Yikes! European Snow Storms!

[3113]

Heavy snow disrupted air travel across Europe on Saturday, while rail services and roads were also affected by the blast of wintry weather. The fresh snow brought much of Britain to a standstill, on what is traditionally the busiest weekend for shopping and travel in the run-up to Christmas. London's Gatwick airport closed its runway due to snow, while British Airways suspended all flights from London's Heathrow airport.

At Gatwick, 47 snow plows and 150 staff were deployed in an effort to clear the airport's runway. In a statement, Heathrow said more snow was expected and that staff were "planning for the worst."

Airports in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark also reported cancellations or delays. Officials in France asked airlines to cut flights to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport by 15 percent in the afternoon, RFI reported on its website.

More here.

Attn. all European AHers, please check in and let us know that you're still alive. If you're buried under snow and need a rescue, we'll send in our European sled dogs (straight from the Netherlands) to get you out!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mA3V6cn8Huw/R16l6mKQz2I/AAAAAAAABMU/J8gCAa8HGk0/s400/santaandreindeer.gif

Those really are the strangest looking dogs....

We were going to send out Fifi from France, but she said she really could not. "What, after all, would be the point?" she asked us.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iyLQNlE2JRg/SaQzmRb6oBI/AAAAAAAAAYc/nqG5N3FGBrc/s400/File_66.jpg

 

[TxRad]

Those are some strange and horny dogs ya got there 13 and a really gay guy driving the team.

Maybe it's another mini ice age.

 

[oggbashan]

We went out for a celebration meal today.

The location - 14 miles from home. When we left, no snow and clear roads.

By the time we got there, 2 inches of snow and passable roads BUT they had only just unfrozen their water supply so we could have tea, coffee and cake but the propane had frozen and they couldn't cook. However they did have Og's favourite farm-produced cider on tap and Og's wife stocked up with the farm's own produced jams and pickles.

We left after our drinks. By then the snow was five inches deep and the roads were very icy. It took us two hours to travel the five miles to the nearest supermarket which had toilets (relief!) and a cafe. The main obstacle was a humped bridge over a river. Cars couldn't traverse the hump until Og had distributed pond gravel over the ice. (All good Ogs travel with half a hundredweight of pond gravel in their cars.)

After a celebration high tea in the supermarket's cafe, it took another two hours to travel the nine miles home. Og distributed more pond gravel over the one rural hill that was impossible for some drivers and a local spent the evening towing the most affected cars with HER 4x4.

Ten-day old grandson Daniel was unimpressed. Mum always had warm food instantly available. Granddad Og's ancient Volvo was roomy and warm enough for a nappy change when needed. Big sister travelling in her aunt's car was less impressed. She needed the toilet and dropping her knickers to pee in the roadside snow was undignified.

All members of the family are now safely in their respective homes but one car had to be abandoned in the supermarket's car park because its computer decided it didn't like crawling for hours and refused to restart. It will be collected tomorrow.

All this because Granddaughter wanted to go to a place where she could feed the poultry and donkeys. She fed the poultry. The donkeys decided that they would rather stay in their warm stables.

We should have stayed at home too.

Og

 

[Handley_Page]

Nice one, Ogg.

Here in the West Midlands it's an inch or two of snow and now bloody cold. I had the Doom Buggy (mobility scooter) out this morning and had few problems apart from a snow-wet seat.

Happy Christmas to one and all.

 

[oggbashan]

Thanks Handley.

One footnote - the large quantity of cider was acquired for later drinking at home. Drinking their cider and driving in snow and ice is a recipe for disaster.

Og

 

[Handley_Page]

Thanks Handley.

One footnote - the large quantity of cider was acquired for later drinking at home. Drinking their cider and driving in snow and ice is a recipe for disaster.

Og

I thought as I read your account; what a wise thing to do.

 

[oggbashan]

All major airports and most of the minor ones in the UK are disrupted.

Eurostar trains to Europe are running a reduced service. Local trains are running a minimal service. The roads are still covered in ice and we are forecast temperatures as low as -15C in Kent tonight with more snow on the way tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Our Christmas shopping is stalled because we can't get to the shopping mall safely. OK. I could, but the incompetence of some drivers is seriously scary. I don't think a few more Christmas presents is worth injury or death.

