Snow

Did you get any snow? How much?

Any pics to share with everyone?

We had a fair bit Sunday night in Chichester and the roads were not very good Monday morning. There were reports of loads of problems in the area. But the main roads were clear when we ventured out later in the day. Although going into Hampshire the roads were worse.

It snowed again Tuesday night but not as much and it's now started to melt :(

Here is a pic of the snowman we made. :lol: Plus one of the road by my parents house and some cool icicles.

I was most disappointed. There was all this talk about tonnes and tonnes of snow and as where I live is at a fairly high altitude (one road near us has been known to be closed due to snow as late as June before now in a mild winter) I was expecting loads. We had a small amount Sunday night, Heavier snow falls at evening rush hour on the Monday night (@ Harrison. How did you predict that there was a lot of snow on the Tuesday night when you made the post on the Tuesday afternoon?) but it still only ended up as about 2 inches. (Dvorak's New World symphony playing in the background) When I were a lad in the mid to late 70's early 80's you used to be able to go to school through tunnels dug in the snow drifts. A heavy snow fall was measured in foot not inches. Personally I blame the southern Pansies for nicking all our snow and then not being able to cope wi' it as they wouldn't know what a 'ard days work trudging through t' snow i' like.;).....(The reminiscing goes on for hours degrading into the "Four Yorkshiremen" Sketch from "At last the 1948 Show" with all four Yorkshiremen being played by the voices in Buleste's head.)

OK typo. I meant Monday night. ;)

And we used to have a lot more snow every year in the south too. I remember one year in the late 70's having enough to make an igloo in the front garden! :lol:

Snow?
In Lisbon? That would be a nice!

We got a nice amount. Still not enough, but much more than we have had in previous years. To get an idea, here are some photos that I took at 2:30am on Monday:

http://stevecoates.net/snow/SNOW2.jpg
http://stevecoates.net/snow/SNOW3.jpg

And here is the same place on monday evening:
http://stevecoates.net/snow/moresnow.jpg

I went for a walk on monday and took these:
http://stevecoates.net/snow/snow5.jpg - Bawtry Road (dual carriageway)
http://stevecoates.net/snow/woods.jpg - Herringthorpe Woods

Of course, most of the schools and colleges shut early, as did a lot of businesses. My Mum only got back from her skiing holiday on monday and couldn't see what the fuss was about as she has just spent the last week in several feet of snow.

Some of the snow is disappearing now but it will remain icey for a while as here in Rotherham we have lows of -2 for the next few days (source: Met Office).

Luckily transport hasn't been affected too badly here, not like it was in London anyway, but I will definately be walking to college (about 4 miles) just to be on the safe side. I am completely against this idea of everywhere closing and not going anywhere just because of small amounts of snow, and I therefore wouldn't want to risk being late due to snow delaying the busses.

Not that that will make much difference on thrusday anyway as the University and College Lecturers union is on strike on thrusday, meaning that instead of being in college from 9am till 7pm we only have to go in for the first hour (some teachers arn't on strike). On thrusday we are mixed with the people who do the part time version of our course and most of them drive cars from Sheffield, so I would like to see how many of them make it in on time.

You might be getting a lot of snow on Thursday Steve. Just on the weather they said that more snow will be coming from the north, falling on Scotland on Wednesday, and a different lot of snow will be coming from the south falling on the coast, but by Wednesday these will both be moving in to the middle of the country and converging, producing a double amount of snow. So Yorkshire might be in for a load of snow!

It snowed again here today, but it still looks about the same. The earlier snow melted a bit, but the new slow replenished it. We are however forecast to get more tonight.

MMM snow. I need to go back to some, good stuff

According to the local news we (the Staffordshire Moorlands) are expecting 20-30cm of snow tonight so hopefully that'll be the start of a good winter.

Take some pictures to show us if you get loads of snow. And don't forget to find time to make a nice snowman! :lol:

From what it said on the news the local council :spits: are almost out of grit for the roads so it could be fun for people going to work.:lol:

If I can find some kids to cover in snow then I'll take some pictures of the snow kids instead.;)

We have just had a load more snow here. Probably the same as we had Sunday night! Bit annoyed as I had only washed the car windows this afternoon and made then clear again.

I also saw about the councils running out of grit on the news today. Mad to think they are that unprepared! I bet the owners of the grit/salt quarry in the UK now has a big smile on his face with the orders of more grit that will be coming in.

