I thought i would make a Thread on the UK Snow Choas as I would like to know how some of you non UK residence feel about this. I find it quite redicilous how 5-10 cm of snow can literally bring a whole country to a standstill. Me beeing German nationality I am quite used to a little snow over the Winter months, but it seems like the UK, England in particular cannot handle the Snow. Every time there is the slightest layer of snow, Public transport such as Trains and Buses just dont operate anymore, Schools are also shut etc... etc... Now I live on the Southcoast where this isnt as severe as elsewhere in the country, but most of the time it stops me getting to work into town or the other usual things.
I have to say, it sometimes feels like a bad dream of some Zombie movie where the whole world has ground to a halt.
For me it seems a little pathetic, seeing as coutries like Russia are used to meters of the stuff and they seem to cope with it quite well.
The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
You think the UK are bad? You should have seen Ireland last Winter, we ran out of salt really quickly, the whole country was shut down for almost a month, it was hilarious really
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
To be honest, Snow this year is extremely early. due to the Eastern winds from Siberia. temperature on the 3rd of November was 17.8 degree's Celcius. one of the hottest days on record in the UK for November. Now its swing to -11 I think the news showed. 3-4 weeks. Thats about 28degree's difference. Sorry if the numbers are wrong.
But i doubt anyone saw the snows hitting this hard this early considering the temperatures early this month.
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Because you are prepared for it. We don't even have enough salt to grit the roads.
In reality though the news exaggerates everything and it barely affects people. Miss a day of work, have your commute made a little bit more annoying than usual and moan about it a bit. That's the only effect it really has.
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Well it's only really started happening every year in the last 3 years or so. Before that there was only very, very light snowfall every year. About once a decade we'd have a decent amount. Recently though, weirdly enough, we've been getting quite a bit on an annual basis.
In my home country this happens every year too.. I mean, we don't have that much chaos and stuff, but the people that are responsible for maintaining roads get 'caught off guard' every year, even if they know it's supposed to snow.. We blame them they want to save money and hope the snow will go away quickly, so they don't clean roads in the beginning and then stuff goes to shit.
I am now in Finland and this kind of stuff makes me giggle, really..
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Ah, ok, but Norwegian newspaper/radios still makes fun of you for that one day ^^.
And I know we are prepered for it and you guys arent, but I find it strange that airports forexample does not have salt and equipment ready for the winter (don't know if thats the case now).
And November was warm there? Here we got the coldest November since 1880, no snow tho, but we had a week of snow early in october.
Bah, its like 6 months intill I can were shorts agian, next year I wanna try to escape the winter, don't like it!
The majority of the UK just isn't used to dealing with snow. Scotland is generally the only place that has to. I live on the south coast, the snow in January was the first real snow that I've experienced in my 23yrs. We've had the odd bit but it rarely lays and is never more than a few centimetres.
Wow thats preety sick. The climate is so fucked up right now.
Here its so warm around 15-20 C in november and not even a sign of snow for now. I dont remember this happened till now and we've seen snow even in early october in the past years.
This happens every year to my English cousins. It's ridiculous, they're the obly family in their neighbourhood to have snow tires, and all the school close after 10cm.
Luckily I live in Northern-Eastern America. We have enough snow to enjoy things like winter sports and occasionally miss school, but I've never seen it get dangerous.
The reason it's a bigger deal then it should be is because we aren't used to having so much snow, so we don't have the necessary equipment to deal with it (Or we do, but not enough of it e.g Gritting the roads.) So now we start to run out of grit, and it goes down hill from there.
it's not economic in england for the government to spend money preparing and maintaining infrastructure to deal with 1 off freak winters like this one...
personally, i'm in durham, at the heart of it (as far as i know) and i'm loving it! snow is awesome.
To be fair over the past 20 years snow has been really infrequent in the UK. Winter has become a little colder over the last few years (you can analyse why this might be to death) but the point is we don't invest in snow preperations because it's hard to justify them. So a few schools shut for a few days a year? Hardly a big deal.
I think also a lot of people really like the random break. Snow is fun.
im in sheffield and although this is my first winter here (usually I'm in birmingham) this is definately the most snow I've ever seen I think, at least since I got old enough to remember :p
For me it seems a little pathetic, seeing as coutries like Russia are used to meters of the stuff and they seem to cope with it quite well.
I wish there were meters of snow now. Cause there's not a lot of it but the temperature was like -22 C today in the morning. I was like "omg I'm gonna freeze to death" today
On December 01 2010 20:47 bmml wrote: Whats really shit is my driving test is tommorow and I've never driven in wintery conditions .
