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Ongoing debate about the blanket of snow that engulfs Britain.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 18:49
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Went out this morning to the Beemer only to find that all four windows were open ! Car's been standing since last Wednesday - wonder how that happened. Predictably it was soaking inside...
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Fan heater job that over a period of a few days RP, thank goodness its not your only transport or steamy windows here we come.
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the old "opening windows on its own" bug strikes eh? Lot more common on various makes than you think.
Been sitting on the remote? one of the springers chewed it?
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Probably just Alzheimer's but he won't admit it;)
Pat
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How do we know he's a he Pat?
Could be the menopause.
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The symptoms sound like Parkinson's to me...
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Maybe he swings both ways...
Pat
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Had that - the spare keys were in a knee pockets of my winter trousers - an accidental discharge is suspected...the sun today helped dry it a little. Wet bum though - nawt to do with the accidental discharge btw
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>> Had that - the spare keys were in a knee pockets of my winter trousers
Craghoppers by any chance? Pockets everywhere.
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Lined - cheap in the summer...good strides in a rural winter.
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>> Ongoing debate about the blanket of snow that engulfs Britain.
What blanket of snow? It vanished as quick as it arrived in these 'ere parts.
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The one reported in the Mail, Express and Sky etc etc..
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Methinks the title was ironic.
A good 3 cms here in Norwich. Completely cut off from the rest of the world but there again we always were courtesy of the A11 and Greater Anglia trains. :-)
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"Craghoppers lined"
best thing since sliced bread! Essential wear from end Oct to end March! RRP is about £50 but Takky Max often have them for £16.99 as do Outdoor World - lots in latter last week (£19.99 I think).
And they have that comfortable partly elasticated waistband - for gentlemen of a certain age!
I have no connection with any of above named firms!
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>> "Craghoppers lined"
>> best thing since sliced bread! Essential wear from end Oct to end March! RRP is
>> about £50 but Takky Max often have them for £16.99 as do Outdoor World -
>> lots in latter last week (£19.99 I think).
>> And they have that comfortable partly elasticated waistband - for gentlemen of a certain age!
>> I have no connection with any of above named firms!
I'm a Rohan Man myself but tempted occasionally by Craghoppers.
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I feel that Craghoppers always feel too baggy for my liking.
I bought a cheap pair of own brand Millets trousers a few years back and they are now my dog walking trousers. Still comfy.
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>> I feel that Craghoppers always feel too baggy for my liking.
Agree 100%. I bought a pair without trying them on first and they feel like wearing balloons. Horrible. I use them once a year for Reading Festival, if it's a chilly wet weekend (invariably it is).
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"I feel that Craghoppers always feel too baggy for my liking."
The think is some of us are a bit baggy too. :-)
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I've some of those insulting trousers too. Not really needed for walking unless its very cold, but good if there's standing around involved.
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>> - an accidental discharge ...
>>
Never heard a wet dream being referred to as that. :)
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>> Had that - the spare keys were in a knee pockets of my winter trousers
>> - an accidental discharge is suspected...the sun today helped dry it a little. Wet bum
>> though - nawt to do with the accidental discharge btw
>>
Hmmmmm....Wet bum and accidental discharge, eh ?
Perhaps the Jock Doc might be able to point you towards the correct clinic.
Ted
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Wet/snow sleet falling at 18:50 when train got in but by time I'd stopped at shops and got home it was clearing. Roads were wet; worse where water flowed off fields
Now starlit and around -5, the cul de sac outside is a skating rink of black ice. T'will be fun in the morning.
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>> the cul de sac outside is a skating rink of black ice. T'will be fun in the morning<<
Just as well you've got all-season tyres fitted.
^_^
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Beautiful star filled morning - dawn breaking over the hills on the mainland as I walked the dogs frozen solid though.
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Frozen dogs, eh?
I'll call the RSPCA !
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Frozen dogs respond well to microwaving and then roasting normally in a conventional oven.
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You dont NOT roast dogs.
Its the BBQ or nothing.
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I dont understand what guidelines Head Teachers use when deciding to close schools.
It began to snow at 8am yesterday just as I walked to work. The forecast was for the snow to clear to the east by lunchtime, leaving us with 3" max of heavy wet snow which thawed all afternoon. Two local schools closed at 10.30, another at noon. All main roads were passable, clear in fact, although there was lying snow on minor roads.
