I'm still sort of shocked so I'll just come right out with this... Suddenly, snow everywhere! It was sunny here yesterday! Winter is upon us - anyone else get a dusting of the white stuff last night?
<rant>You sound a lot like most of Finns "Oh... Snow, I didn't expect this thou' it comes every year at some point!". (Sure it's different in UK/Ireland, but you get your part of the snow almost every year I expect). Thou' we don't have snow here in southern finland yet, but it's just annoying how people act like they didn't expect it to be snowing heavily in winter! Just waiting for the first blizzard so people can drive their cars off the road because "I didn't expect it to be so slippery when roads are full of snow! Thou' it happens every year!".</rant> Waiting for the winter, expecting it to be like every year..:
For once I'm looking forward to it, I've got a Subaru and some winter tyres! That, and it's brilliant to hear my hilariously inept co-workers talking about how hard it is to drive in snow... QQ!
I'm on my 3rd Subaru in a row. The only downside of these fantastic cars is that no matter how bad the roads, I can ALWAYS make it to work and on snowy days, I'm often the only guy who lives off site in the office.
It's not that I didn't expect it, but for my lifetime it has been extremely rare here until the past 4 or 5 years. When I was growing up generally got a few months of hard frost and lots of rain in winter, but virtually no snow. Now that it snows here almost every year, it catches lots of people off guard and they act stupid. It's not that I don't like it and it's not even that I can't drive in it (front wheel drive car and the experience of a total write off 4 years ago) it's the fact that so many other people can't! Every time I go out driving in the snow I feel like I'm going to get written off by someone else :/ Wait, what?! Did I miss something?
Would love a subaru, but the fuel costs would kill me with all the driving I do. In my experience driving technique will help more when driving in snow than having a good car, the amount of idiots out there in 4WD cars that just floor the accelerator when trying to go up a hill is scary. Meanwhile I just roll up in first gear at idle and my Clio keeps on running.
Anywhere south of Scotland doesn't expect a lot of snow, most years in Belfast we only get a few inches twice, and rarely this early. The last few years snow has been a bit more common though. I've only had one time in my 5 years of driving that I've felt uncomfortable driving due to snow, and I drive a Clio without winter tyres. We do have a few people who seem genuinely shocked when it gets darker earlier, cold, and generally frosty. Its like they can't remember the last 30 or so times its happened to them.
+1 for Clio Tarka My goal for this winter was to have winter tyres and steel rims on the Clio, then get the alloys refurbed to sell and be replaced with OEM 16's in the spring. I was about one week away from ordering the winter tyres, then my insurance excess got doubled and that went straight out the window My goal for next winter is to actually have an AWD car on the road. Whether that'll happen or not depends on not having another "one step forward, two steps back" financial year like 2013 has been
You're right about some people with AWD/4WD cars not knowing how to drive them. In the sudden snow of nov 2010, I was on my way home from work down a snow covered lane and I was flagged down by a guy who had managed to get a range rover stuck. He had no clue how to lock the diffs, no clue how to select a low range and no clue just how well his car can drive in snow if driven properly. Knowledge and sensibility is your best asset for winter driving, dead right there.
Yes, admittedly I was first out of the gate this morning by tweeting a snow photo just after 6 AM, but literally every tweet and status update in my social media feeds today is about the weather! You have to laugh at it
Yea snow this morning, the mountains look great with snow on them. There's going to be a few dickheads flying off the mountain roads in theirs car, happens every year
No snow in Brighton, and I am still yet to walk to work in the subzeros, but it is getting a bit chilly.
Nice and sunny in Swansea but we did get a very brief flurry whilst I was in a lovely double Finite Element lecture, no trace once I got out though.
Very sunny, but, **** it's cold! Saw someone wearing a t-shirt and had to wonder if their brain had fried.
The sun is out here now as well, temp is still a mere 2 degrees outside though! Nice crisp winter day
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/...-hit-by-entirely-typical-weather-201110174431 bright sunshine slightly cooler than normal - 20 miles along the coast from Margon , just got a touch though , 2 Michelin energy tyres on ebay for £20 - NEW , and carparts4less has snow socks for £20 on offer - in case we do get lots. love my diesel bus - put it in 2st and crawl up ice covered roads when flashy motors are stuck
