Heavy Snow Causes Chaos, It’s Not Just Us …….

[Steve 940]

Well I thought the Swedes had the heavy snowfall problems sorted, apparently not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67880743

Suppose you can’t defeat physics, and it appears the tailback is mainly HGV’s.

Cheers
Steve

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Well I thought the Swedes had the heavy snowfall problems sorted, apparently not.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67880743

Suppose you can’t defeat physics, and it appears the tailback is mainly HGV’s.

Cheers
Steve

To be fair Steve, they were exceptional circumstances which caught them out.

We have been in Sweden in winter and never had a problem. In some cities certain critical routes are heated and in the countryside local farmers are contracted to keep their few kilometres of road clear of the white stuff. On the whole, the system works well.

Regards, John.

[Steve 940]

Hi John,

My apologies John, I didn’t intend to criticise our Nordic cousins, and realise the extent of such heavy snowfall causes some issues.

More of a comment that we in the Uk seem to constantly bash ourselves over the head in the media when a ‘weather event’ occurs, you know the sort of thing, dusting of snow and general travel chaos.

Yes, whilst no direct experience of driving in Scandinavia, I did work with a Norwegian who found it rather amusing at the lack of awareness of most average Brits in driving in winter conditions. Although I think most Scandinavians are born with an innate ability to complete a Scandi-Flick, at will😀

Cheers
Steve

[Kev0607]

Imagine what it would be like here in the UK if temperatures really did plummet, like it did in Sweden recently to -40? That would be chaos!

We can just about cope with the "dusting" of snow we get... that's all we get, a dusting in comparison to other places. Our winter is mild really. We don't know what cold is.

Something else we aren't prepared for I guess, amongst many others.

[GrahamHR]

Studded winter tyres make an enormous difference to driving on ice and snow, compared to the Summer tyres most UK drivers want to us all year round !

[Ulrikas PA]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Imagine what it would be like here in the UK if temperatures really did plummet, like it did in Sweden recently to -40? That would be chaos!

We can just about cope with the "dusting" of snow we get... that's all we get, a dusting in comparison to other places. Our winter is mild really. We don't know what cold is.

Something else we aren't prepared for I guess, amongst many others.

I used to get annoyed with our media and weather forecasts hyping up 'heavy snow' when it actually means 2 inches / 5 cms.

My problem is what they will say (and the chaos above) when it's actually 3 or 4 times that?

It doesn't happen very often, but why say it's heavy snow when it isn't.

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by Ulrikas PA

I used to get annoyed with our media and weather forecasts hyping up 'heavy snow' when it actually means 2 inches / 5 cms.

My problem is what they will say (and the chaos above) when it's actually 3 or 4 times that?

It doesn't happen very often, but why say it's heavy snow when it isn't.

to Scare the Snowflakes into another round of "omgnoooess" and yet more media sensationalism perhaps,,


UK 1/2 inch of snow and there are abandoned cars + suvs all over
canada and 90% of nordic countries dont have that problem,,

uk ,,5inch of water ,, we get stranded and dead cars, ,,including Muppets who know the road DIPS under a local railway bridge , yet decide to drive through it in the recent wet weather, while there are "flood" signs out,, and oh you cant now pass the road at all as a bwm is Somewhere in teh flood water, cant See the car as its over the roof line,,

uk drivers = taught to pass a test, NOT taught to drive, have Zero clue and wont listen/learn but enjoy using there cars as weapons/bully tools to force others out the way/off the road,

...start a cull of the brain deads ,,

[rob3837]

Originally Posted by andy_d

to Scare the Snowflakes into another round of "omgnoooess" and yet more media sensationalism perhaps,,


UK 1/2 inch of snow and there are abandoned cars + suvs all over
canada and 90% of nordic countries dont have that problem,,

uk ,,5inch of water ,, we get stranded and dead cars, ,,including Muppets who know the road DIPS under a local railway bridge , yet decide to drive through it in the recent wet weather, while there are "flood" signs out,, and oh you cant now pass the road at all as a bwm is Somewhere in teh flood water, cant See the car as its over the roof line,,

uk drivers = taught to pass a test, NOT taught to drive, have Zero clue and wont listen/learn but enjoy using there cars as weapons/bully tools to force others out the way/off the road,

...start a cull of the brain deads ,,

Canadian and Nordic winters are probably pretty similar. 30 cm of snow or more in one dump isn't unusual. Good winter tires and AWD/4WD make it a whole lot easier. On the downside, road salt will slowly eat your vehicle

[4x4]

The problem with heavy snowfall in the UK is everyone thinks they know how to drive in the snow, in reality most don't. Add on that most cars are on summer tyres then roads quickly become blocked with all the wannabe WRC drivers going nowhere!!! The last heavy snow we had in the UK was when the Beast from the East hit us in March 2018. At the time I was driving a rear wheel drive Mercedes and it never put a foot wrong, I was one of the few that managed to do my job keeping clients happy and getting them to where they needed to be. Pirelli Sottozero winter tyres kept me moving safely when the majority of other motorists were stuck.

Since then I have towed a caravan from the Isle of Lewis to Glasgow in horrendous snow conditions passing everything that was stuck on the hills coming out of Ullapool heading south with my XC90 on Vredestein Wintrac tyres. I now have a set of Continental WinterContact TS 870 tyres on the V70 and even though there has been little snow I know that if I need to venture out in a storm I will be properly equipped to cope with the conditions whatever they may be.

Many moons ago I was an HGV driver, my Monday morning job was to take a load from Glasgow to Inverness and in the winter time the A9 could have anywhere from 6 inches to 15+ inches of snow covering the tarmac as you went over the Drumochter Pass or the Slochd Summit. I lost count of the number of times I would hear on the CB as I drove towards Perth the drivers from Duncan Adams Transport or John Mitchell Transport or JG Russell plus the various whisky companies shout out that "It's Monday morning, the Houston driver (me) will be coming up the road soon, we'll wait and let him go first"

[DaveNP]

Reading that BBC article the road closure was in Skane County which is the southernmost bit of Sweden alongside Denmark and the E22 there looks pretty much like an English dual carriageway through English countryside, the -42C temperatures were in the far North. Just like the UK has drivers in the North used to harsh winters and drivers in the South who turn into quivering wrecks at the sight of one snowflake I'd expect the two ends of Sweden engender different levels of coping in harsh weather too, and either way they do seem to have suffered a bit of a freak storm which would overwhelm even the best planning.

When I was driving for a living I got to the point of ignoring the media hype about extreme weather and impassable roads, and went over to reviewing the weather charts from the met office and checking the motorway cameras (available online) to see for myself before I left home.