Several parents came into the shop with their children in the afternoon, livid they had to come out of work to pick them up and look after them in the afternoon. Sledging was no fun, it was just inches of slush, although that slush has now frozen hard.
What kind of example is this to show children? at the first sign of adversity lets all go home...as one parent said to me.
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>> I dont understand what guidelines Head Teachers use when deciding to close schools.
>>
They are very probably watching for some litigious parent just waiting to sue because little Brooklyn slipped on the slush in the playground!
It's the fail safe policy in action.
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Seen locally here too - the outdoor car parks in town are now closed, in case there's some ice and insert your own scenario of doom here. At present, there isn't any ice.
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The trouble is LL they have to assume the worst.
As it happened yesterday the fall was at the lighter end of what was predicted, fell wet and quickly melted. OTOH it cleared later and froze hard. Are kids allowed to play out and slide on icy playgrounds these days? I suspect not; the H&S monkeys will have put a stop to that.
If kids are bused in is there a risk the buses might be unable to operate? That, and capacity of staff to get in and out are killers at our village comp. When I was a kid most of the staff lived locally and a fair number travelled on foot or by bus. Nowadays they come 40 or more miles and all by car.
Something around 1k of the 1300 kids on roll arrive by bus, mostly specials. The potentially icy playground is the 'bus station' at arrival and departure time. Cant say they wer'nt warned either, they had a bus go sideways across it a couople of years ago.
Even in relatively flat Northants the more isolated vallages can be hard to access.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 15 Jan 13 at 10:16
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...Nowadays they come 40 or more miles and all by car.
Yes, and often because they can't afford to live closer to work. The Beestlings walk to school but their teachers mostly live 10-15 miles away in Reading or High Wycombe, where it's cheaper. Another undesirable - if not wholly unforeseen - consequence of the unfettered property market.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oz-CoubqHA
Not quite leafy Surrey.....
Is there any practical reason why Western socieities have not adapted to the taste? particularly since 'ethnic' foods have become so popular in the last 20 years?
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>> my winter trousers
>> - an accidental discharge is suspected..
>>
Age, and sitting in the car for too long. Don't you need to stop, dear?
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Up at the start of Nautical twilight this morning - cold but clear last night - some sharp showers last night, consequently the roads were sparkling with frost and it was very slippery underfoot. Drove gingerly to work this morning - I was astounded by tailgating buffoons on the A55 and some clown driving a 06 plated Passat estate driving as if it was mid-summer - shocking. Equally gingerly walk to the Office - very slippery untreated surfaces in town - no lying snow, nice pleasant day.
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Absolute 80s traffic is reporting that cars are being abandoned on the A149.
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Friday looks interesting. Snow with strong winds. Could be drifting.
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Might even get a flake or two down ere by the looks of it.
^_^
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At last dog! Make those nokians work for a living. Probably worn down like mine :)
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I'll have to do something this summer that I've never bothered with before corax, put the fronts on the rear and put the rear ones, eh, on the front.
V'good tyres, apart from the little stones they pick up from my gravel drive, but any all-season tyres would do that.
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I won't be getting much mileage out of my vreds on the front, but I am shall we say enthusiastic through roundabouts...
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My Michelin Alpins are still almost like new, although I have only driven about 9k miles in them.
And so they should be at that price.
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Funnily enough, I just swopped the tyres on the Lancer, the better newer ones on the back, and the old ones to the front., ready for a new pair of fronts fitted tomorrow.
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>>Funnily enough, I just swopped the tyres on the Lancer<<
What would you suggest is the best procedure for doing that Zed, I've got a trolley jack, but no axle stands.
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I have two trolley jacks, so I jacked up one side front and rear, swopped front to rear, then did the other side.
If you only have one jack you will need to use the spare as an intermediate while you swop front to rear. Front off, spare on, rear off - front on rear, front off - rear on front.
repeat for the other side. total of 6 jacking operations and wheel changes.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 16 Jan 13 at 16:06
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The bloke MoT'ing and cambelting our Golf next week will be asked to do it for me.
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>>If you only have one jack you will need to use the spare as an intermediate while you swop front to rear. Front off, spare on, rear off - front on rear, front off - rear on front<<
Much obliged - that's what I did once before ISTR.
