Attention: Brits. We're all going to freeze to death in a pristine white hell.

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4423919/Snow-and-freezing-weather-threaten-to-shut-down-Britain.html

The Telegraph says the Met Office is warning of a "Severe Weather Event" - Large swathes of snow across the country with a foot or more expected on high ground.

If this does indeed happen, and the country grinds to a halt (as seems to happen every other week at the moment), the situation may become a spot grim. I'd advise you all to take any necessary precautions.

Take care, chaps.

[JingleJoe]

Awesome Batten down the hatches! Don your goggles and wrap up warm!

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

We've got about an inch and a half of snow at the moment here on the SW London/Surrey border and it's getting heavier and visibility is steadily decreasing.

[Jemima Annabelle Clough]

But it's everso pretty out there!

We have food, and more importantly, tea, milk, and the makings of scones if it gets too bad

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

Just checked again, and I reckon we're now up to between 2 and 2.5" of snow so far.

Whee!

[JingleJoe]

We have some too yay! Not enough though! Come on winter, clouds, blizzards! Gimme all you got!

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

Here's the latest from the Beeb

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7863374.stm

Kent, London, Surrey and Hampshire may see up to 6in (15cm) of snow overnight, as temperatures plummet.

Getting to work tomorrow might be fun!!!

[lilibat]

Good luck to you all! Don't forget to leave the faucets dripping to avoid frozen pipes.

[Danbury Shakes]

My gosh, snow drifts a whole inch thick.  What is the world coming to?

When I was a boy it was expected of you to go out, dig a snow hole, spend a night in it and make tea and crumpets, for at least two guests.

Ah yes, I remember, it must have been what '72, '73.  the winter was so cold that the sexegenarians had to hack the ice in the north sea to get their New Years dip.

Bah, the young people of today, don't know the meaning of cold.  I tell you....rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubard, waffle, waffe, waffle and (for effect) quamquat.

[groomporter]

I'll worry for you when you have a forecast of -40

Just checked again, and I reckon we're now up to between 2 and 2.5" of snow so far.

Whee!

Bah. We don't declare snow plow emergencies unless it's something over 4, or 5 inches deep ;-)
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/snow/parking-info.asp

[T.Taylor the Third]

......I live in TN, we only get about 4 inches all together at the most. people panik when it snows and melts instantly, closing schools and churches, and heaven forbid that it stick.....I use to live in IL, there we drove through a 6in of snow without much thought, it usualy snowed at LEAST a foot. and in Missorie
We regularly got 3 feet of snow.....

[Alexander Edmund Clough]

Ahh, but this is the UK, where wet leaves on the rail lines can cause delays and cancellation of services!

For us, 6in of snow overnight is a pretty big deal (at least nowadays). We've not had proper heavy snow for quite a long time!

[Captain Lyerly]

Ah, how times have changed.  I have been away too long - I remember the Winter Ice Faires, when we would all go out and build bonfires on the Thames, drink flip and mulled wine, and have a wonderful time.  I hear the Thames hasn't had ice thick enough to walk on in a while.

Times change, I suppose. 


Cheers


Chas.

[Danbury Shakes]

Ahh, but this is the UK, where wet leaves on the rail lines can cause delays and cancellation of services!

For us, 6in of snow overnight is a pretty big deal (at least nowadays). We've not had proper heavy snow for quite a long time!

I live in London, on the Victoria line of the tube.  The trains on this line have been cancelled fat times for snow.  I dont understand why because the Victoria is an underround line - it doesnt ever breach the surface!!

Mind you I've been on over ground trains delayed for cows, sheep and even a boat on the tracks (for those interested it was a small 2 berth day tripper type).  the strangest reason for delays was an incompatiable lunch hour - what the ....

My favorite announcement of delays on the tube was when the driver said "...I know it's full so sit on someones lap.  We won't get there any quicker but you might make a friend"

[dr490nw4rri0r]

Silly brits. Come on over to Canada. A decent winter dumps a good 4-10 inches of snow on us some days. In fact, just a few weeks ago there was a good foot or so of snow in a single night.

I walk for 40 minutes to get home from work, with no sidewalk most of that route.
You wee english lads need to toughen up some. How about a camping trip by Georgian Bay in mid February? Bare essentials, save for communications devices.

[Monti Christo]

Yeah...um, you do realize that it's not really snowing until you can't find your car in your own driveway, right?

