British Weather Today!

Andrew wrote: I beg to differ, 8 inches and currently minus seven degrees with minus twelve forecast for the early hours. I’m quite happy with describing that as extreme

8 inches & minus 7 for a couple of days is hardly extreme or a reason for there to be any disruption in a modern society with all the tools necessary to deal with it.
You're just too young to remember 1963.
It was a lot colder than minus 7, we had 6ft of snow, rivers were frozen solid enough so you could drive a car on them and it all lasted lasted for 3 months.
We just got on with it and dealt with it.
I was 14 at the time. I went to school every day.
We have become a Country that cannot cope with slightly unusual weather conditions.
It rains almost non stop but as soon as we have 3 or 4 weeks of "drought" we have hose pipe bans, we get 2 days of temperatures in the 30's and the roads melt, railway lines buckle and people complain that it's too hot, and when we get a smattering of snow and a bit of a frost the transport system can't cope and millions of kids aren't allowed to go to school.

I remember 1963 and trudging to school in snow that covered my wellies. My parents still went to work. And as far as I cam remember thing carried on as normal. No central heating and ice on the inside of the Window.

Nothing to do with money.
We have more snow clearing equipment than ever before, bigger & better machines and technology including frost sensors on motorways.
According to a guy on the radio yesterday we have a huge stockpile of salt and grit where the M1 & M6 meet and there is more than ever at local Council depots.
All you need is someone with the brains to look at the weather forecast, use their common sense and get the stuff onto the roads at the right time.
Clearly this doesn't happen else we wouldn't be seeing the chaos that's been going over the last few days.
We had a sharpe frost here this morning, which was well forecasted, yet even our main A road, let alone any minor roads, hadn't been gritted when I went out at 6.45.
Then the powers that be tell you to only go out if your journey is absolutely necessary - presumably they thought that theirs wasn't.

DICEYUK wrote: Nothing to do with money. We have more snow clearing equipment than ever before, bigger & better machines and technology including frost sensors on motorways. According to a guy on the radio yesterday we have a huge stockpile of salt and grit where the M1 & M6 meet and there is more than ever at local Council depots. All you need is someone with the brains to look at the weather forecast, use their common sense and get the stuff onto the roads at the right time. Clearly this doesn't happen else we wouldn't be seeing the chaos that's been going over the last few days. We had a sharpe frost here this morning, which was well forecasted, yet even our main A road, let alone any minor roads, hadn't been gritted when I went out at 6.45. Then the powers that be tell you to only go out if your journey is absolutely necessary - presumably they thought that theirs wasn't.

So the lack of investment is in people then. Money.

Brother-in-law is reporting over 1000 km of blocked roads in Belgium, so it isn't "only in Britain" as we tend to think.

Very nice but chilly day in N Norfolk.
The Boxing Day Dip at Cromer this morning - sea temperature 5.1c

Well, for those of you currently in the Algarve, the so called "Beast from the East" as the press have christened it has arrived. Woke up this morning to about 4" of snow and more falling at the moment.

Up here in the North East it will be at least -5 tonight but tomorrow and Thursday with the wind chill, it will feel considerably colder. We will also get storm Emma (named by the Portuguese weather service) from Thursday.

Really looking forward to our first visit of 2018 to Albufeira in 3 weeks time. Hopefully the weather there will be considerably warmer! 🏂

Oh that wheelie bin wouldn't be emptied here. The lid must not be open more than 7" 😬.