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>> What would you suggest is the best procedure for doing that Zed, I've got a
>> trolley jack, but no axle stands.
Jack it up at the normal spot on the front end of the inner sill where its shaped for the vehicles supplied jack and it'll lift the rear wheel slightly if you jack the front high enough with your hopefully solid trolley jobbie.
I've been able to do that with nearly every car.
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>> Jack it up at the normal spot on the front end of the inner sill where its shaped for the vehicles supplied jack and it'll lift the rear wheel slightly if you jack the front high enough with your hopefully solid trolley jobbie.
>
Or, if you don't trust that method (it does work ...) trolley jack the front, and lift the rear using the car jack, but balance it.... ie lift the front 1/2 inch the the rear an inch or so, then finish lifting the front - that way the jacks wont 'kick' out.
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>> Or, if you don't trust that method (it does work ...) trolley jack the front,
>> and lift the rear using the car jack.
Wahay, good one ST, another thing i sometimes do if the rear is reluctant to lift.
Jack the front up high as described, put single axle stand in the cut out at the back of the raised sill, lower jack gently andf slightly, car will pivot on that stand and raise the real wheel.
Loads of variations.
The important thing about all this IMO is to have a trolley jack with a very controllable lowering valve set up, some of the cheaper jacks drop a bit too suddenly and fully for this type of thing.
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Gotcha s/tony & gb, I'll be doing the job in the summer and I'll have to check my trolley jack out as it's an old Halfords jobbie and the Cornish climate hasn't been too kind to it over the years.
It still goes up n' down, like, but whether I would trust it with my car is another thing :)
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>> >> What would you suggest is the best procedure for doing that Zed, I've got
>> a
>> >> trolley jack, but no axle stands.
>>
>> Jack it up at the normal spot on the front end of the inner sill
>> where its shaped for the vehicles supplied jack and it'll lift the rear wheel slightly
>> if you jack the front high enough with your hopefully solid trolley jobbie.
>>
>> I've been able to do that with nearly every car.
Not on the lancer estate you wont, the rear wheel sticks firmly to the ground.
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>> Not on the lancer estate you wont, the rear wheel sticks firmly to the ground.
>>
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Same with my Volvo 240, Landrover and Triumph 2000. Wherever you jack it at front or back, both front or back wheels lift, but never one of each.
The only place to jack both wheels would be half way along the sill.
Perhaps not representative vehicles though.
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Zero, why didnt you just get the tyre place to do it when you are getting your new tyres on?
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>> Zero, why didnt you just get the tyre place to do it when you are
>> getting your new tyres on?
A: cos I have paid a cheap price all in, and he will want beer money to do it, I paid me the beer money instead.
B: MOT next month, wanted a shufty at the brakes to make sure there were no failures lurking there.
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Zero, why didnt you just get the tyre place to do it when you are getting your new tyres on?
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I shall say this only once ? :-)
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From the DT ..
With snow flakes falling for 24 hours on Friday, bringing chaos on the roads and at airports, the Met Office has warned people to leave the house only if absolutely necessary......
It's a bit of snow for heaven's sake, not a nuclear holocaust. And how dare the Met office tell me what to do.
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And how dare the Met office tell me what to do'
Because on Friday night there will be people saying " I've been stuck in my car on the M25 for 6 hours . Why didn't the Met office warn me how bad it was going to be ?"
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I hope the Friday forecast is correct, I have a good spot lined up for video of steam train in the snow. The local forecast is for light snow during the day, and heavy stuff later. so a: I hope there is enough to make it picturesque early afternoon, and b: not too much because the place I have chosen will be impassible in heavier snow.
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Plenty of snow around still here. It was an astonishing -13.2C at Norwich airport last night.
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-8C at Stamford Lincs and some cloud cover but no overnight snow.
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+2 here, rain. Not really a bad morning - just been for a punt with the dogs.
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It's -8 here too Meldrew...and the birds have been fed, with their water supply thawed out already.
Pat
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only -2 in leafless balmy Surrey.
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My outside temperature sender packed up last night.
It last recorded -4 before apparently freezing to death.
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-5C prior two nights but only practising as it was -7C last night.
Still mild and balmy vs 2010-2011 winter..
Off to grit our drive and very elderly neighbours's path before the blizzards come and we are cut off from civilisation for centuries (which is what some of the press /TV comments sound like.)