There is a more serious lack. We're running out of lager. That's not too much of a problem. If we drink all the lager we have the cider, the beer, the gin, vodka, scotch, sherry, Martini, and the wine cellar but there's no more COFFEE!

Og

 

[TxRad]

All major airports and most of the minor ones in the UK are disrupted.

Eurostar trains to Europe are running a reduced service. Local trains are running a minimal service. The roads are still covered in ice and we are forecast temperatures as low as -15C in Kent tonight with more snow on the way tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Our Christmas shopping is stalled because we can't get to the shopping mall safely. OK. I could, but the incompetence of some drivers is seriously scary. I don't think a few more Christmas presents is worth injury or death.

There is a more serious lack. We're running out of lager. That's not too much of a problem. If we drink all the lager we have the cider, the beer, the gin, vodka, scotch, sherry, Martini, and the wine cellar but there's no more COFFEE!

Og

Someone will have to pay for that! Off with their heads!

Uh, sorry but no coffee is a serious matter.

 

[oggbashan]

Just checked with Yahoo France.

They're having trouble too. The Lady Gaga concert was cancelled tonight. The Eiffel Tower is closed.

Snow and ice are seriously affecting 24 French Departments. Heavy vehicles such as trucks and coaches are banned from the roads between Northern France and Paris.

Their trains aren't as badly affected as ours because of the different power systems but 15,000 houses are without electricity tonight.

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Someone will have to pay for that! Off with their heads!

Uh, sorry but no coffee is a serious matter.

"No Coffee" is unendurable!

 

[Liar]

Meh. It's snow. Big deal. Trains are a wee bit late and extra plough crews are in a bit earlier than usual at the airports.

Wimpy southerners.

 

[fifty5]

It isn't the snow, as such - I drove my son to his house up an, in places, one in not many hill (the road signs just point out that a 25 footer HGV won't fit round the corner - bet I could make one do it!)

The problem is seeing what is out there. I've poured neat anti-frost juice into the reservoir, but either it's floating on ice, so it doesn't get to the jets, or the damn stuff just doesn't work. The result is that the screen is so smeared that street lights - and even worse, oncoming vehicles, with headlights that don't seem to dip - mean I can't see the road, like where the snow or ice is lying.

Similarly, in the past, I've driven past 4-wheel drive vehicles whose drivers had given up and turned back, and got through.

I'm not bragging as such, I'm pointing out that whenever there has been snow on the roads, I've gone out and practised how to drive in those conditions.

I'm reminded of a musician who was complimented on his 'gift'. His response was to say that the more he practised, the more ability he was "given."

That doesn't make anyone perfect. I remember trying to drive over a moor road in a blizzard with drifts higher than my MGB. I ended up reversing back and going by the (ploughed) main road.

Nevertheless, that MGB was brilliant in the snow. The road outside where we lived was something like one in ten. I could drive down the hill, turn the steering wheel to the right (UK, remember), blip the throttle and be in the other lane, climbing the hill - successfully.

Not all my practice sessions were successful: on occasion I've slid gracefully into walls, railings and other cars.

My point is that deliberately going out to challenge the snow isn't foolish (as many authorities would have you believe), but is actually wise.

I remember one year when snow fell during the afternoon, when fellow workers took four hours to cover as many miles along the main road home. I took the "impossible" back road (pretty steep) and took half an hour instead of the usual 20 minutes.

My point isn't that I'm good - I'm really, really not setting out to boast - but that drivers ought to treat snow as an opportunity to practice dealing with that - and to get to know how their vehicle performs under such conditions.

There are virtually empty car parks where one can practice hand-break turns (or, in a rear-wheel drive car, deliberately spinning the back wheels).

When the opportunity offers, go out and develop your driving skills.

If you do, then other, less competent, drivers will still be a hazard, but at least you'll know how to control your own vehicle.

Hone your skills so that YOU can get home!

 

[3113]

Meh. It's snow. Big deal. Trains are a wee bit late and extra plough crews are in a bit earlier than usual at the airports.

Wimpy southerners.

Oh, big Mr. Northern up there in the Denmark-Scandiavian-Swiss-alps-Netherland ice-hole fishing kingdom thinks the closing of the Effiel Tower and Lady Gaga's concert is no big deal.


This is serious business, Liar! Didn't you hear Og? He's outta coffee!

That's it. I'm sending in Fifi.

 

[oggbashan]

Been out today for a four-hour marathon catch-up Christmas shopping exercise.

