Thursday, January 21, 2010

Post 400: Snow watch round up

Leg 4.

Well I got to Day 4 and stopped posting, mainly because after that the persistence of the snow and ice, it was all beginning to sap my strength and certainly the enjoyment factor. Driving everywhere in 2nd gear and being barely able to maintain speed and direction can get a bit tiresome after a while.

As far as I can remember it snowed on the 8th lightly giving a further 0.5 cm of snow around 6 - 7 in the evening.

Then it snowed heavily on the 13th January and it seemed to be a lot worse in Oxford. The snow was so bad that morning I am surprised the police did not say only travel if necessary. Everyone was trying to get into work and the worst of the snow hit the rush hour. It was not a good day, on the way to work I was bouncing off the curbs trying to maintain direction. The snow was falling heavily, the roads becoming impassible and I decided to turn around and go home while I still could.

Then by Thursday the ice rink roads had cleared again.

All the snow cleared by that weekend although some of the piles still haven't quite gone even now.

Leg 5 - 20 January 2010

A bit of a damp squib, yesterday there was some very wet snow which did kind of settle slightly on the grass but soon melted away in the rain.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Snow Watch 09/10 - Leg 4 Day 4

Well Day 4 and although the snow is lovely, having to drive to work is a nightmare.

In Oxfordshire they are being very sparing with the grit which means any local roads are still covered in snow / ice and not good to drive on at all. The difference can be seen driving north off the A34 onto the A41 towards Aylesbury.

A34 gritted and maintained by the Highways Agency perfect, no snow or slush able to made near normal speeds of about 50 mph. Both Lanes open. The A41 the other side of the M40 roundabout maintained by Oxfordshire County Council, one lane vaguely clear, one lane covered in snow passable by the brave and 4 x 4's. Its pretty pathetic really.

Other local roads even if they don't grit they could at least use a snow plough on them. There is almost 2-3 inches of compacted snow which is getting quite treacherous.

I know the arguments about it being a 1 in 40 year event, other areas are getting priority gritting etc etc. Surely there are contingency plans. Someone who set themselves up with a snowplough and a warehouse full of grit could make a lot of money at the moment.

Plan A,

  • set up a massive southern counties Depot containing at least one months grit for the entire south.
  • put in a rail terminal, get rid of the lorries and make it a lot easier to get the grit out and deliver to any point over the rail network.
  • Seek alternative supplies, perhaps you don't have to use grit, what about sand, maybe even chalk?
  • Organise volunteers to shovel, grit and snowplough. Everyone would muck in if it was organised. This goes back to the civil emergencies force I have talked about previously.
  • Create laws making householders responsible for their own pavements and driveways.
  • create a fleet of flame-thrower ice vehicle, which burns the ice off the road.
  • Send 40 MP's on an all expenses paid trip to Sweden to find out how they do it (Joking - although this is the one thing most likely to happen).
Any more ideas to help the experts because clearly they need some?

On another subject by the look of the met office weather warnings the heavy snow possible for leg 5 has moved from Sunday / Monday to Saturday / Sunday. Apparently we can expect another 1 - 5 cm of snow.

Watch this space.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Snow Watch 09/10 - Leg 4 update

Wow leg 4 was a complete blast, it snowed for around 15 hours and we ended up with a good eleven inches of snow. I went wading in it early this morning, it was so much fun.

Thats the end of this leg unless you count when the snow gets very compacted, icy and very dangerous.

However leg 5 is already in the offing with a new early warning of heavy snow on Sunday. I somehow down the 11 inches will have vanished by then. If it keeps on coming we could end up with a Candadian style winter. I even saw tracks in the snow which proved somebody had been using snow chains.

Here are some snowy pictures from Chadster, North Oxfordshire.

Last night 05/01, 2000- 2300 about 3 inches of lying snow.























































Some Photos taken approx 1645 today 06/01 with approx 11 inches of lying snow


Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Leg 4 - Very Heavy Snowfal

This is the first time I have ever seen a flash warning for very heavy snow in my area.

& South East England:
Hampshire
Oxfordshire
W Berkshire
Very Heavy Snowfall 2000 Tue 5 1100 Wed 6

There is a high risk of an extreme weather event affecting parts of Southern England this evening and overnight. A period of exceptionally heavy snowfall is expected with accumulations of 15-30 cm and perhaps in excess of 40 cm. This is expected to cause widespread disruption to the transport network and could lead to problems with power supplies.

The public are advised to take extreme care and refer to the Highways Agency for further advice on traffic disruption on motorways and trunk roads.

Issued at: 1633 Tue 5 Jan


Extracted from the met office website at 1855 hrs on 05/01/10. Please check the website for further details as it may have been updated since then.

Chek it out "accumulations of 15-20 cm and perhaps in excess of 40cm", I so want to see what "excess of 40 cm" means, that is heading towards a foot and a half of snow which is half way up to my knees. I have having a snowtasm here.

To update on the history of snow in Oxfordshire for today. I was at work just north of Oxford and it started snowing lightly at 1530 hrs approx. This continued and become what can be described as light but persistent steady snow. Given that the ground was already frozen it was settling happy, even with just a few flakes. I left work to drive home when the ground was lightly covered with no sign of a let up. Better to be safe than sorry. Driving home was cool, no one told me that driving in snow is like being in star wars as the snow flakes come from a point of origin towards you. Driving home was a bit slow as a lot of people probably had the same idea as me and one or two people refused to go above 4o miles an hour. The roads were completely clear and I got home safely.

Since then it has continued being light but persistent and is slowly building up on the ground. On the ground now is approx 0.5 cm. It is expected to snow for at least the next twelve hours but at current fall rate I would only expect 3 - 5 cm. However the weather warning is in effect from 2000 hrs tonight and if the rate increases then accumulations of the sort they talk about in the weather warning above are very possible.

More updates as they come in to the snow desk here in Chadster, North Oxfordshire.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Snow Watch 2009/2010 leg 3

I think leg 2 was between the 21 - 25 of December when I was on holiday so I missed that observation and so will call this leg 3.

Leg 3 is a heavy dusting of snow observed now although it seems to only be a shower. Nothing was on the met office web site and we were even expecting it. A London snow watcher who happened to be visiting for the weekend has also confirmed the observation.

It has settled giving a light covering over the ground, may even go for a walk in a while.

It has been reported to the Met Office via their snow report page which seems not to recognise 2010 so I had to submit it as the 01/01/09. Modern technology eh?

More snow reports will undoubtedly follow in what seems to be shaping up to be a great snow season.