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Lots of folk I’ve met are also complaining – most of the footpaths are just sheet ice and most of the side roads are impassable. Cost cutting eh!
Here in Derbyshire, side roads and footpaths haven't been gritted or cleared for the 25 years we've lived here. Folk still like to moan though.
My wife dropped them off in the car this morning and said she saw several kids fall flat on their backsides trying to walk in.
A direct example of global warming and kids today not knowing how to walk on snow or indeed make 20 metre long death slides
Even the TV weather people are suffering from it, with temps as low as -20 in Scotland. That’s now unusual and used to be normal each winter
I see high value cars left on drives / on the street with engines running and noone in sight. Both the theft risk and environmental cost are far from insignificant.
I was surprised yesterday to see (and hear) cars left with their engines running on a garage forecourt where the owners were nowhere to be seen, presumably they were in the garage shop, but what a daft thing to do.
I was surprised yesterday to see (and hear) cars left with their engines running on a garage forecourt where the owners were nowhere to be seen,
Any such thefts were classed as a failure to take reasonable care when I handled claims many years ago. Not sure what the current position is, but I'd sooner sit in the car and shiver while it defrosts/demists than risk it, and we live in a fairly safe village.
Lots of folk I’ve met are also complaining – most of the footpaths are just sheet ice and most of the side roads are impassable. Cost cutting eh!
While we do have many paths gritted, and roads, I was out last night with a spade and bag of grit from the local grit bin.
Seems being civic these days is secondary to moaning about 'The Council" not doing enough.
I’d sooner sit in the car and shiver while it defrosts/demists than risk it
same here, and I find a scraper is the best tool for the job, rather than de-icer, with the blower on the windscreen on full, and wipers on intermittant, best of all, it's rare these days I need to do this where we live!
same here, and I find a scraper is the best tool for the job, rather than de-icer, with the blower on the windscreen on full, and wipers on intermittant, best of all, it’s rare these days I need to do this where we live!
Think we only scraped cars a couple of times last winter - working from home - but this winter has been worse ie normal.
Of the three cars, two have quick clear windscreens - guess who uses the third one? Though always check the wipers haven't frozen before turning them on!
frozen solid sheet ice or semi-trampled snow which is like the surface of the moon
exactly as I remember the pavements and paths being in the snowy winters of late 70s and early 80s, walking to school, frozen slush, an accident waiting to happen :-/
Though always check the wipers haven’t frozen before turning them on!
good call, yes, 'peeling away' the wipers from the frozen windscreen!
our petrol Fiesta soon warms up once the engine is running, not so the old lump of the diesel Passat 🙁
There's a programme on C5 - 1982: The Big Snow. One of those social commentary things with news clips, random talking heads and histrionic music, but actually quite watchable.
I see high value cars left on drives / on the street with engines running and noone in sight. Both the theft risk and environmental cost are far from insignificant.
My road this morning has been a succession of engines thumping away for 5-10 minutes accompanied by a scraping noise as the driver waits for the car to warm up and clears the windscreen.
Normally, there's an engine noise and 10 seconds later they drive off.
Could smell the extra exhaust fumes yesterday.
I'm WFH again. Much as I'd like to see everyone in the office, there's no point at all risking a drive across the Peak District in these conditions.
Priceless image on the BBC article, got to love the driving gods who thought their 4x4s would be handy in the snow and ice!
I'm sorry, but there is no way that is "stuck" the driver is just a useless dipstick.
Probably best that they do think it's stuck, before they get it somewhere that's actually a bit tricky.
I suspect that invalidates your insurance.
IIRC driving past an official "road closed" sign does invalidate insurance in most/many cases. Can't remember the actual terminology, but a mate's wife had an insurance claim rejected when she drove through one and then hydrolocked the engine.
Here in Derbyshire, side roads and footpaths haven’t been gritted or cleared for the 25 years we’ve lived here.
I was going to say, they always did when i lived there. But then i realised it's 24 years since i left.
Nice to wake up to 
Plastic watering can brought inside when I return home from morning doggo walk, filled with mildly warm water and sparingly applied till the windscreen has thermally reacted then dump the remainder on with the wipers on intermittent. Probably less than a minute and it's clear.
People don't have the knowledge or understanding of how long term damaging it is idling engines - see also driving through fords.
I don’t think I’ve seen any gritters anywhere but I guess that’s a consequence of losing Harrogate Borough Council. It’s the worst I’ve seen it in many years.
It was only about two weeks ago they were in the press bragging about the new multi-million £ deal with Econ...
While we do have many paths gritted, and roads, I was out last night with a spade and bag of grit from the local grit bin.
Seems being civic these days is secondary to moaning about ‘The Council” not doing enough.
NYCC have removed many bins over the last few years as they claim they are being wrongly-used. We used to have one at the end of our road but it was removed early in 2024. Our whole street did the best we could to clear the road – there was about 20 of us digging away all Monday morning and helping cars that couldn't get off drives.
NYCC have removed many bins over the last few years as they claim they are being wrongly-used.
Indeed, I can see one of the moaners on our local FB page is also someone who regularly uses the street grit bin to grit their own drive and pathways - yet will not do the same on the pavement outside their house....
Anyway, in good news it is 10*c and raining next week....
Thank goodness for my collection of Exposure lights and my total normalisation of being up on the downs in the dark. My kids got to experience sledging for the first time in their lives (13 & 10).
Three hours of sledging in the dark on the South Downs until everyone's toes froze.
A note on cars left running.
