Sick of the incessant snow updates

Blockley, Cotswolds.

The insurers will think that the town is full of drivers who can’t read or follow instructions. ?

It is Ramsbottom, after all…

Edit: it’s bottom of the Rake isn’t, a hill famed locally for being stupidly steep (in an area known for hills) and he thought it might be a good idea to drive down it in this weather?

It is indeed the bottom of the Rake, the renowned 25% gradient that’s so steep it has a handrail. It was a woman who not only ignored the 2 enormous signs saying ‘IMPASSABLE IN ICE AND SNOW’ but she actually got out of her car at the top to move the ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign and the barrier that had been put in the middle of the road, then set off down what was literally sheet ice. I mean, this looks totally safe….

I suspect that invalidates your insurance. The car sat there for days until things had thawed enough to get a tow truck up to move the wreckage

I suspect that invalidates your insurance.

Hope so. I’d also like to see all the “I’ve got a 4×4” dickheads stranded on Wrynose Pass to be charged full whack for their rescue and the subsequent recovery operation to clear the road. And then have to pay for any damage to the vehicles from their own pocket too.

It’s all melted around here now so the roads are just slushy and very very wet – which means the drivers have gone from being extra specially cautious (first thing this morning, in the snow) to “I’ll drive as normal, 5-10mph above the speed limit” in the space of about 4hrs.

On that note I thought I’d take my mx5 out for a completely antisocial and ill thought out slide about. But luckily it vetoed me and ended up completely stuck on my slopey driveway. A reminder to me of just how bloody awful some high quality summer tyres are in snow.

Does anyone else take it really personally when you get a temporary thaw or rain in the middle of a spell of snow? I always feel basically attacked. It’s now snowing pretty nicely but if this afternoon’s sleet and rain had just held off a little bit then the old snow would have stayed nicer and there’d be more new stuff. It’s a terrible use of a scarce resource and I demand to see the manager.

I’m up at the top of the hill in Harrogate. We were in Whitby this weekend but had to get back for school tomorrow – barely any snow for most of the way home, a bit more as we reached Harrogate but but by the time we got to the higher point the snow was fully covering the road and our street was very difficult (especially for my BIL in a twin-turbo RWD Mercedes convertible). Managed to get back, the snow relented a bit and he got back to his house but it’s started again and I reckon we have about 10 inches now.

Bit more this morning. ….

Clent hills yesterday morning. Loads of snow, and almost zero traction. Ridiculous amount of fun had, not laughed that much in ages.

Was lovely on the Kerridge Ridge this morning ?

Snows all gone here in the Rhondda – I must say that this area is very dissappointing for snow considering it is fairly high up.

I feel robbed. We had slush.

I should have swept the remaining slush off the car last night. Went out to it this morning and the car is encased in about 3-4cm of rock solid ice.

I decided against driving to the office on Monday due to the weather, said I’d try and get in today.

Gave up on that idea after only a couple of minutes trying to scrape through the ice fortress, I’ll just WFH again!

Normally I get the train but they’re not running this week due to engineering works.

Not snow related, but walking the dog this morning and similar to crazy legs above lots of cars with ice on windscreens. On at least three separate occasions I saw people trying to clear their windscreens using the wipers!

It’s not like we’ve had lots of warnings about the weather to remind people that they may want to purchase an ice scraper or some de-icer. I mean even tepid water helps.

Madness I tell you.

What is people’s allergy to a £3 plastic scraper and a light touch of elbow grease?

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.

See also “tank drivers” with their letterbox view out (although they won’t see you).

The side roads (and all paths) in Harrogate are a bloody mess now – they are frozen solid sheet ice or semi-trampled snow which is like the surface of the moon. Some schools are closed for a third day but others (including the one our girls go to) are open. 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.

The Ilson Alps had a light dusting of snow showers about 5pm last night which promptly melted and then froze. Lots of reports of accidents and cars struggling this morning.

Obviously nothing as bad as the Peak which is only an hour up the road,  but doesn’t take much to show up the idiots.

The side roads (and all paths) in Harrogate are a bloody mess now – they are frozen solid sheet ice or semi-trampled snow which is like the surface of the moon. Some schools are closed for a third day but others (including the one our girls go to) are open. 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.

Yep, Harrogate is a mess now with lots of snow & ice.  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.

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!

Waist deep on lee slopes in the north Dales. Still powder, little consolidation happening.

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