White Christmas?

I don't see what the fuss is about.

We had heavier snow and colder temperatures in the winter of 1995 into 1996. I remember because we were in temporary accom while our house was being built. Billy Connolly was on TV doing his world tour thingy. He was running around the arctic in the scuddy shouting, "This is burrillyant. It's minus 14 celcius and look at me, I'm running around in the scud." Meanwhile, we're sitting at 'home' in a poorly heated and poorly insulated house with a foot and a half of snow outside and temperatures of -22C.

Also, in January of 1987, we had over two feet of snow in Glasgow. I had a hospital appointment and didn't get further than half a mile down the road when I hit the gridlock. A bus was coming in the other direction. I got out of the car and flagged it down to ask the driver how far the gridlock went. "Right into town [a good seven miles]" was the reply. OK, it only lasted a wek or two but it was bad.

The winter my father-in-law died (just a couple of years earlier), it got cold at the start of December and the temperature never rose above freezing for a good two months.

A couple of years before that, although we were struggling badly financially, we decided to take out a bank loan to instal central heating because the calor gas fires we were using were causing condensation which froze inside the window overnight and when it melted in the morning it was damaging our new carpets.

Yes, it's cold and we don't often get it as cold as this but it's no big deal.

Wait till the week after this. It's going to get seriously cold that week...
 
Snow and/or minus temperatures aren't a problem at all as long as you are prepared. Trouble is, this country and Ireland aren't.

Sure it's hard work dealing with stock in yards or outside at this time of year - everything that gets frozen up overnight has to be be thawed in order the stock have free access to water. Yards also have to be crossed very carefully if on foot lugging buckets but this weather is in fact far healthier for all of us as long as we stay upright..! We've only has a little snow here, admittedly but the sheet ice we had for over a week was, in my book, far worse than snow, which at least gives you some grip.

The vast majority are fortunate enough to have enough heat in their homes to be comfortable and the important thing is to make sure anyone elderly you know who might try to economise on their heating bills doesn't.

We've had some stunning sunrises and sunsets here - the moon has been amazing both in the evening and again when going out first thing when it's still dark and that makes up for quite of bit of extra work as far as I'm concerned... if we don't have time to stop and stare and all that......;)
 
Degrees of preparation will vary from area to area.

With council spending tighter than it's probably been for many decades, things aren't as good up here as they once were. As recently as maybe five years ago, our street (very close to the depot) was one of the first to be gritted. Three weeks after the first heavy snowfall, our street hasn't seen a gritter or snowplough. The council have been on the receiving end of no shortage of phone calls and they have a stock reply which they're not for changing: "Your street is not a priority."

I don't mind shovelling the snow off my own drive and paths. I have a decent snow shovel and am fit enough to do the job. But there are a number of retired people in our street who aren't fit enough to clear their own drive or path. My neighbours and I have spent countless hours clearing their drives and paths and getting out into the street to help people whose cars have got stuck in the snow. Then we get another heavy snowfall and we're almost back to square one.

Having said that, the main roads have been ploughed, gritted and salted most of the time, so I can't be too critical of the local authority. I'd just like to know the order of 'priority' for clearing side streets. It's the lack of information and communication that's annoying the people in our street.

Further north, the local authority would probably have to allocate a greater percentage of their budget to clearing roads and streets as they are much worse affected than us.

We've had it very mild for a good few years and were overdue a prolonged cold spell. If this one is followed by another several mild winters, the majority of people will settle for it.
 
And you seriously think that jumps racing can go ahead in -10C (if only there was a way to stop the ground from frosting)? :lol:

The good thing is that there should be fewer snotty noses and diseases, thanks to the severe frosts killing off lots of germs. We seem to have had endless influenzas and tummy bugs for the past few mild winters, and I haven't heard of anything like it this time round. True, lots of plants which previously overwintered well are now dead, but some really cold, frosty and icy snaps are good for one's health.
 