We've just had loads more snow in the early hours, and it's still coming down!
I've even taken a picture!

http://woody-cool.no-ip.biz/pics/snow-05-02-2009.jpg

OMG :shock:
That's the most snow Northampton has seen in years!

Whilst it still snowing here it looks like the weather forecasters were lying again. at best we had 2 inches which considering our altitude is pathetic.

Attachment 301

Yeah, we only had about 2or 3 inches last night too. They definitely said it would be much more than that, especially from all the reports I had been hearing on the radio last night about the blizzard conditions in Salisbury, which isn't that far away!

And when I got up this morning it was raining, so was already doing a good job of melting the snow.

It has been snowing quite heavily today.

Went to college for my maths test, but the teacher didn't turn up so I'm guessing he couldn't get there.

Got the bus back, which terminated early (luckily it terminated at my stop). As soon as I got off it was announced on the radio that all First Mainline busses are cancelled. Don't know about other operators.

Here is the view from my bedroom today: http://stevecoates.net/snow/thrusday.jpg

That doesn't look like as much snow as we've had in the south from that last pic. Mad how our public transport system grinds to a halt at the first sign of cold weather!

Well, this morning I had a long journey ahead of me, as I was supposed to be driving to Kent .... yep that's right KENT .... from Northampton ..... in that snow!
So, I set off, and it was slow going, with only one route out of Northampton that was actually moving (no cars stuck etc.) so I took that, got on to the M1 and it wasn't to bad (although a bit slippy)
Anyway, once I got past Newport Pagnell services, the traffic problems were down to non-existent. Once I got down to the M25 though, things changed ..... the snow had been traded for heavy rain and really thick fog ..... so now I could drive in a straight line without skidding, but couldn't see a damn thing :lol:
Anyway, I got there in the end ..... set off at approx. 8:00 and arrived at my destination at 12:00 .... what a bloody journey!
I've got to do the same thing tomorrow evening (although back to Northampton) ..... wish me luck!

Well last night we had some more snow. Still not as much as they said but tonight we're looking at more again.

Attachment 302

The rather pathetic snowman (Bert) was made by my niece and nephew on Saturday with what remained of the old snow and looked bad before the new snow fal but now just looks awful.

No snow here any longer. Just lots of heavy rain and flooding!

I bet Australia would really like some snow about now! Those fires are really bad.

I've just had quite a fun drive. At the moment along with the snow there's very thick fog with visibility down to 50 feet in places, people driving in the fog with no lights on, because of the snow it makes the fog worse because every thing's either white or black and all that's along some very windy roads (fortunately gritted as Staffordshire did get a large delivery of grit just before) littered with broken down cars. It was quite interesting.

Why are there so many idiots driving without their lights on in bad weather?

Driving along the M27 today the rain was so bad that the spay was like fog, with viability down to probably 100 feet in some bits. But some people didn't even have side lights on and you couldn't even see the normal rear lights of cars with their lights on. I, along with a few others, had their fog lights on, and it was needed. Not many did though so it made it really hard to see many of the cars until you were quite close to them.

But why not put any lights on at all? That is just madness! And lorries and big vans too.

So many people also only think you are allowed to use fog lights in fog. In reality they can be used when road visibility to reduced to under 150 yards!

Like I say quite interesting. There's nothing like driving in thick fog with visibility of about 50-100 foot when all of a sudden something big and black either appears in the rear view mirror with no lights or in front of you. It made turning at junctions interesting. Every right turn you make you're bracing for an impact. And don't even talk to me about lack of indicators or the tail gating that was going on.

So you're still allowed to drive without the lights on there I take it? Must be ten years or so since it became law to have the lights on at all times here. On most new cars these days you can't turn them off even if you want to. You can reduce them to parking lights, but setting the switch to the off position is the same as the normal running lights position. The off position on the switches still say "off" or "0", I guess they just switch the relay for a different one on the cars that are shipped here.

Point was, from your complaints I guess making it law to have the lights on at all times here was a good idea.

Don't forget that the weather conditions and amount of light in winter is much worse there than in the UK. When the weather is nice it isn't nice when cars driving towards you have their headlights on, as they dazzle you.

Not a problem here. But I think the legal limit to how bright the lights can be is also very low here compared to other places. Also the lights are capped below eyelevel so they don't shine directly into other people's faces. On the other hand, all cars are also equipped with high beams here. But these can only be used when there are no other cars in line of sight and there are no roadlights.