Refuse to drive if your car is not equipped with snow/"winter" tires. Instant exam passing. Other than that, drive as slowly as needed to be able to maneuver the car perfectly. You'll have to deal with the fact that the distance the car needs to stop when on a snowy road is several times longer than usual. You'll also run the risk of sliding, which is yet another reason to drive slowly when the road is covered in snow/ice even. If it snows while you're driving, switch on the lights. If it snows heavily, again, I'd refuse to drive without proper tires. You're just begging for an accident to happen in that case.
On a different note, why can't people stop writing "happends" already? It's fucking annoying. Learn to write properly. If you're so fond of saving effort when writing, why do you make the extra movement to add random letters to words?
It's funny how England ALWAYS gets taken by surprise. "Oh shit, it's snowing" and then the country breaks down. Meanwhile Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway wonders how the hell, after all these years STILL England hasn't learned their lesson by now about snow and what might happen during november....
I agree with the OP, every year we get this and every year it brings the whole country to a stand still.
Totally pathetic, but hilarious at the same time. Its like they forget what happened last year every time, and don't prepare.
View from my flat window, in Leeds, England
Its hard to see because its also a bit foggy, but to the top right going left across the screen is a stand still on a busy road. They are literally not moving lol
On December 01 2010 21:15 Integra wrote: It's funny how England ALWAYS gets taken by surprise. "Oh shit, it's snowing" and then the country breaks down. Meanwhile Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway wonders how the hell, after all these years STILL England hasn't learned their lesson by now about snow and what might happen during november....
November is an Autumn month. Over the past 20 years it's been really rare for it to snow in November in the UK. This is the most November snow for 17 years.
Oh wow Countries where it snows more often are more prepared... duh?
Yeah its quite irritating how the press reacts to snow whenver and however much it happens. The only releif is watching Charlie Brookers Newswipe where he mocks this quite awesomely. Also, I got me one of those hats that keeps your ears warm. Its awesome!
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Until the last 3 years I hadn't seen snow in any real quantity in over a decade. The problem is whenever it doesn't snow for a few years people demand to know why we're wasting all this money on precautions and then you get this happening. If it keeps snowing this consistently we'll get the hang of it.
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Ah, ok, but Norwegian newspaper/radios still makes fun of you for that one day ^^.
And I know we are prepered for it and you guys arent, but I find it strange that airports forexample does not have salt and equipment ready for the winter (don't know if thats the case now).
And November was warm there? Here we got the coldest November since 1880, no snow tho, but we had a week of snow early in october.
Bah, its like 6 months intill I can were shorts agian, next year I wanna try to escape the winter, don't like it!
You are right though, the media and a lot of people over react and freak out every time some snow comes along. All the roads are gritted and the buses are still running and shit, don't see the problem myself.
Here's another pic I took, gives a better idea of the depth of snow.
In my home country I am used to snow and the cold.
But here in the UK (Scotland) it so much worse. Back in Latvia where I come from it get's much colder, we get much more snow. But here you get snow + rain + hail + wind ++++.... it's horrible. ^_^
Last christmas I was luck to get home because the airport was closed just until my flight was scheduled. But I almost froze to death in the airport as it's not much more than a simple barn....
We've never had snow this bad, especially not this early in the year. I hadn't seen snow past 2-3cm until 3 years ago (I'm 17), how do you expect a country like that to be prepared for snow before winter even starts?
Countries that have this every year are obviously going to be much better prepared, its pretty much a no-brainer
Eventhough we get snow every year in my country, poeple still drive terrible in it and that's the biggest part why transportation is stuck. Also many people don't use winter tires as they don't want to spend money on it. Hehe never realized that many people in Australia have never seen snow ^^
You see the same thing in the the states where schools are shut down and businesses closed for what, in Canada, is considered a fairly standard snowstorm.
So jealous that we don't get as many snow days as everyone else. Curse our hardy nature. The only time that Canada really shuts down is when we get severe icing on the roads.
Go to your profile and check the 'Resize large images that distort the layout' box.
Thanks mate!
Oh yeah, apparently you need to take it out of the spoiler too, forgot that.
Really you should just use the uploader, as it automatically resizes the image...
Kinda sucks that the cities/government isn't prepared to deal with snow, but I don't know if it's worth it buying lots of equipment for just a couple days every year.