Some Fords and I expect others can be safely started remotely from the App. I click mine on when I have brushed my teeth on frosty mornings. By the time I get to the car it is defrosted (heated windscreen), heated seats and steering wheel are on it's good to go. It will do the same in summer but crank up the AC, that seems a bit silly as I would just open the windows.
It's full locked, in park and can't be driven off, so no biggie for insurance.
Looks like we're getting one more day here before a sort of spectacular doomthaw on monday, continues to be some of the weirdest snow/ice conditions I can ever remember.
not my pic, our groups scout leader dashed off to the peaks yesterday to fulfil a 36 year ambition and climb kinder downfall
not sure if he posts on here but he is s an mtber
He might win this year with that pic.
Here is boringly cold. Apart from the 30kt winds and snow overnight that left me digging out my van from the carport so I could get to the shops. Up north is colder, last I heard was about about -20-25c in places
continues to be some of the weirdest snow/ice conditions I can ever remember.
The extreme cold of last night (-16C), coming after the big snow a couple of days earlier has resulted in a real mix of conditions. I was descending of Meall a' Bhuachaille today and the snow looked more like fur. On closer inspection, the top layer was made up of vertical crystals, so it had a very "3D" effect.
And one of Ryvoan, just because...
The hoar frost is mental at the moment. We have a chicken wire fence and the hoar is so big it's more or less filled in the holes. Shining a light across the fields is millions of little sparkles.
This afternoon we had 8 blackbirds feeding on the food I put out all at once. Only regularly see one. Couldn't count the other birds but I'd guess at over 100. Gold finch, greenfinch, chaffinch, 3 types of tit, siskin, robins, dunnock, bullfinch, crows. They are all puffed up almost double. God knows how they manage. There was a tit sheltering in our porch, it had its head tucked under its wing to keep warm.
Our track is basically a piste now
The tracks up on the tops are still under a foot of snow.
I was watching the birds in the garden at sunrise yesterday and saw a barn owl do a full turn of the garden with half a dozen magpies harrying it. Presumably it was still out huntingg as there’s such a scarcity of prey.
The thaw is on in Fort William.
Bit late to the defrosting cars topic but I just put a towel on the windscreen the night before. It completely stops any frost, I can just remove the towel get in and drive away. I don't get how it's not been a viral "life hack" that everyone has adopted by now
Yeah I used to put an old bed sheet over my car when I first learnt to drive. Tricky bit is several solid nights of frost when it's fully stiffend!
Nowadays it's all heated windscreens. They don't know their born!
Yeah if you're lucky you get just a tiny amount of thaw or 10 seconds of rain and the sheet freezes solid and glues itself to the glass.
Yesterday I got properly caught out, I knew I'd put the bike in the back still wet (and, er, covered in frozen snow that I couldn't shake off) but clearly it got warm enough to melt, then cold enough to freeze into a solid ice sheet all over the inside of the glass. Once I'd scraped it all off it was like it'd snowed inside the car.
Snowing in Dunblane, cold on the heels of yesterday's storm
Heavy snow and thunder in East Kilbride right now, can’t see it lasting though as it’s 1.5 degrees
The back roads and little lanes around mine were riddled with sheet ice this morning. Didn't realise it had been that cold overnight. Abandoned the ride after a while - although the main roads were fine (if damp), anything off the beaten track was too risky.
There was a real glare off the low winter sun too, couldn't see a bloody thing at times, couldn't tell between ice and wet roads.
Strava's ridiculous Athlete Intelligence feature helpfully informed me that my ride was much slower than my usual pace.
Yes Strava, that's cos I had to walk one of the descents! Idiot.
Went out at 10 when the official yellow ice warning ended, but still frost and ice in the shade. Got home at 1.30 having been seasoned by the gritter as I came back into the village.
T shirt and shorts at the weekend, snow back again this morning.
Yeah, we were running in the snow last night up Craigellachie (496m)
We're expecting a wee bit more tonight.
Not much left in the Cairngorms
The question is; will we have a (common) Easter snowfall or is that it for the year?
Not much left in the Cairngorms
The question is; will we have a (common) Easter snowfall or is that it for the year?
One thing's for sure, no way Sphinx is making it through past July or August this year 🙁
I know today is eagerly anticipated..
Just in time for the equinox.
It's that time of year when the Express starts scaring the pensioners...
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/2126736/uk-snow-maps-latest-huge-white-barrage-in-hours
It's that time of year when the Express starts scaring the pensioners...anyone to get a sale/click
Aye, snowmaggedon alerts ahoy ,forget all that climate change tosh 🙄
Aye, snowmaggedon alerts ahoy ,forget all that climate change tosh 🙄
"Some parts of the country" meaning all the high bits that get snow regularly between October and April, but nothing for Doris in Eastbourne to worry about.
Aye, snowmaggedon alerts ahoy ,forget all that climate change tosh 🙄
"Some parts of the country" meaning all the high bits that get snow regularly between October and April, but nothing for Doris in Eastbourne to worry about.
Ah yes, the annual 'suddenly the forgotten Highlands of Scotland are directly claimed/ relevant to Shirley in Southampton' moment on weather reports.... I've a colleague who falls for it every time and claims weather reports are crap...
Meanwhile, I'm sure all in this thread are pleased to hear that my reporter on the ground is telling me that Queenstown, NZ has it's heaviest snow fall of the season yesterday...
Surely someone has had some snow recently?
It’s just started here, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire
Yeah. We've had a few flurries, the tops are covered and it's down to street level this evening, with a couple of road crashes/closures and at least one HGV stuck on a hill near Tomatin.
Pretty much normal. then.