It's the same here with dipped and high beams. However there seem to be a lot of cars with badly adjusted dipped beams, or you get idiots driving along the motorways with their full beams on and not seeming to realise (or care). How can you tell them to dip them? Or rear fog lights on when it's daylight! That really annoys me too.

What is the maximum brightness of headlights in Norway? In the UK factory standards are 55W for dipped, and 60W for full beams. However you can get non legal uprated aftermarket bulbs. I have Philips X-Treme Power bulbs in mine and they do create a much whiter light which is clearer at night and much brighter.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

It's the same here with dipped and high beams. However there seem to be a lot of cars with badly adjusted dipped beams, or you get idiots driving along the motorways with their full beams on and not seeming to realise (or care). How can you tell them to dip them? Or rear fog lights on when it's daylight! That really annoys me too.

What is the maximum brightness of headlights in Norway? In the UK factory standards are 55W for dipped, and 60W for full beams. However you can get non legal uprated aftermarket bulbs. I have Philips X-Treme Power bulbs in mine and they do create a much whiter light which is clearer at night and much brighter.

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And great for targeting bunnies!!!!;)

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How can you tell them to dip them?

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Common method here is to flash your own high beams at them. Everybody does this, also at people who have no lights on at all. It's so common that if you meet someone who is flashing his lights, your gut reaction is to check your own. And the level of the dipped lights is one of the many things that are checked at the vehicle safety inspection or whatever you called it every two years. The car won't pass if that isn't fixed.

The limit of the light's brightness is determined by the amount of lux it gives off. Had to look this up, for the highbeams it's no more than 360 lux. And it actually doesn't say for the dipped ones. That's surprising, it's the official inspection guidelines I'm looking at and there doesn't appear to be a limit? Can't be right. There is a point there about "illegal bulbs" but it doesn't specify anything. Odd.

You only have inspections every two years? In the UK we have something similar called the MOT and you have to have it done when your car reaches 3 years old, and then every year after that.

As for flashing your headlights at the other car. Yes, I try it, but most often it is ignored. It only works if an on coming car has his lights up and you flash them to turn them down. But flashing your headlights can also mean you are letting the on coming car through in the UK. Something which can get messy if UK drivers visit France where flashing an on coming car means you are coming through, and they should get out of your way! So you could be sat there all day if you flashed a Frenchman to let them by.

A webcam over the "city" where I live....
http://www.storuman.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=229

Its been more snow here but its still some snow tho.. :)

So you are in Lapland, Sweden? Nice :)

You definitely get quite a bit more snow that the UK! :lol: And I think you could teach our government and local authorities a thing or two about how to deal with snow! In the UK everything turns to chaos at the sight of 1 cm of snow! It's mad. All the trains get delayed or stopped, the public transport (buses) all stop running, motorists have no idea how to drive in adverse weather conditions and still try to drive the same way, skidding and slipping on ice and crashing into other cars and barriers on the motorways. Is just stupid.

Some very good pictures Steve.
Good quality camera or just general expertise on your part?
Bit worried that you took one of a house with a red light on in the room upstairs though. ;)

First bit of decent snow here in a long time.
The local kids actually got the chance to make a snowman for a change.
Only one night and the following day but still.

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Originally Posted by svebbe

A webcam over the "city" where I live....
http://www.storuman.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=229

Its been more snow here but its still some snow tho.. :)

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Nice to see another Scandinavian here. Tjenare! Hur er läget? :)

We've got tons of snow as well. Have spent quite a bit of time shoveling lately, that's for sure. It doesn't help that the big tractors they have here sprays all of the snow from the road into our parking space either. :p

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Originally Posted by TiredOfLife

Some very good pictures Steve.
Good quality camera or just general expertise on your part?
Bit worried that you took one of a house with a red light on in the room upstairs though. ;)

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I did it with my Samsung A6, which cost £200 when it was new in 2005, and it is a good camera. Was not really expertise as I just sat it on top of some book on the windowsill and set a long shutter speed (about 15 seconds). I did determine that it was better with a smaller aperture and longer shutter speed than it was with a big aperture and shorter shutter speed.

I believe that the red light is caused by the curtains.

Setting a camera up in a static position, pointing at a room displaying a red light, and using a long exposure... we believe you Steve! ;)