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Its situtational to where you live. I know my mum finds it very difficult because she has to give up her car so her husband can use it at night, he normally uses motorbikes and doesn't stand much chance on them. We live in a valley and buses find it really hard to get into the village when it snows like this. She's had to walk to work 10 miles the past two days when she already works like 14 hour days as a head of many medical departments, I think most people would find that annoying to deal with.
I live in Canada but have a lot of family in the UK. It basically boils down to this, a huge snowstorm here makes everybody late the day it hits but by the end of the day all the main roads are cleared and most roads have been salted. In the UK they simply can't afford to have that much snow equipment ready to go. We're also used to driving in the snow, they are not. We have a lot of cars with winter tires on, they don't. We have mostly wide roads with lots of room for mistakes, they don't. So an accident in the UK is one that probably doesn't even happen to begin with in Canada thus the effect doesn't snowball into roads closed all over the place from crashes etc.
I do however find it funny when people can't cope with the weather being cold etc.
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
It is funny to see how the "chaos" in some place is other's normal day. There were already week ago that much snow and -18 celcius outside here in Finland. Though, +30 celcius here in the summer would be chaos xP
Haha, chaos, UK seems to be like germany: "OMG, it snowed, WE SUDDENLY ALL FORGOT HOW TO DRIVE OUR CARS" "1mm snow on the street, OMG, SOMEONE TRIGGER NATIONAL EMERGENCY PLANS"
How is it to live in those fair weather countries?
It is a little ridiculous how people here can be constantly surprised by the snow every year. Yesterday was the first snow of the season in London, but it didn't pile up and really shouldn't have affected anything as it was melting as soon as it hit the ground. I was expecting a package yesterday and got this message about 20 minutes after it started snowing.
On December 01 2010 22:46 blue` wrote: It is a little ridiculous how people here can be constantly surprised by the snow every year. Yesterday was the first snow of the season in London, but it didn't pile up and really shouldn't have affected anything as it was melting as soon as it hit the ground. I was expecting a package yesterday and got this message about 20 minutes after it started snowing.
lol seems like you guys are just looking for excuses to be lazy for a few days a year
Tea with honey, raspberry, apple and lemon is the only thing that keeps me going this past 2 days... Went to the bar yesterday and boy returning home at 3am when it's -20C outside and a thick layer of snow in the streets is not something I'd repeat gladly...
Reminds me of the situation of winter in Germany. Every year at about the same time in November, citizens of the northern half of Germany are surprised about that in winter, snow can fall, and cause chaos on our beloved autobahns :-)
As I spoke with a londoner yesterday and he said it never snows there and he is so sad about that, I hope you brits enjoy the white kiss of winter :-)
Unless you own a business/have responsibility, can't see a reason to be unhappy about a snow day. I got to see Jinro/Moon/Boxer/IdrA, had a snow fight, and I'm going to play some SC/SF4.
On December 01 2010 23:15 DorF wrote: Pfft , when we have snow chaos we have a minimum of 3 dm besides , I live in the parts of sweden where it snows the least ;p
I guess Day9 was blown away by all that snow when he was at dreamhack coming from kansas :-) (as I guess it already had snow back then)
Lets see how long the winter lasts this year, was a dissapointment recent years, I guess UK buddys will not have much time to enjoy (or hate) the white pride.
Meanwhile in Denmark it's been snowing nearly all the time since Monday or Tuesday last week. It's been pretty awesome seeing over a foot of snow in a country that usually gets little to no snow at all.
School was cancelled Monday, and there is supposed to be a blizzard tomorrow. Today and yesterday were supposed to be the only non-snowing days from when it started snowing to this weekend and it's snowed a lot both days. Freak winter weather ftw
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
It is funny to see how the "chaos" in some place is other's normal day. There were already week ago that much snow and -18 celcius outside here in Finland. Though, +30 celcius here in the summer would be chaos xP
Haha, i know hey? We've had this much snow for more than a month now here in Edmonton.
Just drive slow and never break all the way and driving isn't even that bad. Although, granted, i learned to drive in winter conditions and adjusted to summer conditions not vice versa.
Denmark makes fun of England, Sweden makes fun of Denmark, Norway makes fun of Sweden, Canada makes fun of Norway, and Greenland makes fun of everybody. How it usually is.