Where did I say I thought racing should go ahead in -10c??

Not in the other thread. There I suggested - and admitted it was only a layman's suggestion which was open to ridicule - that courses aspiring to offer Grade 1 races should have frost protection down to "say -10C". It was no more than an example plucked out of thin air to represent an extreme. That temperature would be a minimum overnight temperature. You would always expect daytime temperatures to rise a fair bit.

You clearly think I'm some kind of an idiot, K, and that disappoints me.
 
Desert Orchid 20th December said:
Also just noticed they're forecasting temperatures of -14C for the middle of the week and the freeze to continue into the new year.
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Check the date of that forecast.

The BBC won't commit to anything beyond five days. Metcheck are a bit braver but obviously thereby risk being wrong.

Metcheck is down at the moment, saying it isn't coping with the volume of traffic on its site.
 
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I've had enough of it all now - it's playing havoc with the horses' schedules. Every morning you wake up praying that the gallops aren't too frozen or, far less likely, that we might be able to get them out on the roads.
 
Spoke to a trainer this morning who has had minus 10 yesterday but his grass gallops are fine; his 'all weather' is frozen and he can't use it. He is very frustrated there is no racing as he obviously is working everything at home, and some to specific targets, which obviously are being lost completely or the ground is turning against the horses, and they are all fit to run. He had an entry on Friday at Cheltenham for a horse who needed soft or 'worse' and having walked the track and spoken to at least 3 jockeys, who agreed with him, pulled the horse as the track was riding 'fast'.
 
I can't help you being disappointed, DO! You quite clearly gave the impression that courses should be able to operate when the rest of the country around them falls on its knees - no doubt because football can manage to hot-air its way out of cancelling matches, whether anyone's able to get to them or not. I'm pleased to see my own thoughts vindicated by remarks in the RP online this afternoon, by Neil McKenzie-Ross at Lingfield - it isn't just a case of 'business as usual' because business depends upon horses being able to get out of their yards to even get to the courses, as well, of course, as enough punters willing to attempt the trip to make opening up commercially worthwhile. No point in soldiering on when races are reduced to matches and three people - which looked to be the 'crowd' at Southwell today - prop up the bars, buying just a couple of coffees. As it is, he's inspecting at 6.30 a.m. for tomorrow because they're anticipating a large fall of snow - and while the Polytrack itself would be raceable (as it always is) with regular harrowing, the horses won't be raced as the snow balls in their hooves and makes their underpinnings unstable. Having said that, though, it was interesting last night to view the sulky racing from Northfield and elsewhere in the USA go ahead, even though snow covered the tracks and was falling hard. Given the speed the trotters and pacers can reach at full tilt, and that they're carting a wheeled vehicle behind them, I was surprised that they went ahead - either snow balls up in hooves, or they have some magical way to prevent it. It seemed to give the lie to the theory, but it'd be interesting to have insights into how they could manage to keep firmly upright (and not have the sulkies slide over, too) in going that would see us abandon.
 
Galileo said:
South of England is forecast up to 40cm of snow tonight and tomorrow. Good luck to all the Londoners!!
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Everyone in my office is already muttering aloud about how there is no way they will be able to get in - chancers!
 
krizon said:
Having said that, though, it was interesting last night to view the sulky racing from Northfield and elsewhere in the USA go ahead, even though snow covered the tracks and was falling hard. Given the speed the trotters and pacers can reach at full tilt, and that they're carting a wheeled vehicle behind them, I was surprised that they went ahead - either snow balls up in hooves, or they have some magical way to prevent it.
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Is it possible they use a full-plate shoe (if there is such a thing?) to stop the snow-balling?
 
My heart is bleeding here. I'm in an Internet cafe in Pattaya, it's 4am and the temp must still be in the high 80s.

Just hope it goes a bit cooler when we get to Cambodia in a couple of days because i've never sweated as much in all my life.
 
