The Snow

[redtoon1892]

Well its a blizzard out there at the moment, 10in deep and getting deeper. I think they may have to get the old snow ploughs out of retirement.Not seen it this bad since 1963.
So much for global warming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rs-XEcXKW0

[woberty]

i remember in the 80s seeing a br blue class 37 with a snow plough. Clearing the esk valley line. Could hear it for miles before seeing it action.

[Bryan]

Mine is still in the shed.
Maybe next winter.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
If global warming means more snow for you, you will be needing your plough every year from now on??? for us it will be the opposite, we have been forecast to be around 40c for the next week, a lot of our major rivers are drying up( also over use ) The River Murray has'nt reached the sea in years, most of it cause by mismanagment, greed and plain waste,a firm up river plans to dump 150,000 tons of salt a year into a freshwater river??????? In the last week huge rains have flooded most of northern New South Wales and now there arguing what to DO with all this water
But look on the bright side with so few snow ploughs in the UK now you'll be able too hire yours out for very high prices
manna


You know it's summer in South Australia when most of the people in the supermarket are bare foot

[richard]

I think the colder weather being seen in the US and Europe is probably El Nino related. We're seeing frontal systems come further south - and have been since last summer. For Texas summers this happens in El Nino years as tropical cyclones are infrequent / less dominant, and temperate frontal systems define the weather more. This time of the year is usually frontal (hence the thunderstorms and tornadoes in spring as the fronts combine with warmer temperatures), but this time the fronts are further south resulting in more and colder "polar" air. This looks to be the same in Europe at the moment.

Will it become more common? There's some uncertainty as to how El Nino events will react to global warming - some suggest they will become more common but I am not so sure. Also by the end of the century, the Gulf Stream will have started to slow - resulting in cooler weather for NW Europe for a century or so.

The US also has water management issues. They vary a lot according to inter-state (and inter-nation) squabbles, or whether regional planning has been successful or not. Water extraction is not sustainable at current rates for most of Arizona, Nevada, and a lot of Texas (and Texas is one of the better managed southern States!).


Richard

[giner]

Speaking of colder weather, even though a cold winter is the norm in Alberta - usually in the -15 to -35C range - we had a particularly bad patch around Christmas where Edmonton was recorded as the second coldest place on the planet. It broke all records as we dipped to -44C, but the real problem was the windchill which dropped us to -58C. It's hard to even breathe at those temperatures. Only some place in Siberia beat us by 2 degrees.

I got in my car that morning and it felt as though the seats had turned to wooden benches, and the LED radio dial took at least four minutes to come up. I certainly commiserate with you folks back in the UK in this present weather. Here, at least, the country is geared up for this sort of thing. Stay warm, guys!

[richard]

The ice storm hit us overnight. Texas gets one maybe two ice storms a year but this doesn't mean people know how to drive. This one has little precipitation (I've known the roads be ice rinks in the past) but it is cold - today's high is meant to be 28F (about -2 or -3C) which is very low for Dallas. By 7am the radio had given up trying to give the accidents and closures. With "100s" of road accidents all of the freeways now have at least one all-lane closure!

It is VERY slow, but there's an interactive map of closures here:

http://dfwtraffic.dot.state.tx.us/Default.htm

Marcy is working at home today...


Richard

[52D]

For those who havent seen it, Bleath Gill film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymz6D8eFeUg

[Bryan]

Mine is the wooden plough

[redtoon1892]

One on Flea Bay at the moment :-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

[60041]

I found this tonight; it looks like it has been pretty rough over there in the last couple of weeks:
http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk ... wsAreaID=2