Although right now it is 15C in Greenland, but still
661 Glasgow(Clyde Valley) - No service today 664 Tayside/North Fife - No service today 669 Edinburgh - No service today 513 Nottingham - No service today 444 Sheffield - No service - Heavy snow 449 Lincoln - No service 697 Newcastle North - Postcodes affected - NE13, NE15, NE18, NE20, NE22, NE23, NE24, NE60, NE61, NE62, NE63, NE64, NE65, NE66, NE67, NE68, NE69, NE70, NE71 AND TD15. 691 Middlesbrough – All postcodes 446 Halifax/Huddersfield/Wakefield - Will not be delivering to Doncaster area 692 Darlington - Limited service 442 Leeds Bradford - Limited service - Postcodes affected HG, WF 694 Gateshead - All postcodes affected - DH1-9, NE8-11, NE16-92, SR1-43 - Will attempt some business addresses 634 Grantham - All Postcodes affected - LE12-14, NG12-14, NG23-25, NG31-34, PE11, PE20-22 - No service 447 Hull - Roads treacherous will attempt local deliveries only - Postcodes affected - HU, YO15-16, YO25, YO43, DN15-16, DN20, DN31-32, DN34, DN37-41
On December 01 2010 23:34 Templar. wrote: Lol, that just looks like a average day in Canada . I wish my buses would shut down so I didn't have to go to school ;(
I'm used to the snow but I remember two years back when Vancouver had a cold spell the whole fucking city shut down... it was like armageddon... nobody knew how to deal with it.
On December 01 2010 21:00 kerpal wrote: it's not economic in england for the government to spend money preparing and maintaining infrastructure to deal with 1 off freak winters like this one...
personally, i'm in durham, at the heart of it (as far as i know) and i'm loving it! snow is awesome.
This is the only sensible post tbh. It would be ridiculous for the UK to pay as much as it would have to for snow protection especially seen as this is the first time we have had snow in november for donkey's years. Seriously, you nordics laughing about how silly we are to not have realised this happens every year are delusional. Its snowed in the last 3 years for a week. It would seem pointless to prepare for an event that if averaged out over the last thirty/fourty years would likely happen once a year. Also, you seem to misunderstand the british media and our country in general, our favourite pastime is moaning, thats why our news coverage is so good. In general we are wise cynical old scroats who have butlers called winthorpe. So dont take us too seriously when we are moaning and bitching about snow, most of us are enjoying ourselves secretly anyways.
661 Glasgow(Clyde Valley) - No service today 664 Tayside/North Fife - No service today 669 Edinburgh - No service today 513 Nottingham - No service today 444 Sheffield - No service - Heavy snow 449 Lincoln - No service 697 Newcastle North - Postcodes affected - NE13, NE15, NE18, NE20, NE22, NE23, NE24, NE60, NE61, NE62, NE63, NE64, NE65, NE66, NE67, NE68, NE69, NE70, NE71 AND TD15. 691 Middlesbrough – All postcodes 446 Halifax/Huddersfield/Wakefield - Will not be delivering to Doncaster area 692 Darlington - Limited service 442 Leeds Bradford - Limited service - Postcodes affected HG, WF 694 Gateshead - All postcodes affected - DH1-9, NE8-11, NE16-92, SR1-43 - Will attempt some business addresses 634 Grantham - All Postcodes affected - LE12-14, NG12-14, NG23-25, NG31-34, PE11, PE20-22 - No service 447 Hull - Roads treacherous will attempt local deliveries only - Postcodes affected - HU, YO15-16, YO25, YO43, DN15-16, DN20, DN31-32, DN34, DN37-41
I saw this last year and it was hilarious. Best piece of Newswipe IMO. I can understand the UK is being overwhelmed by this early snowfalls this year. As my climate is also very maritime the snow, which is maybe not even half the size as in England, is causing serious traffic jams.
On December 01 2010 23:14 e4e5nf3 wrote: Well one time here in Toronto, Canada the mayor had to call in the army to clear the snow. He never lived that one down.
Canada has an army? WTF?
Anyway, good luck to UK people. We had ridiculous snow last year (the year before was like...3 inches all winter) in New Jersey. 4 different blizzards...3+ feet each time (about 90cm?) And they were perfect timing attacks too. Once everything got cleared enough to open up again after the first storm, the second one hit...and it kept going.
I live in the NE of England and it's been snowing every day for about 5 days, there's about 6 inches of snow on the ground right now and we are simply not equipped to deal with it because it DOESN'T happen every year!
It snowed ridiculously heavily last year and that was an absolute shock to us. Most years the snow doesn't even lay for more than about 12 hours.
So much misinformation in between the 5 or so rational posts.