I doubt it - isn't it the rainy season? Heat and humidity - oh, yes, how lovely. Not.

Been snowing here and now it's raining on top of it - quite odd to have enough cold to snow, then quite quickly enough warmth to rain. Underfoot conditions on the downhill slalom known as North Road outside are pretty grim. Most people are walking like geishas.
 
krizon said:
I doubt it - isn't it the rainy season? Heat and humidity - oh, yes, how lovely. Not.
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Rainy season finishes in November. The humidity is only really a factor in Bangkok, in Pattaya and Phuket it's just a really pleasant heat because we're on the coast.
 
I'm surprised you say 'because we're on the coast', given my experience of 100/100 heat and humidity in Saudi days - the (Arabian) Gulf was stunningly humid, while inland (Riyadh) was extremely hot, but dry. Someone I knew went to Phuket for several months in the winter, and although he'd worked in Bahrain and Saudi, said the heat was getting too much for him, too. More icy G&Ts should sort you out.
 
Is that made of felt or something like that? I'd be interested to know how that works to prevent sliding. Might search for a picture and see what it looks like.

Any of these?: http://www.easycareinc.com There are some fantastic things for all-terrain use, so I suppose those with gripper soles would do well on the ice and snow.
 
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krizon said:
Is that made of felt or something like that? I'd be interested to know how that works to prevent sliding. Might search for a picture and see what it looks like.

Any of these?: http://www.easycareinc.com There are some fantastic things for all-terrain use, so I suppose those with gripper soles would do well on the ice and snow.
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No they are not a boot, they go between the shoe and the frog. I think they are made if silicon.
 
Pretty little blue tu-tus with sequinned tops, last time I looked. Probably just regular shoes with studs, I imagine, or a variation of them. Ice won't ball up into the hoof in the way snow will, although I do wonder how old carriage horses used to cope in the old days, clattering over snowy, ungritted and unsalted cobblestones?

It's rained, then snowed, rained again, and is still snowing lightly but steadily. The roofs of the houses around me are still topped with what looks like icy slush. Underfoot it's not at all nice, judging by the way pedestrians are teetering along.
 
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Ah well, I think I might finally be succumbing to something, having felt under the weather since a few days before Christmas.

Had to go to the doc again yesterday. She said there were noises in my chest (which the two emergency docs had declared clear in the last fortnight) and has given me another antibiotic. (The first emergency doc gave me a course of antibiotics for my throat but the second one said my throat was still inflamed, therefore it was probably a viral infection. She also said the antibiotics I'd been given were 'mega-strong'.) The doc I saw yesterday said it would be unusual for a patient to be given such high-strength antibiotics as a first resort but she gave me a different type.

As today has gone on, I'm getting a bit more susceptible to changes in temperatures as doors are left open or as I move from room to room around the house. Also getting a bit achy around the shoulders, upper arms and lower back. Coughing a bit more too, and it's more 'productive' than before. Throat is still a bit raw.

Taking plenty of fluids, which means more visits to the colder toilet!
 
Desert Orchid said:
Ah well, I think I might finally be succumbing to something, having felt under the weather since a few days before Christmas.

Had to go to the doc again yesterday. She said there were noises in my chest (which the two emergency docs had declared clear in the last fortnight) and has given me another antibiotic. (The first emergency doc gave me a course of antibiotics for my throat but the second one said my throat was still inflamed, therefore it was probably a viral infection. She also said the antibiotics I'd been given were 'mega-strong'.) The doc I saw yesterday said it would be unusual for a patient to be given such high-strength antibiotics as a first resort but she gave me a different type.

As today has gone on, I'm getting a bit more susceptible to changes in temperatures as doors are left open or as I move from room to room around the house. Also getting a bit achy around the shoulders, upper arms and lower back. Coughing a bit more too, and it's more 'productive' than before. Throat is still a bit raw.

Taking plenty of fluids, which means more visits to the colder toilet!
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Go to bed.........
 
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