent years :D
BBC News - Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire hit by heavy snow

Yes, dealing with Winter can be a PITA, even if you have experience.

Recently the temperature has swung about 20 Deg C, in a pretty short period of time. Later this week we'll see -21C. Not long ago it was +14C.

Like many parts of the world, our weather has become much less predictable. Winter used to arrive, get cold, and stay cold. So, between Fall and Spring, you'd have maybe 2, sometimes just 1 Freeze/Thaw cycle. Now, we can get 4 Freeze/Thaw cycles in the same month.

Rough on roads, and lots of other things.....

While I haven't researched current (pun intended) data, there does appear to be major changes going on with ocean currents and temperatures. Non-trivial stuff, indeed.

I like your term "gritter".

Our province, Ontario, has several large light vehicle manufacturing plants.

The local authorities here like to use lots of salt on the roads. Some genius decided to switch from rock salt (pebble like), to a liquid brine solution a few years back. While rock salt did plenty of damage to vehicles, the brine is a nightmare.

In our Western prairie provinces, they often use mostly sand on the roads. You might have to re-paint a 10 year old car from sand blasting, but that is easier/cheaper than replacing or rebuilding body panels.

Our Western provinces have no light vehicle manufacturing plants - funny how that works, No ? :rolleyes:

Getting a vehicle through a winter storm mostly comes down to Driver Experience, Driver Attentiveness, and Vehicle Condition. Roughly, in that order of priority.

I do feel sorry for people that have little or no experience with Winter conditions, then are stuck having to make a long drive in freak conditions.

I used to get down to the American South-West on business. I woke up in Houston one morning - to hear the News stations talk, it sounded like the world was ending. My confusion cleared up when I realized what they were talking about was, to me, just a few frozen water puddles here and there.

But, in context, it was road conditions that most local people didn't have experience with. Texans, showing the common sense I've always found down there, stayed off the roads that day.

Wish we had that (Un)common sense more prevalent here.

I see that same common sense being applied in the BBC vid you linked. Smart.

In another recent thread, I was trying to convey the point about NOT having too much (blind) faith in technology, esp. when it comes to vehicles. That Range Rover that accidentally pushed the other car over the wall is a good example. Give me a basic 2wd vehicle with really good snow tires, and I'll pick that every time over an AWD with all-season tires.

With long distance vehicle commuting being much more common here (Canada/USA) than in many parts of Western Europe, I have difficulty understanding why more people don't get a second set of snow tires here. Given the mileage driven, you can readily use the extra tires, over the life of the car.

In olden times here, if you pranged up a car here in the winter, you could have perhaps gotten it fixed for $500. Now, scratch a bumper, and you are looking at $2,000+ for the repair, and likely skyrocketing insurance. A second set of tires looks pretty cheap in comparison - they only have to save you from one accident and they are more than paid for.

That looked like wet heavy snow in the 'Dean. Not fun to drive on. With decent snow tires, I prefer anything from 2 to 8" of dry powder snow - as you actually have lots of traction, at least in rural driving.

I find the worst conditions here are when there is under an inch of snow, esp. in major urban areas. For cost reasons, the cities won't roll the trucks for that little snow. Then, what happens is the heavy traffic packs and polishes the small amount of snow into glare ice. Only THEN the city will put the salt trucks out, but by that time the traffic is so stalled and snarled that the service trucks can't get anywhere quickly.

So, even if you do have the heavy equipment in place, just a tiny bit of snow can be a headache. Tools can't be effective, if they are sitting idle.

I looked up the Nissan you have in your Signature. Haven't seen those over here, yet. Nissan is stepping up their commercial oriented offering here. One of my neighbours is looking at one of these for his HVAC business.

Nissan Commercial Vehicles - Nissan Canada

Smart move by Nissan. The Big 3 here have drastically reduced their offerings in the large van market, esp. with gasoline motors.

Drive safe, hopefully you don't see much snow in Spain.

Rgds, D.
 
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   / Snow in England Pictures #7  
For me, part of the irony is the UK is a "Northern" country.

London England 51deg 30 Min. N

Toronto Canada 43deg 42 Min. N

If those Wikipedia coordinates are correct, and I remember high school geography still, that puts London north of Toronto.


Rgds, D.



To put that in context, Rome, Italy is on the same (roughly) latitude line as Boston, Mass. No where's near the same climate though!

And yes, it's the Gulf stream that keeps England so warm.


.
 
   / Snow in England Pictures #8  
To put that in context, Rome, Italy is on the same (roughly) latitude line as Boston, Mass. No where's near the same climate though!

And yes, it's the Gulf stream that keeps England so warm.


.

Warm is relative (but I do understand your point). Not sure I'd want to jump into the North Atlantic, esp. this time of year ! :cold:

Rgds, D.
 
 
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