Tell me about it. It has been a very wintry day here with quite regular snow showers but it has been so breezy and dry that the snow just blows away. No moisture except what is frozen and locked away in the snow and graupel. Good but could have been so much better and I’m not holding my breath that it will get much better.

You certainly have not annoyed me Joe. I have loved your enthusiasm and reports.

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Really heavy snow showers piling in to the east coast, leaving over a foot of it in places.

Many places stuck below freezing all day at end of February with another bitterly cold night on the way, and something similar too for tomorrow and Friday.

February looking like being a below average month too.

 

And a certain garbage theory that proposed something called the "modern winter" said this would never have happened again! Someone looks a bit daft at the moment, eh?

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People believe what they want to believe. It still doesn't change the fact that nationally this has been an exceptional spell of weather and reinforces the fact that potent cold spells can still happen.

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Dartmoor remains a snow free zone as well as Exeter too!?

 

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A sorry and truly pathetic sight from this morning that sums up this lamentable, weak and insipid abomination of a winter spell. Using a plough to clear snow that wasn't even fully covering the pavement. A kids spade would have been sufficient to do the job 

This one is even better as, in addition to showing grass poking through the pitiful covering, it also contains the perfect repository for this tripe spell or better still the whole stinking awful winter 

Almost no hope of salvaging anything out of this now. It has been truly dire and just adds to the never ending punishment weather that's been endured almost constantly since 2011.

Can't wait for the day-after-day of 4C and rain that looks set to follow this epic fail. No doubt there will be no problem with precipitation come Monday

 

 

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You've excelled yourself here, Richard.

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I feel your pain Richard. 

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So, who’s going to start the ‘Spring Moaning Thread’ in about three hours time?   

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Haven't posted in this area before. Always left it to the experts, so I shall tread carefully.

Was just about to have a moan about the present winter, making perhaps a reference to 1947. Luckily I looked for info on '47, and found also '63, and so shall not publicly parade my ignorance. The inconveniences caused by our present weather pales into insignificance compared with the suffering
and consequences inflicted by '47. At any time these would have been enormous, but coming after the war the resources available to alleviate things simply did not exist. I just did not realise how dreadful '47 was for many many people.

'47 I can only remember in one way. Things always seemed bigger in your past, and as a toddler I remember what was probably 9-12" of snow as being amazingly high and softly satisfying. Funny how you don't recall the cold. '63 arrived at a time when after the needs of education and early work were met, the only targets left were hormone directed. Sheer bliss, or so it seemed at the time. As I recall there was a certain amount of chilliness about, but only when one was suddenly required to travel 15 miles on a motor bike at 2 am of a winter night, clad only in light jacket, trousers and shirt (and no gloves). But the reception was also softly satisfying. The cold was soon forgotten.

How can a meteorological service give a red warning for the whole country? The UK Met has so far only put Northern Ireland under a yellow warning for Friday and yet you hop over the border to Donegal and its under red. Can you imagine if the UK Met put the whole of Wales under a red warning?

Some of the warnings this winter that have been dished out have been poor. Tuesday morning was a prime example. The Met Office put out on twitter a precipitation model with an amber warning overlay. And you only had to look at it and immediately you were asking the question, "why is that area in the amber zone when the precipitation area doesn't even go through it?!"

https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/968357555050201088

 

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 Surely that's a Photoshop hoax?

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Two moans:

* No snow fences. I know the council is tight, but they serve a useful purpose. As a result, Leysdown was cut off this morning and I've spent the morning worrying about how I'd get home. The only road down here is now open again, but only with one lane and 3ft drifts either side. God knows what the wind will do to it overnight
* Exceptionally poor planning by the mainland schools. They opened as normal (despite the conditions on Sheppey - one bus got stuck in the snow and that clogged up everything). They then panicked when it started snowing and closed, sending the few kids that had come in back home again. I overtook the school bus on the way back and have no idea how they're going to get through the drifts towards Leysdown... I squeezed through, but I have snow tyres and a nimble little car.

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The best chance weve had at a proper dump of snow for years and it seems the shower evaded us to the north (literally as far as manchester Drifiting, inches of snow)

and to the south over wales... again drifting inches of snow.

I can currently count the snowflakes... is as bad as its been really.

We continue to be in no mans land when it comes to wintry weather... we wont when it becomes milder with rain though :(

We havent seen anything over 6cm of snow in maybe a decade. actually - maybe 13 yrs?

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I want to be right slap bang in the middle of an amber warning to build up my excitement but so far we are very borderline yellows and we have had a lot of drifting light snow but not much accumulation at all. Probably being a bit greedy but I want a proper decent snowfall where you can see the inches building up right before your eyes. It came down quite fast at about 7.30 and my excitement built because I was driving and the road was just getting covering quickly. I want that but 10 times as much. Just a bit jealous of others with their inches of the stuff!

I'm still concerned about my journey to Scarborough from Greater Manchester on Saturday then back in the evening though. I'm having my doubts it will be wise but it's hard to judge.

There should be a 'driving in snow competency test' that drivers have to pass before they're allowed to get behind the wheel when snow falls. Part of that test should comprise a "Just because there's a few flakes floating in the air doesn't make road conditions like the Arctic Tundra, and you don't have to drive at 20mph on the motorway"

The commute in this morning was tortuous. Yes, it was snowing and there were coverings at the side of the roads, but FFS, you could almost smell the fear emitting from some drivers with their exhaust fumes. When I got into the city centre itself, the level of idiocy increased; I missed 3 sets of lights because bedwetting drivers in front were going so painstakingly slow. On completely clear tarmac.

 

 

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I know what you mean, and this region has been unlucky all winter in terms of snow (and seeing promising set-ups where we looked in prime location being whipped from our grasp).

With regards to the journey, I'd heartily recommend you go. Nothing like a bit of peril to stir the senses. I've got to go to Sheffield and back on Saturday and I'm looking forwards to it (although I'll have to gag my missus, as she's a complete cowardly bed-wetter when it comes to driving in snow; still, I'll insist we'll be taking her 4x4 )

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Anyone else now desperately looking forward to sitting outside in the garden / pub beer garden in t-shirt and shorts until 11pm whilst sinking a few pints? Can't come soon enough for me now. 

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Yes, but you tend to get one shot at it per year up here...

 

I'm lucky  to have booked a holiday this week (booked well before SSW was even a  glint in Ol, mother Stratospheres eye), so can  sit and watch the spectacle  with occasional  sorties out on my terms.

Fortunately the time-scale suggest it will largely been done and dusted by next week when I have to go places and meet people.   At which point  I'll be with you 100% Brian on the Pub / garden (or even the Pub (beer) Garden) front .  I'm  also  looking forward  to the first warm days in the MX5 with the lid down.

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Yes with you on that one...

There is one thing worse when heavy snow is forecast.... and that's when its forecast to turn to rain a few hours later. So let's get on with Spring.... Raw cold damp air with grey skies and rapidly melting slush is horrible...

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100% genuine. After suffering considerable criticism for failing to do anything about the icy pavements back in December, the council were clearly keen to make amends this time. Unfortunately they were unable to apply common sense when the predicted snow depths failed to materialise

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More like a carefully framed photo, I suspect. And it seems sensible to me. How much more path can one man clear with that little tractor than shovelling by hand? 

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Now my sodding boiler won't ignite apparently . Ready for spring now!!

Temperatures in the far South East now rising quite rapidly towards zero. We are very close to the end of this cold spell, IMO. Drip, drip, drip, mud and filth await

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Check your condensate pipe isn't frozen

 

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