SNOW!

[rualexander]

A few pics from our ride in the snow today :

and a short video too : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcobUycGxVc

[patricktaylor]

Enjoyable pics and video. Thanks. Nice snow to cycle on, but harder work pushing through it up hills, especially with fat tyres. As I mentioned, I let mine down to make them really grippy, and they were.

[Colin63]

Yippee! Just had a phone call from my manager saying that I wasn't to risk going into work! I was very anxious about driving today. The rural roads around where I work in Silverdale are sheltered and get very icy and I'm told that it's snowing there now. So an unexpected day off.
Human brains are strange things aren't they. We will spend hours on these forums criticising dangerous drivers and then feel guilty about not risking going onto roads which could make us dangerous ourselves. So today will be spent decanting the sloe gin I made a few months ago and organising the book shelves. A guilt free day of pottering!

[fatboy]

Question for all you physicists out there:
If I spread salt on dry and frozen ice and snow, how does the salt mix in to lower the melting point?
At the moment, the salt is just lying there on the surface of a frozen crust. Surely it needs to thaw a little first?

I spread the salt at 10ish this morning.
6.30 this evening, the salt is still there, and so is the ice.

I've heard that the salt that they throw on the roads needs cars to move it around etc. Perhaps you need to walk it about yourself (making reving noises in your head perhaps?).

[fatboy]

We've had a fair bit of snow in Herts and Essex. My road is like a skating rink but the main roads are OKish once the sun is on them. Yesterday morning I went around my town delivering Xmas cards and it was quite fun but not relaxing. After dropping off the last card I realised that I needed to choose which steep icy hill I wanted to descend (things have come to a pretty pass when you dread downhill but enjoy uphill!).

I'm already a bit bored with this. My weekly Tuesday night ride won't happen (riding around hilly, country lanes after dark in sub-zero temperatures will be just plain daft), I miss out on the fun stuff like snowman building as I've got to go to work (my kids built one on Friday but it had been vandalised by Saturday morning so I never got to see it) but I have to scrape ice off the car, and drive gingerly for an hour while SWMBO can't understand why I don't like the stuff. Added to this is that I've bought my daughter a new bike for Xmas and at this rate she won't be able to ride it for quite a while.

Generally I'm fed up!

[eileithyia]

Know how you feel fatboy, we haven't seen snow like this for a couple of years, but as a member of a form of the emergency services getting to work becomes no fun, challenging maybe, but after awhile it becomes a chore. What doubles the annoyance is people who do not have to travel but do so anyway, clog up roads and behave as though their trip to the shops, the ferry port etc is more important than midwife or other emergency service staff getting to work, they expect everyone else to be at their posts, working and keeping things going.

Around here we have people who come out to view the snow, do not bother to put anythingin the car to deal with an emergency, because car heaters are so effecient they only wear t-shirts. When I lived on George's Lane we often ended up digging people out of the snow particularly when they blocked the single track bit of road that was the only access to our cottages, or gave them use of the spade and let them dig themselves out!

[thirdcrank]

In spite of the forecasts, we've only had a couple of extra flurries since we had about an inck overnight Thursday / Friday. Sub zero so footways etc are very icy. I imagine A&E will be dealing with a lot of falls. Also, a lot of pedestrians are walking at the edge of the road rather than on the pavement and passing drivers don't seem to slow down to take account of it.

[mark_w]

Know how you feel fatboy, we haven't seen snow like this for a couple of years, but as a member of a form of the emergency services getting to work becomes no fun, challenging maybe, but after awhile it becomes a chore. What doubles the annoyance is people who do not have to travel but do so anyway, clog up roads and behave as though their trip to the shops, the ferry port etc is more important than midwife or other emergency service staff getting to work, they expect everyone else to be at their posts, working and keeping things going.

Mrs W works for the Ambulance Service up here, and it's been doubly interesting due to being Black Saturday where traditionally the emergency services (in the shape of the Ambulance Service and the A&E teams) have always been pretty stretched due to many people having broken up from work, and as such alot of people going out on festive booze-ups and getting themselves into alcohol-induced difficulties. The ice and snow will have made it more interesting for them, but also alot more difficult for the ambulance staff to get to them.

The back office staff volunteer to hand out sarnies to the staff out on shift as they rarely get the chance to stop and catch any food due to it being hectic.

From a totally personal level (and my own opinion I hasten to add), it frustrates me that someone might be worse off in a situation where a heart attack victim (or similar) might not be attended to as quickly as it could be, due to the hard working ambulance team attending to some drunkard twisting their ankle caused by self-inflicted medication!

So I can totally sympathise.

[Mick F]

I think you need to chuck some water onto it Mick,
http://www.saltinstitute.org/Uses-benef ... -salt-work

Tried it.
Doesn't work because the water soaks away.

I've heard that the salt that they throw on the roads needs cars to move it around etc. Perhaps you need to walk it about yourself (making reving noises in your head perhaps?).

That's a good idea.
I've just got back from a walk around the lanes. I was chatting to a local farmer about being "snowed in" - he is too, for his car, that is! The roads are clear and dry where the sun shone yesterday, but on the north-facing slopes it's just treacherous sheet ice now. The farmer said that the road isn't being gritted coz his milk lorry doesn't come any more, and even when they did grit it, it needed traffic to rub it in.

Catch 22.
I can't use the car because of the ice, but I need to use the car to work the salt in!

So it's brrmmm brrmm brrrmmm!
(Shuffles feet)

[Mick F]

Here's a shot of our place I took this morning:

Anyone got a toboggan?

[thirdcrank]

Here's a shot of our place I took this morning:

Our 'ouse.JPG

Anyone got a toboggan?

A couple of weeks ago I was passing a hardware shop in Batley (thin on the ground these days, but in Batley they have two next door to each other) and they had some sledges and snow shovels outside. I bought one of each and the man said "Do you know something we don't." I replied, "That's what I was going to ask you."

[cycleruk]

Here's a shot of our place I took this morning:

Our 'ouse.JPG

Anyone got a toboggan?

A couple of weeks ago I was passing a hardware shop in Batley (thin on the ground these days, but in Batley they have two next door to each other) and they had some sledges and snow shovels outside. I bought one of each and the man said "Do you know something we don't." I replied, "That's what I was going to ask you."

It's only just over a week ago that the USA was reporting severe snow storms etc, and they were having trouble.
I mentioned to my wife we maybe in for a white Christmas.
It usually takes about 2 weeks to get from the States to here, but it was a bit quicker this time. We still don't have any snow around us but 4 miles up the road the traffic is having problems. It's taken the daughter over an hour to do 8 miles from us to her work.

[GrahamNR17]

Here's a shot of our place I took this morning:

Our 'ouse.JPG

Anyone got a toboggan?

I can now clearly understand your icy slope issues

[patricktaylor]

I went for a spin in the snow this morning. Nice scenery, but trying to stay upright isn't so relaxing.



The biggest danger in slippy conditions, I find, is whacking down on your saddle as you try to keep control when you slip off the pedals, or something like that. Ouch! The bike slipping away from under you is often completely harmless, at least when there's no traffic.

[Mick F]

You're braver than me, Patrick!
Last winter, I slid off and didn't half bang my knee, and holed my tights too. Bike ok though!

Luckily, there's a thaw on now, so our "icy slope" is less so now. Even if it all goes, the roads will be awful with salt and muck, so I'd like some rain first before going out on a ride.
(Seems strange, wanting rain!)