Snow watch snow day

Wow for the first time since I moved to Oxfordshire I have been unable to get to work by public transport. It was touch and go yesterday with a bus finally turning up. Today the bus turned up got half way there and then the bus drivers says the service is being suspended due to the heavy snow and it was heavy and they would be turning back so we would not get stranded. I would think I must have been on one of the last running buses in Oxfordshire this morning. Services were suspended at 0945 and I think I got back about 0900.

"Updated 06/02/09 0945

All services except the Oxford Tube have been suspended due to heavy snow."

-Oxfordshire Stagecoach buses website.

So here I am having a snow day, so who knows what I will get upto. Probably more posts later.

What a snow week

Well what a week it has been, finally got a solid three inches of snow last night, lots of good powder snow to wake up to this morning. It was the good fall of snow that was forecast in the linked article. Ok so Oxfordshire only made 3 inches but it was still good and who knows what tonight will bring.

Some useful tips from the AA in that article:

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means you are on ice."

-AA spokesperson

Of course there are other options that can be considered in such an eventuality if you are not on ice:

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means all that nagging about driving too fast by your passenger has finally burst your eardrum."

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means that your car is flying into open space having just driven over a cliff edge obscured by snow."

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means that the RAF have just airlifted another damn fool that tried to drive to work in 10 inches of snow."

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means that the hamster has run out of energy."

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means that you have adapted and installed skies on your car."

"If you are driving along and you cannot hear your wheels turning that probably means that your dreaming of the days when the roads were gritted."

I could go on, but I wont. By the way the standard disclaimer applies, these sounded funny in my head by the time they escaped out onto the internet they may have been the equivalent of a pair of Bermuda shorts in a snow storm. Just not funny or cool.

Then Barry Gromett, forecaster at the Met Office, indicates he needs to go back to college when he suggests:

"We're certainly not out of the woods yet"

I personally wasn't aware I was in a wood. Perhaps he means that next we will get a heavy wood storm with logflakes as big as your fist. Mr Cliche himself goes on to talking about fighting and cooking:

"It looks like the cold air will win the battle and it's a recipe for some more snow. "

The Winston Churchill / Gordon Ramsey approach to weather forecasting. We shall fight snow on the beaches, we shall fight snow on the landing grounds, we shall fight snow in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight snow in the hills; we shall never surrender unless you live in Gloucestershire in which case you surrender when you run out of salt. The Gordon Ramsey recipe approach of seasoning the snow with a bit of salt and some grit for texture just wont work any more. Plus the Gordon Ramsey approach of shouting at and shaming the snow is just a waste of time .

That it for now, I am off to battle the camera for some snow pictures which may be a recipe for blogging success.

More Snow heading our way

From Wednesday night through Thursday and Friday we can expect more heavy snow including a low risk of an exceptionally severe weather event in Oxfordshire, whatever that means. Although indications would suggest that it means between 10-20 cm of snow.

Watch this space. Photos from the early part of the week to follow soon.