I am going shopping Friday am .. a little bit of snow will not stop me...:-)
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I am just going outside and may be some time.
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I'd never grit my drive again (it's chippings here anyway) I bunged a load of rock salt on the drive of my previous owse.
It ruined it - it was only a con-crete job (properly done, like) but the application of sed salt made me and it crack up!
I think I may have used too much :)
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According to the sender on my back fence, the temperature dipped to -8.5C at 0800 this morning in Bury St Edmunds. It's now up to a balmy -7.6. A friend 3 miles down the road tells me he recorded -12. My wife set off to work at 7.15 this morning via a (mostly) very rural route; she rang when she arrived - amazed by the number of drivers who don't understand what black ice is, or don't understand that salt fails to work below about -5 degrees. She'd heard that there'd been yet another crash to delay traffic on the glorious A14.
Yesterday was her day off work; the power was down at the dentists so she will have to get psyched up all over again for some root canal work. We also took the opportunity to drop off the Astra in town for its annual MoT/service and, hopefully, to discover why the gear shift is sometimes so stiff that you need two hands to do it! My wife and son refuse to drive the car.
On arriving home, we discovered that the gas central heating/hot water had died. Luckily, BG had significantly reduced the price of the annual service contract so I had decided to continue with it. The engineer is due to call this afternoon but, in the meantime, we are keeping warm with the gas fire in the living room and a burner on the cooker in the kitchen. Additional clothing worn includes boiler suit (onesie?), fleece and hat.
Tonight we are booked in to see Les Miserables - I can tell you, -8.5C with no central heating is pretty miserables!
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Haywain
If you have a condensing boiler, it may be that the condensate pipe has frozen. May be worth trying to defrost...
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"If you have a condensing boiler, it may be that the condensate pipe has frozen. May be worth trying to defrost..."
Thanks for the suggestion. I don't think it's that, though. It is a condensing boiler, but it was an early one installed when the house was being built in 1998; I'm pretty certain that the condensate pipe is internal and empties via the junction under the sink in the utility room.
I've a strong suspicion that it may be a failure of the motorised valve(s) by the hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard. I had unjammed one of them a couple of days ago with a gentle tap from a small hammer.
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Move the lever at the side by hand to check. (if its the honneywell type)
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"Move the lever at the side by hand to check. (if its the honneywell type)"
I don't think they can be the Honeywell variety - there is a sort of push button on them, but not a lever. I've no idea what the button is supposed to do.
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>> just been for a punt with the dogs.
How do they manage to stand on two legs and use the pole without falling into the water?
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Well the plans are falling into disarray, the forecast has been getting worse, and we now have the promise of heavy snow at home - much earlier, starting at 10:00am. My chosen location for filming (at the end of a narrow little used country lane at the foot of the North Downs) will be impassible by normal car by 12:00 - train is due at 15:00!
Edit, I suspect the train will be cancelled.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 17:43
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>> Well the plans are falling into disarray, the forecast has been getting worse, and we
>> now have the promise of heavy snow at home - much earlier, starting at 10:00am.
According to my employer, there's only going to be a bit of light snow for some of the day tomorrow.
They have even carefully selected a notoriously inaccurate weather forecast site to illustrate the point. No mention of the inconveniently awful forecast on metoffice.gov.uk or even the BBC....
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Tell your employer (in Chertsey right?) that SW trains have already cancelled services on the Virginia water / Cherstsey / Weybridge line for tomorrow.
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Employers don't listen/can't read/ cover their ears if it means the job may not get done.
Transport managers are notorious for it, they use a different map to anyone else and it's never snowing or foggy out of their window.
Pat
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Picked up a cheap tub of rock salt last year after the bad weather, seemed like a good idea at the time.
I don't want to waste it by speculative gritting so would it be OK to wait until there is a significant layer before putting it down, or is that a waste of time? I think leaving it too long would be pointless, as there isn't enough traffic on my drive to work it in.
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smokie there has managed to sum up the dilemma most local councils face when confronted with weather forecasts - and yet the nation (i.e. the Daily Mail) jumps up and down on their heads with glee when they make the wrong decision.
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I'm hoping it's wrong for once. I'm near Hereford and tomorrow's plan is a road trip to Lockerbie via Llanfair Caereinion. Llanfair C is forecast 6-10" snow over the next two days, most of it tomorrow. Hereford forecast is heavy snow from the early hours tomorrow.
