First snow

[Demon Cleaner]

So who of you had already snow this winter?

In Luxembourg it started yesterday evening around 8, and this morning it was still snowing, although not a lot, and the highways were already pretty clean at 6. We had about 6-7 cm and it continues snowing, but it's 0 degrees, so at the moment, the snow is basically melting straight away.

[Stephen Coates]

We had a thin covering of snow last night, but it had gone by this morning.

[Tiago]

14 degrees here, i don't see rain i don't know how many days... snow?... what's is snow..??
Last time i saw it was in Switzerland 2 or 3 years ago.

[Harrison]

The news and papers tried to scare the UK last week, saying we needed to prepare for the worst winter and snow this week, and continuing for 3 months.

So far I have had a lot of rain and some very sunny afternoons. If has been quite cold, about 3 degrees, but no signs of snow.

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[Phantom]

Lucky bastards, we have full of rain, but no snow as usual. Hey Charlie, pack me some snow and send it to Crete please.

[Teho]

Been dry here and looks like it will stay that way for a while. It's cold enough for snow though, but not so bad yet. Temperature stays at around -5C. Makes for some nice and icy roads in the mornings, great fun watching the idiots who haven't changed their tyres be surprised by november ice and/or snow in Norway. There are some every year. You'd think everyone would be familiar with this here, right?

[Harrison]

Is it law to fit winter tyres there or just up to the driver?

I don't really have much knowledge of them here as we would probably need them about 5 days of the year at most. What is different about them?

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[Demon Cleaner]

Since this year it's mandatory in Luxembourg to have winter tires. If you're in an accident, and you don't have them, you will get a big fine.

[Teho]

It's law. It only says you need to have the right tyres for the conditions you're driving in. You get fined pretty heavily if you're caught with poor tyres as you're a danger to everyone, not just yourself. There are also dates between which you can't use steel-studded winter tyres as they wear down the roads faster and cause more pollution in the form of dust particles. They're also noisier.

Winter tyres come in two forms, with or without steel-studs. Which you want depends on what surface you'll be driving on most. Both are pretty much equal on snow (there's a fierce debate every year among people on what is best, but neither of them is poor, so it really doesn't matter). Steel-studded ones are far superior on ice though, so if you're driving on a lot of icy roads you definitely should have them. But most roads whithin towns and cities are salted which clears the ice, and so are the motorways, and the studless tyres are way better for driving on dry or wet asphalt. So most people these days use them. But they are not that great on ice, and particularily on wet ice they are next to useless. You could ask why change from summer tyres at all if you're only driving on salted roads. And I guess you could leave it, if you're intelligent enough to not use the car when there's fresh snow or ice. Which most aren't. "But I had to get to work somehow". Then you had to have winter tyres too, moron. There's always a number of these. Every year. Never fails.

Exactly how the studless tyres and summer tyres are different is in the treads and in the softness of the compound. I don't know exactly how they work, but while looking similar there is definitely a huge difference in how they behave on various surfaces. Curious actually, but yeah, winter tyres work wonders on snow while summer tyres might as well be oiled slicks on it.

You could in theory just have studless winter tyres on your car year-round, nobody's stopping you. But they are made of a much softer compound and will wear out much faster. Since there are also strict laws on how worn a winter tyre can be, you'd practically have to get a new set every year which is expensive. So it's normal to change to summer tyres in spring.

[Kin Hell]

Lucky bastards, we have full of rain, but no snow as usual. Hey Charlie, pack me some snow and send it to Crete please.

LOL Antonis. No snow here I'm afraid. Just gorgeous sunshine the last 2 days despite temps as low as 4 Deg C.

I love sharp & sunny crisp days.

Ask DonAmiga for some Snow. I'm sure they've had plenty in Scotland already.