We now have virtually everything except a gift card from a local shop within walking distance.

When we left the final supermarket the snow had been falling, was still falling, and had already added another inch to the snow and ice already lying.

But I'm restocked with COFFEE!

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Christmas is saved!

 

[3113]

From those of us drowning or buried under snow here in the Western U.S....

How's it going over there, Europe?

 

[oggbashan]

By US or even European standards the unusual December snow and ice in the UK are not severe but the UK isn't prepared for the conditions.

It is already the coldest December since weather records began.

Most of us don't have snow chains or even winter tyres. Most of us are not experienced in driving on snow and ice.

As a country, we don't have enough snow ploughs, nor is our infrastructure protected against extreme cold.

It is all down to money - individuals' money, companies' money, local and national government money. If we could expect deep snow and icy roads every year then it would be worth investing in measures to deal with it.

For example: One of my neighbours is annoyed. He had a car that he bought with snow chains as part of the dealer's package of extras. That car was traded in as scrap in 2008, complete with the unused snow chains which wouldn't have fitted his current car. He thought about buying snow chains for his new car but they cost a lot and he hadn't used the previous snow chains in 8 years of ownership. In 2010 he could have used them early and late in the year. Now they are unavailable.

Og

 

[XsNrg]

Chains???????????....damn......I live in a place where it is advertised we receive more than twenty feet of snow per year (ski resort ad) at the end of a dirt road between two resorts and have never had chains on my car. That is for when you get a couple of feet in a few hours.

 

[oggbashan]

Chains???????????....damn......I live in a place where it is advertised we receive more than twenty feet of snow per year (ski resort ad) at the end of a dirt road between two resorts and have never had chains on my car. That is for when you get a couple of feet in a few hours.

And a couple of feet in a few hours is what some parts of the UK have had.

On Saturday we had six inches in an hour locally. The roads turned to black ice in minutes.

My eldest daughter used to live on the outskirts of Chicago. She learned to drive on snow and ice but her skills are useless when the driver in front of her drives his/her vehicle in a ditch/another vehicle/the central reservation and blocks the road.

Og

 

[TxRad]

I was in my early teens before I realized those weren't mud chains.

<<<< Raised where there were a lot of red clay roads.

 

[oggbashan]

Today we have had NE gales all day. At high tide there was a real danger of flooding in our town but we were saved - only by a few inches.

I've driven through gale-swept hail and sleet but no snow. I was nearly stuck in a car park because of compacted ice and other drivers spinning out of control. I waited until the idiots had been pushed on their way and left at a steady speed over the areas where they had been skidding wildly.

Tomorrow is the last shopping day. The only item missing?

Lager.

Luckily the lager I drink is available at all local stores and on offer at most supermarkets so I'm not going to be deprived. Even if the weather is unkind I would still have enough other forms of alcohol to last a month, or two, or three (until the relations start dropping in!).

Og

 

[Austin8]

Today we have had NE gales all day. At high tide there was a real danger of flooding in our town but we were saved - only by a few inches.

I've driven through gale-swept hail and sleet but no snow. I was nearly stuck in a car park because of compacted ice and other drivers spinning out of control. I waited until the idiots had been pushed on their way and left at a steady speed over the areas where they had been skidding wildly.

Tomorrow is the last shopping day. The only item missing?

Lager.

Luckily the lager I drink is available at all local stores and on offer at most supermarkets so I'm not going to be deprived. Even if the weather is unkind I would still have enough other forms of alcohol to last a month, or two, or three (until the relations start dropping in!).

Og

Im assuming it's Suffolk Blonde, even though it's brewed in Kent.

Merry Christmas Og.

 

[Zobor]

Was worried there for a bit we might have to organize a coffee air drop for OG.

I hope all you you over there keep warm and safe.

 

[Handley_Page]

I read somewhere that Manchester Airport spent an extra £2m last year so they could keep the airport open almost regardless, and do it quicker. They are taking more traffic including some of the stuff from London.
On the other hand, Heathrow & Gatwick have not invested in better/ newer / whatever snow-handling equipment and there are some serious moans about it.
Not that the weather could have been predicted.

The problem is one of statistics. If you have not had really bad weather in ten years, there's a decent chance that year eleven will be roughly the same. When it isn't, you got a problem.

My part of England is not as bad as Oggs, but the sound of it. But we still get the backroads un-gritted for ages.