Rofl.. was in Liverpool last year, in January.. Funny as hell to listen to the English whine about their snow, when it honestly wasn't that bad at all.
On December 02 2010 00:15 Polarn wrote: Rofl.. was in Liverpool last year, in January.. Funny as hell to listen to the English whine about their snow, when it honestly wasn't that bad at all.
Lol @ that youtube video, loved it.
It's just as funny when Scandinavians complain of heatwave when it's like 30-35C ) It's always all over the news as soon as something is warmer than 30C.
On December 02 2010 00:15 Polarn wrote: Rofl.. was in Liverpool last year, in January.. Funny as hell to listen to the English whine about their snow, when it honestly wasn't that bad at all.
Lol @ that youtube video, loved it.
It's just as funny when Scandinavians complain of heatwave when it's like 30-35C ) It's always all over the news as soon as something is warmer than 30C.
Wow, I dunno bro. Over 26C and I can't function anymore..
i think everyone claimed it was the snow stopping them going to school or work but they just wanted to watch Jinro and Idra play in the GSL i know i did
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
That is really the only thing. I live in Vermont and most people are aware that snow on the ground means that you slow down to be safe. We actually have a winter policy to NOT clear the roads completely to save money. If you go elsewhere south of us though the people just do not have the common sense to slow down in order to avoid having an accident.
I took a trip to NJ once and had near white out on the way down with bad road conditions. Once I got to the NJ parkway it was clear and sunny but I also started seeing cars off the road left and right... TLDR: horrible drivers are horrible.
Everyone going on about chaos and everything grinding to a halt really needs to be quiet because they have no idea what they are talking about.
The snow is deep enough that your car can just get straight up stuck on the roads. Unsurprisingly this makes delivering by vehicles difficult.
Since as previously explained this happens like once a decade no everyone does not have a set of winter tyres and although we have gritters and snowplows etc we don't have enough to clear the entire country instantly as soon as it snows. Also it's been snowing almost non stop for days now.
Good times though. Wish I was still at school to take advantage of the closures.
Working 5pm tonight and using public transport to get there. Ground to a halt my ass -_-
On December 02 2010 00:54 eVul wrote: Wish all of you in the UK a better preparation this year!
This has already been explained but you clearly don't get it.
It would be a massive amount of spending to protect against a slim chance.
That is just not mathematically sound when the consequences of not being absolutely prepared are so small.
Do you get it yet?
I did not mean that the lack of preparations are from incompetence, sorry if I was unclear about that. Just meant that I hoped something more has been done so you can enjoy it more instead of having so much problems from it. Just wish everyone could enjoy the winter weather as much as I do without all the problem.
Not saying we are without problem, everything by cable was out this morning and my train was cancelled as well.
This all reminds me of last winter in the Netherlands. We got an extraordinary amount of snow, just like people in the UK are experiencing atm. Every public service was shut down, and the roads were not safe to drive on. After only a few days, the entire country ran out of salt (yes even in supermarkets), tripling the price of it. It was kind of funny, too bad I was in the middle of moving into my new home on the other side of the country hehe.
Cheer up guys, take a few sips of hot chocolate milk and simply enjoy the view. It will pass eventually.
So its "funny" that a country that doesn't usually face more than 2-3mm of snow finds it difficult to deal with snow when it does start to stick to the ground?
It's snowed twice in the last 15 years in my part of the UK, things "ground to a halt" for 2-3 days in those periods. It hasn't snowed here this year either. I'd imagine if we do get a couple of CM's the same thing will happen again. Thats a pretty decent "uptime" overall, and i'm not quite sure why a big deal is to be made of it. Or why it would even slightly concern the rest of EU or america.
Seems pretty trivial and petty, but any excuse to take the piss out of different people eh? ;D
On December 02 2010 00:15 Polarn wrote: Rofl.. was in Liverpool last year, in January.. Funny as hell to listen to the English whine about their snow, when it honestly wasn't that bad at all.
Lol @ that youtube video, loved it.
It's just as funny when Scandinavians complain of heatwave when it's like 30-35C ) It's always all over the news as soon as something is warmer than 30C.
We moan about it being warm too, the UK can whine about anything!
On December 02 2010 01:53 Scrimpton wrote: So its "funny" that a country that doesn't usually face more than 2-3mm of snow finds it difficult to deal with snow when it does start to stick to the ground?
Yes. Yes it is if your used to it.
Wasn't it just last year when the whole of GB was covered in snow? Probably it will be "normal" in a few years...
