Snow Thread ;)

[Evildead666]

Ok, so some of you have probably got a lot more snow than here, but we ain't used to it
Just spent two hours putting sand and clearing the road outside the house.
We've only had about 6" in the last 2-3 hours, but its still coming down, and the tree branches are having a hard time atm.

Anyone else looking like they ain't leaving the house a for a little bit ?

would get some piccies, but my hands are a bit dead, and can't hold the camera. Gonna be dark in a half hour or so.
Will get some tomorrow morning if its still there.

[Fat Tone]

We've had two feet of snow here!

[Evildead666]

Lol.

clear skies now, so its gonna freeze up nicely.

[Dr Mordrid]

Just keep repeating the Holy Mantra: global warming, global warming....

[Evildead666]

Supposed to be going to the UK with family for Xmas, but they are predicting snow again at the end of next week, when we're supposed to be driving 800Km's to my Bro's house.
The nylon snow chains I bought last week came in handy today to get the last 100m to my house, but i'm not doing 800Kms in the snow, mainly because there are a lot of people who can't drive in snow, or have no snow tyres, or chains.
I have rather large tyres on my Ford, so it sits on the snow rather than digging in.
The Renault Clio would be best, have driven in snow with it before, but it only has two seats.

With a nice diesel (non-turbo) you can just pop the clutch slowly, and let the tickover torque take you on your way.
Not so with a petrol V6. The anti-wheelspin wasn't letting the engine go over 1000rpm, and i don't even think the wheels were really turning. So much for a hill start (in snow with no chains).

once i popped on the nylon chains, i was pleasantly surprised by their effectiveness. Bastard to put on, but worth it

Cheaper than 4 snow tyres and the wheels to go with it.

edit : In case anyones interested these are the composite snow chains I got ( not from the site, a local car shop).
It was about 109Euros iirc (or 129), since i'm running 205/50 R16 wide tyres. The smaller ones are cheaper as you get smaller.

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/michelin-easygrip-composite-snow-chains.aspx

It seems they are cheaper over here than in the UK.

edit2 : Also looks like its out of stock everywhere in the UK, probably here now as well.

[Tjalfe]

in the last storm, really the first real storm this winter, we got maybe 50cm of snow, but some of it has melted already.. an hour north of us, there are places where the storm dropped around 1.7meters.. crazy for this early in the winter.
From where I live, Global warming won't be half bad, if only it would keep the summers cooler somehow too

[KRSESQ]

Just keep repeating the Holy Mantra: global warming, global warming....

No, no, no. It's now climate change. You must have missed the memo.

Expect this to gain traction as the winter wears on.

FIRST the good news. These bitter winters aren’t going to last forever. The bad news is that they will go on for the next 30 years as we have entered a mini ice age.

So says author Gavin Cooke in his book Frozen Britain. He began writing it in 2008 and it was published last year when experts were scratching their heads at the cause of the bitter winter of 2009/10 which brought England to a standstill. Some said it was a one-off event, with experts predicting snowfall becoming increasingly rare.

To simplify, the basis of his theory seems to be sunspot activity, or rather the lack of it. Sunspots are dark, cooler patches on the sun’s surface that come and go in cycles.

Throughout the 20th century the sun was unusually active, peaking in the 1950s and the late 1980s. Recently sunspot activity has all but disappeared.

In 2007 [climatologist Mike Lockwood of the University of Reading] said the cyclical change in the Sun’s energy was not responsible for climate change. In April this year, writing in the New Scientist Magazine, he did a U-turn and said it was. After a study, he and his team concluded that recent cold British winters have coincided neatly with the biggest fall off in the sun’s activity for a century, contradicting the accepted view that carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are likely to warm our climate.

So button up those overcoats, guys.

Kevin

[degrub]

yes it does seem like the flea trying to move the dog when comparing our influence on the climate. No doubt we can tweak the stability of a cycle one way (seems only up ) or the other, but the 900 # gorilla is the solar energy input.