What are the chances of the snow materialising in quantity?
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It looks pretty certain, snow and lots of it, its a broad front, conditions for snow are perfect. South Wales has been issued a rare Red weather warning
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We're doing Manchester to Cwmbran on Monday for a funeral. Going on the puffer train via Shrewsbury and Craven Arms. I'm hoping Network Rail will keep things running and, if not, can I get my £62 back ?
Very dry here atm. Up early today but both cars totally free of frost so an extra ten minutes in the warm with more coffee.
Ted
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>> We're doing Manchester to Cwmbran on Monday
Ted, when you get there, make sure you speak slowly.
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Have a wedding in Livingston on Saturday. Forecast earlier in the week was snow on Sat. Snowball fights in a kilt... doesn't bare thinking about !!!!
Now the forecast is for sun and the main band of snow seems to be down Wales way.
I am picking my brother and family up at Edinburgh airport on Fri night , they are flying up from Stansted so hopefully they will miss the snow as well!
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Cwmbran is bang in the red zone Ted. Been following this on the 'net all day, if you''re going to the Crem it's on the outskirts of town in a hilly area - why would one have to speak slowly there ?, spoke to a couple from from Torfaen/Cwmbran this week, they seemed to speak perfectly normally to me..mind you one was a Brummie.
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>> We're doing Manchester to Cwmbran on Monday for a funeral.
If you find the place, they are threatening 15 inches of snow right over it by Monday.
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Snowing now in Northampton. Not heavy but selling and with a little breeze that was absent earlier
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We're on the westerly edge of Anglesey - sky is pretty bright that way - the main stuff is still some way away.
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I'd think very hard about it Ted - I reckon this could disrupt the trains down there, it's a pretty bleak place all in all. I have a friend who lives in Caldicott - she says that they're battening down the hatches in the area. She works in the Police Control room there.
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 16:20
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The amber warning zone on the Met Office site has been extended somewhat in the last few hours. This morning it was a small part of North West England . Now you can basically draw a line from Cheshire, around the Welsh coast, down to Devon, along the South coast to East Sussex, and diagonally back up to Cheshire. Everything inside that area is going to cop it apparently.
Could be a snow day tomorrow.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 16:29
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So glad I don't live in the South, you seem to get dreadful weather, hosepipe bans, and flooding down there.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 16:37
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I am very lucky where I live, when most of Greater Manchester gets snow my area avoids because it is on the Mersey Valley and thus very low lying.
However this time round, I am pretty certain we will get snow I can feel it in the air. I am trying to get all my work done tonight just in case its very bad.
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>> So glad I don't live in the South, you seem to get dreadful weather, hosepipe
>> bans, and flooding down there.
Come on, ON. Everyone knows the UK as a whole can't cope with anything other than 18 degrees C and light drizzle. :-)
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>> So glad I don't live in the South, you seem to get dreadful weather, hosepipe
>> bans, and flooding down there.
>>
That is the price we have to pay for living in a tropical climate doon Sarf.
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>> hosepipe
>> bans, and flooding down there.
Ironic init, Hosepipe bans and flooding.
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>> Ironic init, Hosepipe bans and flooding.
And at the same time too. At the time the official drought and hosepipe ban ended, the fields 200 yds from my parents house had been underwater for six weeks.
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Ted have a look at this - I know someone who works with this guy he researches his own forecasts and is reasonably reliable.
Note the Cwmbran area (a gnat's willy north of Newport for those that don't know) - stay at home.. they're already cancelling trains in anticipation.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21063003
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 17 Jan 13 at 17:41
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>> Ted have a look at this - I know someone who works with this guy
>> he researches his own forecasts and is reasonably reliable.
>>
Derek Brockway is the most accurate forcaster I've ever heard, nearly always on the money. I've got a busy day tomorrow and am due to go to St Davids about mid-day, looks like I might be watching the snooker instead.
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>> Ted have a look at this - I know someone who works with this guy
>> he researches his own forecasts and is reasonably reliable.
>> Note the Cwmbran area (a gnat's willy north of Newport for those that don't know)
>> - stay at home.. they're already cancelling trains in anticipation.
>>
>> www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21063003
>>
Anyone with any sense avoids Wales anyway :-)
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The Winter Weather Thread Vol 2. - R.P.