On December 02 2010 01:53 Scrimpton wrote: So its "funny" that a country that doesn't usually face more than 2-3mm of snow finds it difficult to deal with snow when it does start to stick to the ground?
Yes. Yes it is if your used to it.
Wasn't it just last year when the whole of GB was covered in snow? Probably it will be "normal" in a few years...
If it becomes a normality for the country, then we will obviously have to invest in "anti snow capability". Thus it wont be a problem,
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
On December 02 2010 00:15 Polarn wrote: Rofl.. was in Liverpool last year, in January.. Funny as hell to listen to the English whine about their snow, when it honestly wasn't that bad at all.
Lol @ that youtube video, loved it.
It's just as funny when Scandinavians complain of heatwave when it's like 30-35C ) It's always all over the news as soon as something is warmer than 30C.
Wow, I dunno bro. Over 26C and I can't function anymore..
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Seriously, buy a shovel and drive a bit slower.
Yea. I think in Toronto (which isn't really cold for Canadian standards) that much snow is nothing.
Its a typically British thing, all we do is talk about the bad weather and fail to adapt to snow and ice. Our news everynight is almost entirely devoted to the snow it's hilarious.
The problem we have is that our gritters and snow ploughs are run by local councils who are incompetent at the best of times
Its funny how in England when there is 3cm of snow evrything grinds to a halt. Its prolly becuase not evryone drive a 4x4 like in america (soz for genrlisation) also its because no one has chains also there is not alot of snowplows and people are underprepared.
However atm in reading THERE IS NO ******* SNOW hopefully it will come soon no school ftw!!!
Front-wheel drive handles fine in the snow. Not all of the US drives giant steel boxes that get 5 mpg.
I live in New England and we don't get bombarded by snow every year. We also don't shut down schools unless we're expecting a foot of snow. I've never heard of public transportation getting shut down and businesses rarely close as a result. It's not hard to deal with snow.
Even those of us in the southern parts of the US, like Texas, have salt and ways of dealing with the ice/snow when we get it. We got 13" of snow in a day last year and my university was still open.
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Woah this is 2 minutes up the road from me!!
To be fair though, this is the most snow I've seen in my 19 years of life. Might have something to do with living in Ireland for most of it but scotland seems to deal with it quite well, I even managed to fly back from belfast (which was crippled by frost on the ground) into glasgow and get a train here no problem. Like everyone else though I'm enjoying my uni being closed and being able to wake up to the GSL before a day of snowball fights, sledging and making snowmen :D
really? I get the whole not being prepped for it.. but I live in Ohio which has very fickle weather... one day its 86 the next two days its snowing...
but there are times where the wind/ice is so bad the salt trucks can't get out/be effective... I've driven my mustang on roads where I basically had to idle the entire way... so sorry no sympathy
I live in the Staffordshire Moorlands and this is the worst snow I have ever seen since I moved here as a kid. Can't get into work, which is good cos I hate the job, but can't get supplies either so I might have to trek a mile or so to the village, not looking forward to that at all :/
My Favorite is I was in Austin Texas for CGS combine in 08 and 3cm of snow in dallas shut the airport down and my roomate was suppose to meet me in austin and he called saying he had been stuck in the plane on the runway for 7 hours and they wouldnt let people off.
When they did finally let everyone off they wouldnt give them their luggage because about 1/3 of the people who were attending the combine were renting cars to drive to Austin and a lot of them lost their luggage in the process.
I lol'd so hard cause I could just imagine what they would do up here in Canada with a heavy snow fall
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Well it's only really started happening every year in the last 3 years or so. Before that there was only very, very light snowfall every year. About once a decade we'd have a decent amount. Recently though, weirdly enough, we've been getting quite a bit on an annual basis.
And no. We don't have snow tires.
Yeah, global warming is a myth, so it has nothing to do with all this...
On December 02 2010 02:19 Offhand wrote: Front-wheel drive handles fine in the snow. Not all of the US drives giant steel boxes that get 5 mpg.
I live in New England and we don't get bombarded by snow every year. We also don't shut down schools unless we're expecting a foot of snow. I've never heard of public transportation getting shut down and businesses rarely close as a result. It's not hard to deal with snow.
I agree compleatly with that however if your country is underprepared and no one thinks it will really happen then it becomes a problem. However things in England are ok mostlytrains still run and busses also run normally. However most people wont drive in snow unless they really need to - becasue of the warning on the radio and because dont know how to drive in snow. Also front wheel drives arnt great for snow when there a substantional ammount of it - yes they work but i have seen them get stuck trying to get out of drives etc. I think that its a good thing that people dont drive in teh snow in Englnad considering the ammound of crashes we have.