My front door is maybe 15 feet from the curb, and I can't see the road from my front window because the snow pile in my front yard is at least 6 feet high. It has been since the start of December.
We get a few inches on a clear day. It is just always falling.

I recently had to call the town because a plow had blocked the drainage ditch at the end of the street, and water was backing up into the basement. It took a full sized back-ho over an hour to find the ditch again.

Oh, and by the way, England isn't the only country with trains, so suck it up and put on a touque

[JingleJoe]

Well you see the difference here is that you obviously live at the North pole and we live in Mildland, so this kinda snow here, is really quite snowing!

[Monti Christo]

Silly brits. Come on over to Canada. A decent winter dumps a good 4-10 inches of snow on us some days. In fact, just a few weeks ago there was a good foot or so of snow in a single night.

I walk for 40 minutes to get home from work, with no sidewalk most of that route.
You wee english lads need to toughen up some. How about a camping trip by Georgian Bay in mid February? Bare essentials, save for communications devices.

A fellow Canuck! I agree totally! I love Georgian Bay. By the way, I did a 4 day camping trip near Algonquin in the middle of the winter. Two nights in a row temperatures were at -40. (That's celcius for any americans who want to figure out what that'd be in farenheit.)

A word of advice to the Brits, and this may save your life some day: If you are trying to melt snow in a pot to make drinking water or tea, you can't melt snow into water all by itself. You actually need a little water in the pot before adding the snow.

Also, pee a lot. Your body wastes a lot of energy heating up your urine. That's energy that could be used to heat up the rest of your body.

Finally, get lots of fluids. It's very easy to get dehydrated and not realize it in sub zero temperatures.

[Monti Christo]

Well you see the difference here is that you obviously live at the North pole and we live in Mildland, so this kinda snow here, is really quite snowing!

Actually, I live in that part of Canada that sticks down into the U.S., surrounded by the great lakes. If you draw a straight line around the world to Europe, I'm at the same level as the south of France/ Northern Italy.

Therefore you, sir, are much closer to the north pole than I.

[JingleJoe]

Well you see the difference here is that you obviously live at the North pole and we live in Mildland, so this kinda snow here, is really quite snowing!

Actually, I live in that part of Canada that sticks down into the U.S., surrounded by the great lakes. If you draw a straight line around the world to Europe, I'm at the same level as the south of France/ Northern Italy.

Therefore you, sir, are much closer to the north pole than I.

Who said I was talking about a conventionaly located North pole!?

[Zwack]

However Britain is in the receiving end of the Gulf stream.  Warm waters rush across the Atlantic to warm up the UK.  

The North West coast of Scotland has palm trees in places.  While the amount of Snow forecast is nothing in parts of the US and Canada.  It is a significant amount for the UK where that sort of weather is not so common.  

I know that Portland, Oregon is pretty poor when it comes to annual snow fall.  Six inches is enough to practically shut down the city.  While La Grande (about 270 miles east) doesn't seem to care if it gets a foot or two.

Z.

[Sean Patrick O-Byrne]

The Great Lakes are large enough bodies of water that they have their own weather systems.

I'm weighing in with the other Canucks here, me coming from the Albertan Rocky Mountains.

Buck up you nancies!

[HettyB]

Must agree with my friends to the north.  Buck up, it's just a little snow.

And -40 is -40 no matter what system you use.  Bitter, bitter cold.

[Dusza Beben]

The Great Lakes are large enough bodies of water that they have their own weather systems.

I'm weighing in with the other Canucks here, me coming from the Albertan Rocky Mountains.

Buck up you nancies!

LOL, I was just thinking, 12" of snow! Holy crap! that sounds like.... an average Tuesday here in the land of lake effect snow. 

Don't feel bad Brits, we laugh just as hard when it snows in the Southern U.S. and everything comes to a screeching halt.

Global warming after all is a feindish plot started by North Americans. Put in motion to shift the North Atlantic current so those on the

other side of the pond could have a decent winter for a change.

DB

[Herr Döktor]

This only happens once every twenty years, in the Northern States and Canada, you can set your watch by it, and anyway, a chum in Toronto says everyone there gets caught out when the first snow falls: no snow chains, haven't got their winter gear on, etc.

Anyway, this is how it looked at 1AM:



And at 8AM:



I was supposed to drive 200+ miles to Leeds today, and I can't even make it the 7 miles to work!

I LOVE the snow!



PS: I've just seen someone in a BMW Chelsea Tractor, and although they've cleared the snow from their windows, there's still a foot of snow on their roof- anyone else witnessed stupidity in the snow?