Snow!

[Zippy]

Still nothing here. It's bloody cold though.

[TimberWolf]

Still no snow here, and it feels relatively warm. By which I mean close to zero (and probably above) and not as windy. For the past week cars would have been covered in frost by this time in the evening, but there's none of that tonight. It's about the first time it's been above freezing for a week, by day or night.

[minestrone]

Major thaw over night, probably about half the snow gone.

[norrahe]

Major thaw over night, probably about half the snow gone.

Same here, we had a hefty snow fall about midnight but it then rained afterwards, looks all grey and sludgy outside.

[VectraMan]

It was snowing quite hard here about 9pm last night, but today looks to be thawing fast.

[d000hg]

Probably just above freezing here in Durham, lots of dripping icicles and snow falling off roofs (fun!) but no sign of the snow going anywhere, still 6"+ as you walk about. Road has become slightly slushy rather than frozen solid, if anything this is causing more problems since it's a layer of slush on top of solid compressed snow/ice.
Snow has remained very light and fluffy the whole week since it never got above freezing, I fear now it will be ruined as it melts a bit and re-freezes as ice.

Icicles continue to get more ridiculous by the hour. Virtually every house looks like a child's drawing now, 2 foot icicles are common and I can see a couple of houses where icicles hanging on the gutter/roof are reaching to the windowsill of top-story windows.

[RichardCranium]

Icicles continue to get more ridiculous by the hour. Virtually every house looks like a child's drawing now, 2 foot icicles are common and I can see a couple of houses where icicles hanging on the gutter/roof are reaching to the windowsill of top-story windows.

Photos, man, photos!

[d000hg]

This is a pretty tame one from a couple of days ago



Have some newer ones to upload still, though they are rather tricky to get good photos of.

[Sysman]

I remember being highly impressed with the antilock on the Big Bloo Volvo as it slid gently down the (rather steep) hill.

When all 4 wheels are locked up it thought it was stationary.

So it was back to pump the brake pedal again.

Not to mention the joy of getting the damn thing moving again by getting it over the hump of snow in front of the wheels once it had stopped.

Plus shifting between drive & neutral because even with the brakes on it still slid in drive.

That reminds me of the Granada I had for a few months. That was bloo too. I was about half a mile from home when a young lad playing with a football suddenly shot into the road, totally oblivious to the presence of a big Granada.

The ABS worked fine.

With one hell of a racket.

When I got home and parked on the grass I felt it slip forwards a little, but thought it was the mud.

Nope. The ABS had shattered the brake disc. All the brake fluid hit the deck on the first touch of the brake pedal.

Thanks feck I realised before I went down the steep hill on my way to work. The Big Bloo Granada was automatic and it wouldn't change down until the revs dropped below a certain limit. It was a lot of car to try and stop on the handbrake.

Truly the stuff of nightmares.

Once the brakes were fixed, it began to not start. Fine most days, but when it decided to play up, the only way to get it started was to leave it alone for an hour or two.

When it eventually refused point blank to start, all the neighbours had a go at fixing it.

My mechanic had a go.

Then brought his auto-electrician mate to have a go.

I resorted to getting it towed away. The two mechanics who turned up were convinced they could get it going on the spot.

"No chance" I said, "Just take it away".

Nope, they had to have a go.

At which point I told 'em I wasn't paying them to waste their time. I may have used the word jinxed.

They took it away.

And then gave it to an auto-electrician to fix. Some engine management module. And a new alternator.

My next motor was a Land Rover, mechanics for which were aplenty in my neck of the woods. Ran it for 2 years and got back what I paid for it.

Oops got carried away there. No snow since Wednesday. Currently 0.5° C. Nice and snug Saturday afternoon at home. Loverly.

[TimberWolf]

Just thought I'd check the state of charge of my car battery - I don't use my car much and have been using it even less recently. So off I go to web to check voltages for battery charge: 100% 12.7V, 75% 12.4V, 50% 12.2V, 25% 12V. Put voltmeter in lighter socket and get a reading of 11.25V. Ouch, I should really run the engine more often than every other week. Car started okay though, and low temperatures may affect the reading, and mine isn't a regular lead-acid battery either. So much for theory, or rather, reading just one part of a theory packed page.