On December 02 2010 02:28 Sir.Kimmel wrote: really? I get the whole not being prepped for it.. but I live in Ohio which has very fickle weather... one day its 86 the next two days its snowing...
but there are times where the wind/ice is so bad the salt trucks can't get out/be effective... I've driven my mustang on roads where I basically had to idle the entire way... so sorry no sympathy
but its nice you can play in the snow
soz double post but i wanted to rep ;-)
ya we english are very scared of the snow and i know that u other counties have it much worse. But its just the lack of experience with it so people dont know what to do therefore they just stay inside and sit it out.
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Well it's only really started happening every year in the last 3 years or so. Before that there was only very, very light snowfall every year. About once a decade we'd have a decent amount. Recently though, weirdly enough, we've been getting quite a bit on an annual basis.
And no. We don't have snow tires.
Yeah, global warming is a myth, so it has nothing to do with all this...
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
Maybe it's because of where I live (Chicago) but that doesn't seem like a lot of snow. Seems like very light snow in fact. Seems like walking weather, actually.
It is unfortunate though that you guys are apparently so unprepared. I can't imagine trying to function normally in such weather without things like snow tires and routine plowing and whatnot.
On December 02 2010 03:01 zatic wrote: Getting my snow tires Friday.
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
lol how can you work in Munich and not have winter tires in november? it's snowing since 1 week or so here in switzerland, even here on 300m we have a shitload of snow. in the alps they already have meters of snow and -25°C or less. we're pretty used to snow, but such huge amounts in late november doesn't happen every year.
oh and i heard some people say "ololol wtf globalwarming, this is all bullshit", they know nothing. europe is getting colder and colder and around the equator it's getting hotter. but in avarage the planet is getting hotter.
On December 02 2010 03:01 zatic wrote: Getting my snow tires Friday.
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
lol how can you work in Munich and not have winter tires in november? it's snowing since 1 week or so here in switzerland, even here on 300m we have a shitload of snow. in the alps they already have meters of snow and -25°C or less. we're pretty used to snow, but such huge amounts in late november doesn't happen every year.
oh and i heard some people say "ololol wtf globalwarming, this is all bullshit", they know nothing. europe is getting colder and colder and around the equator it's getting hotter. but in avarage the planet is getting hotter.
I was under the impression that the climate stayed the same around the equator, but around the north/south pole it got hotter and hotter?
On December 02 2010 03:01 zatic wrote: Getting my snow tires Friday.
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
lol how can you work in Munich and not have winter tires in november? it's snowing since 1 week or so here in switzerland, even here on 300m we have a shitload of snow. in the alps they already have meters of snow and -25°C or less. we're pretty used to snow, but such huge amounts in late november doesn't happen every year.
oh and i heard some people say "ololol wtf globalwarming, this is all bullshit", they know nothing. europe is getting colder and colder and around the equator it's getting hotter. but in avarage the planet is getting hotter.
I was under the impression that the climate stayed the same around the equator, but around the north/south pole it got hotter and hotter?
don't quote me on the equator thing, maybe someone with more insight can explain it before the thread derails to a discussion about global warming. but winters in europe will be colder
On December 02 2010 03:01 zatic wrote: Getting my snow tires Friday.
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
lol how can you work in Munich and not have winter tires in november? it's snowing since 1 week or so here in switzerland, even here on 300m we have a shitload of snow. in the alps they already have meters of snow and -25°C or less. we're pretty used to snow, but such huge amounts in late november doesn't happen every year.
oh and i heard some people say "ololol wtf globalwarming, this is all bullshit", they know nothing. europe is getting colder and colder and around the equator it's getting hotter. but in avarage the planet is getting hotter.
do you know how much snow there is around chambery?:o
On December 02 2010 03:01 zatic wrote: Getting my snow tires Friday.
