Snow !

It's coming down thick and fast again this morning in central Scotland. School head was on the phone shortly after 8 ... closed again.

Two children standing in the lounge practising their lines for the Christmas play - assuming it even happens. The Christmas fair was postponed for a fortnight on Saturday.

[deakin]

About 4" has fallen in the past two hours here in the G72 area. Oh joy...

I've not been out the house in over a week now because of the snow. Starting to get a little bit of cabin fever.
Worse still the lights are flickering, knowing my luck a power cut is coming...

[Stephen]

Well I made my way from Glasgow to Bellshill this morning and am still in the office! May not get home.

This is the car park about 30 mins ago. Been snowing like this since about 8.40 this morning and the M8 Motorway is totally backed up.

No snow here atm, but it hit -10 C last night, it was still -8 C when I set out for work (at 9:20).

[Stephen]

Well snow got so bad all the roads were blocked and trains all cancelled. No way to get back to Glasgow so staying at my cousins in Hamilton. I walked the 6 miles along the motorway!

[chill_fm]

why dont we have any sand pits as we use to in the old days
to help clear the paths as i would defo help in clearing the paths if we did had any in the area but we dont an fear to go out on those paths as they not been treated

[Osem]

YUP - had that earlier this year during the snow. Two guys in a pickup pulled up next to the grit bin at the bottom of our hill, emptied it and drove off with what looked like a lot of other stolen grit on board. I expect they're the same **** bags who charge to clear trees, rubbish, hardcore etc. then dump it down some country lane.....

[papa smurf]

the problem isn't snow any more its ice as hard as rock -i saw people clearing shop fronts with pickaxes today

[vanman]

Will it be even colder than the winter of 1962-3? Big freeze returns tomorrow... and it's going to last for a MONTH

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz187RZW19N

i hope not

[snowey]

Originally Posted by vanman

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz187RZW19N

i hope not

Me too...

i looked at the weather forcast for the next week and stocked up with some sharp sand of the building site i am currently on

[MartJ]

Originally Posted by vanman

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz187RZW19N

i hope not

Well I remember the winter of 1962-63, it started snowing just before Christmas and snow was on the ground until the beginning of March. I remember pictures of the sea freezing of the coast of Kent. Where I lived at the time we had almost 3 foot of snow and I still went to school everyday, no school closures then, even though the outside loos froze up, we had an arrangement with local pub to use theirs in emergency.

Parts of the country were cut off for weeks and it was the whole of the UK that got the snow and ice, with the South East I think getting a fall of just over 2 ft.

The temperatures were below freezing most days and we had no double glazing or central heating, with ice forming on inside of windows. Most people still went to work, usually walking as most people then living close to their place of work.

So if this winter is to be worse than that it has alot to live up to and if does come it will cause chaos on a scale not seen before as most people would not know how to cope.

Originally Posted by MartJ

Well I remember the winter of 1962-63, it started snowing just before Christmas and snow was on the ground until the beginning of March. I remember pictures of the sea freezing of the coast of Kent. Where I lived at the time we had almost 3 foot of snow and I still went to school everyday, no school closures then, even though the outside loos froze up, we had an arrangement with local pub to use theirs in emergency.

Parts of the country were cut off for weeks and it was the whole of the UK that got the snow and ice, with the South East I think getting a fall of just over 2 ft.

The temperatures were below freezing most days and we had no double glazing or central heating, with ice forming on inside of windows. Most people still went to work, usually walking as most people then living close to their place of work.

So if this winter is to be worse than that it has alot to live up to and if does come it will cause chaos on a scale not seen before as most people would not know how to cope.

I remember that winter as well.My family were living in Meriworth Drive on top of Shooters Hill in London.The council workmen cleared the pavements and the banks of displaced ice were hanging around for weeks after long after it had thawed elsewhere.I went to school(Plumstead Juniors) everyday after Christmas as well.

It's the only white Christmas I ever had..

Originally Posted by MartJ

Well I remember the winter of 1962-63, it started snowing just before Christmas and snow was on the ground until the beginning of March.

<snip>

The temperatures were below freezing most days and we had no double glazing or central heating, with ice forming on inside of windows. Most people still went to work, usually walking as most people then living close to their place of work.

So if this winter is to be worse than that it has alot to live up to and if does come it will cause chaos on a scale not seen before as most people would not know how to cope.

The bit I put in bold really goes to the heart of the issue. These days it is not uncommon for people to commute by car for an hour or more to work - often much, much more in the southeast of England. Our pattern of life simply isn't as resilient to disruptions in our transport infrastructure as it once was.

All our roads are far more heavily used and a great deal of freight is carried on them. A vast number of the problems on the roads over the last couple of weeks has been jack-knifed lorries - something that would have been less of a problem in the 1960s with fewer lorries on the road and fewer cars to get stuck behind them.

As for frozen toilets and the use of your local pub .... well I don't doubt that worked as a solution to the problem, but thankfully attitudes towards health and hygiene in schools are now a light-year away from what they used to be. Indoor toilets will have solved most freezing problems, but if our childrens' school suffered a loss of running water for any reason, these days it would be forced to close, and rightly so in my view.

[Uncle Peter]

ouch, just passing Rugby on the train and it's been coming down. Can't imagine it being too clever when I get home. Should have packed me skis to get down our road.