Snow Chaos!!

[Martin]

Heavy snowfall has brought London and the South East of England to a standstill this morning (as usual). Unlike other parts of the globe we always get caught out by a few centimetres of snow despite the advance warnings. Virtually all airports and overland trains are either closed or suspended with more snow forecast for today.

Our friends in the USA who are used to, and prepared for such conditions must find this very amusing!

Anyway, it means that I have to work from home today.

No sign of Richard yet on the forum so he must be affected also and no doubt some UK members will be able to post some spectacular photos in due course.

Martin

[drew]

From Transport for London:

ALL LONDON BUSES HAVE BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM SERVICE DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER AND DANGEROUS ROAD CONDITIONS.

Stay on the beach Hayley.

[roger]

Hi Drew,

I think she may find it difficult to stay on the beach because, according to what she said in a recent video, she should be back here by now. If not, she must be on her way as her first concert (in Rhyl) is only four days away.

Currently about 5cm of snow in Sussex!

Roger

[grant]

Hi Roger and everyone

I am also assuming that Hayley is back in London as I believe she has an engagement of some sort tomorrow. If you remember, 3rd Feb.was the date initially proposed for the rescheduled Southend concert but their letter says "Hayley would be unavailable for that date" - I doubt she would still be travelling then.

Regardless, if she is back in London, I wonder how she is feeling leaving a summery Christchurch and waking up to snow this morning!

If I were you Hayley, I'd stay in bed!

Best wishes
Grant

[Richard]

Hello folks!

I made it eventually, but I had to walk to the Tube station because the buses aren't running this morning. Fortunately we don't often see snow like this in London.

Richard

[Dean McCarten]

I do wonder does NZ get snow?

However in south cumbria, The snow has now cleared for the most part.

Dean

[comet]

Hayley regularly mentions New Zealand's snow capped mountains when she introduces the song May It Be.

NZ is between 35 and 46 degrees south of the equator London is at about 51 degrees north of the equator. New Zealand weather is very similar to ours but in reverse order with Christmas being about their mid summer

[Andrew]

Feb 2, 2009 11:09:42 GMT Dean McCarten said:

I do wonder does NZ get snow?

However in south cumbria, The snow has now cleared for the most part.

Dean

Hi Dean,

Of course! Hayley often evokes images in our minds of the snow-capped mountains and the wilderness across the Canterbury plains, before she introduces, 'May It Be'...

Having said that I guess residents of NZ don't often wake up to several cm/ inches of snow ground cover...

(Aberdeen hasn't had any snow recently... only hail)

Andrew

[grant]

Hello everyone (but particularly Martin )

I have had a fairly busy day today despite the snow, so didn't have a lot of time for photography. I did however manage a brief foray to the outskirts of Spondon to capture Locko Park in the snow.

Mind you, I didn't stay long as I had forgotten my gloves and it was bloo very cold!!

Best wishes
Grant

[Martin]

Hi Grant
Thanks for the photos but you call that snow! :wink: Come south and you'll see real snow!

Best wishes
Martin

[Andrew]

Hi Grant,

You've "forgotten to cover your tracks" in all of your photographs...

C'mon - face it Grant... you were just looking for an excuse to get your toboggan out weren't you?





Andrew

[martindn]

Feb 2, 2009 11:09:42 GMT Dean McCarten said:

I do wonder does NZ get snow?

Dean

Not much I suspect, apart from in the mountains. The snow we are experiencing is because of something called a Continental Polar airstream, bringing us air from a cold pool over Russia (warmed somewhat by crossing the North Sea, in winter it typically has a temperature close to the freezing point)..
NZ doesn't have a nearby continent to allow such a cold pool to develop. Any air reaching NZ will therefore have crossed a lot of sea, and will have a temperature similar to that of the sea surface (in Winter anyway, when the warming effect of the sun shining on the land is least) rather like winter winds from the Atlantic in Britain.. Only if the wind drops, allowing radiative cooling, will it get cold there.

Martin

[graemek]

Hi All & loved your pics Grant !!!,
The South Island of NZ gets enough high snow to run hydro-electric power generation with the runoff. Summer time too, so I was told.

pic from wordpress.com
Graeme

[Nordly]

I don't find it amusing that the UK is having snow problems. This has been a really snowy/icey year! My family is particularily affected by that as not all of us like snow and our driveway is very steep and gets almost no sunlight. To make matters worse, we have rear wheel drive so we can't drive to the house.

Personally, I like the snow. It is so pretty!

~NL

[martindn]

Hi NL,

Yes, what we are experiencing here must be very small beer to you. But here it seems to cause so much trouble!

I know where you are coming from, since many years ago I lived in Sweden for a while, within the Arctic Circle. Over there they expect snow on the ground for eight or nine months of the year, and they just deal with it. I'm sure it is the same in Canada.
The problem in lowland Britain in the south at least, is that snow events are so rare, even more so these days with the warmer climate. Perhaps once in a decade we can expect serious disruption. So we do not expect it, and are not ready for it. Drivers are not used to driving on icy roads, so every snowfall brings is crop of road accidents. Traffic grinds to a halt.
The last time it happened I was stuck at work. The hill out of Rugby was gridlocked, and the lorries could not get up it because of the snow. The road was blocked and the gritters could not get through.
The time before that I narrowly avoided having to spend the night in a car on the M11! I know someone who did!
And we are talking of no more than a couple of inches of snow.

Martin