Unfortunately I am in Munich 300km away from my tires. I just slided over 3 red lights on my attempt to make it back to the hotel from work. Took me forever and at several points I was close to crashing. If it continues to snow like this tonight I'll be stuck here, fuck.
lol how can you work in Munich and not have winter tires in november? it's snowing since 1 week or so here in switzerland, even here on 300m we have a shitload of snow. in the alps they already have meters of snow and -25°C or less. we're pretty used to snow, but such huge amounts in late november doesn't happen every year.
oh and i heard some people say "ololol wtf globalwarming, this is all bullshit", they know nothing. europe is getting colder and colder and around the equator it's getting hotter. but in avarage the planet is getting hotter.
do you know how much snow there is around chambery?:o
no i don't, but like everywhere in the alps huge amounts. got this from their website:
"Neige exceptionnelle : Différez l'utilisation de votre véhicule
En raison des chutes de neiges exceptionnelles en cours, la Préfecture de Savoie et la municipalité de Chambéry recommandent vivement à la population de différer l'utilisation des véhicules afin de permettre aux services de voirie d'intervenir tout au long de la journée. Tous les moyens disponibles sont mis en oeuvre pour dégager les chaussées, mais la quantité de neige exceptionnelle rend les opérations difficiles. Merci de votre compréhension." http://www.chambery.fr/
On December 01 2010 23:14 e4e5nf3 wrote: Well one time here in Toronto, Canada the mayor had to call in the army to clear the snow. He never lived that one down.
Canada has an army? WTF?
Anyway, good luck to UK people. We had ridiculous snow last year (the year before was like...3 inches all winter) in New Jersey. 4 different blizzards...3+ feet each time (about 90cm?) And they were perfect timing attacks too. Once everything got cleared enough to open up again after the first storm, the second one hit...and it kept going.
All I can say is....gas up.
ofcourse, who else did you think is in the middle east helping you out with your war on... oh who knows at this point. Anyways.. For something that's happening over and over you'd think this would be easy to fix up at this point in time..
Same thing happens in Texas where I live. Once every year we will get only about a inch or two of snow and when it comes the entire Dallas area goes into complete panic and everyone with a car decides to go out and get in a wreck. Last year we got like 6-8 inches in one day though which is unheard of.
We don't even get a snow day when it is -40 degrees celcius in the Praries (Canada). Although I did live in Vancouver for most of my life and a similar city-wide standstill comes into effect when snow comes down.
I wish we could get stuff shutting down just because of a little snow. Less classes = win.
Edit : Ya, last year was under -40 with windchill during my finals, i had like 3 layers of everything for my walk to school. And put on my skii goggles. I love SK.
On December 02 2010 04:47 Robeezy wrote: Same thing happens in Texas where I live. Once every year we will get only about a inch or two of snow and when it comes the entire Dallas area goes into complete panic and everyone with a car decides to go out and get in a wreck. Last year we got like 6-8 inches in one day though which is unheard of.
Was way more then that, where I'm at in Dallas, it was 13" for that day. Work was not fun, seeing as how, even when its an 1" of snow people get into tons of wrecks, so I had a fun and eventful workday.
We have the same thing here in the Netherlands, though the majority of the roads were salted after the first day. Problem is that my neighborhood has pretty slippy roads at the moment and the municipalities never salt this area
In any case, winter tires are sold out here until like February 2011, lol.
The council gritted the major roads around here (se london/kent) so I went to Bluewater earlier hoping the snow would make it less crowded than usual during peak hours at this time of year. If you're not from UK and don't know what Bluewater is, it's one of the biggest shopping centres/malls in europe. Turns out that not only was it less crowded, it was a ghost town and all the shops had shut early. The only things we could find open were Burger King and the cinemas. It was surreal seeing Bluewater nearly empty and it felt like we were the few survivors left in a post apocalyptic zombie infested world. That's 300 closed shops and restaurants in a super busy huge mall during xmas shopping season, the losses for businesses there must have been massive. And I didn't get to buy the stuff i wanted or eat somewhere good fml! Is all this purely being seen as failure by the council to sufficiently grit all roads? Or do you think people are to blame too for underpreparation and not having a set of winter/snow tyres?
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Woah this is 2 minutes up the road from me!!
To be fair though, this is the most snow I've seen in my 19 years of life. Might have something to do with living in Ireland for most of it but scotland seems to deal with it quite well, I even managed to fly back from belfast (which was crippled by frost on the ground) into glasgow and get a train here no problem. Like everyone else though I'm enjoying my uni being closed and being able to wake up to the GSL before a day of snowball fights, sledging and making snowmen :D
Really?! You should come to the next Twitch gaming meet up!
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Seriously, buy a shovel and drive a bit slower.
lol that's actually my neighbor's car/garden. Some old lady, don't think she's used her car in a few days lol.
EPT
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. I wish my buses would shut down so I didn't have to go to school ;(
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