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Here I am in the hills/small mountains south of St Ettienne and we had a big gale last night. Strong winds and rain that brought more than a few trees down.
Woke up this morning with the prospect of a 550Km drive ahead of me and we are snowed in. Yes folks, the 1st of may and I'm snowed in at my hotel. About 4in of the white stuff fell in the night.
It is also a bank holiday here so the snow clearance vehicles won't be out. I'll try to get out after breakfast as I have 4WD but I don't recon much of my chances.
Deep Joy!
Samantha
Comments
Blizzard ?
Hey Sam, in New England, we call 4" a dusting. Be safe, it's not you, but the other drivers I don't trust.
Hugs, Karen
Here in Houston, 4 inches of
Here in Houston, 4 inches of snow would be called a disaster area.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
for Snow yes, Rain not.
if i had 4 inches of water on the ground, that is why I drive a truck.
Houston, we may never see snow but we know how to get to work when others would think it was impossible, short of the water being more than a 2 ft deep i can get to work without flooding my truck. over that and I am SOL.
We know Wet stuff not Cold Stuff.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Jubilee
Any time it snows in Houston, it's considered a day of Jubilee.
I think it was the winter of 2009-2010 where they got three snowfalls that winter. If you're out driving when it's snowing, the snowfall can be really thick. (It's wet and warm snow.)
Then there was the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowfall, giving Houston and areas east and southwest a White Christmas. ("I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...") Houston itself only got an inch or so, but Victoria (TX) got a foot of snow. Photos of Victoria looked like bucolic New England winter scenes. And photos of Galveston showed incongruous images of snow-covered palm trees.
I think Houston got a blizzard in 1895 that dropped a couple feet of snow.
-- Daphne Xu
North Texas has a history of thick snowfall
once you go up north in Texas snow and ice is expected yearly. heck you wont see a large or tall tree at all in the panhandle because the winds are too strong.
When it started just dumping rain by the bucket full the last 2 years I wanted to dance in the rain wee needed it so bad.
But Me i can drive in high water, wet roads, and low visibility from heavy rain no problem. Snow and ice i get even more cautious I just do not have the practice regularly from ice or snow, now hail is another story. I really hate when i start picking golfball size and larger hail off the ground, it gets dangerous then. Had a neighbor one year had a piece of hail just a little bigger than a softball go through his roof and take out his TV while he was watching a sports game. He was pissed then after the anger passed he was greatfule it had not landed on him or his family and injured them or worse.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Amarillo just got a bunch of
Amarillo just got a bunch of snow a few days ago. I think they were talking about up to 8 inches, but you know how Texans like to exaggerate.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I came from Amarillo three hrs.earlier
Yes they took a real hickey on snow Sunday and Monday as did Colorado, Kansas, etc. The temp there at eight this morning was forty six degrees, snow was all gone. What isn't gone is the crop damage the heavy wet snow did to summer crops. Wheat prices are spiking as the heavy snow flattened the wheat fields Texas north. With all the snow and cold air up north of me, when the front came through my area was too cool to trigger the killer tornadoes so prevalent each year. South of me toward Dallas the weather front ran into the temp (98 degrees) providing energy to the thermal engine to start the tornadoes.
Remember when we were going to be extinct due to "Global Cooling"?
Remember when it shifted from Global Cooling to Global Warming?
Surely you can remember when it shifted to catch all phrase of "Climate Change"?
http://notrickszone.com/2016/09/13/massive-cover-up-exposed-...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-global-co...
Our weather is a natural cyclic occurring event. Everyone can believe what they want. It's called choice. Just don't ask me to pay more taxes for running my diesel tractor, raising dust. Oh yeah, and growing food that millions of people eat. While I'm on my soapbox. The U.S. Farm Bill everyone talks about paying billions to farmers and ranchers who are filthy rich? No one knows for sure but 79% to 90% of the money goes to welfare programs, school lunches, etc. Gov hides all that and more in a "farm bill". I admit I received close to two thousand last year from the gov for "crop adjustment" for a crop that didn't get harvested due to drought. Figuring cost of equipment, seed, fuel, repairs, I only lost a little over twenty grand. Labor is always counted as free on a farm or ranch. Every year we roll the dice to see if weather, bugs, early freeze or market crash when we harvest is going to be the last year we farm or if we made enough or are stupid enough to try it again, and again, and again.
Climate Change indeedie! Iceland's Volcanic Pollution Dwarfs All of Europe's Human Emissions
Be your best. Someone has it all figured out and It isn't us
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Any snow
here would be a major disaster as it never snows
Snow?
What is this thing you call snow?
Commentator
Visit my Caption Blog: Dawn's Girly Site
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White stuff
I believe it looks like powdered sugar but those are fanciful tales told by liars and braggarts.
Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.
Broken Irish is better than clever English.
Sometimes...
It looks like fluffs of cotton balls floating down from the sky. Other times it looks like tiny fluffs of cotton balls falling pretty fast from the sky.
-- Daphne Xu
take care
My brother was just up the road from you the other day and had a similar fall of snow - fortunately they had a heated road to get off the mountain!
So take care
Madeline Anafrid Bell
It's not the quantity, but the type!
In Blighty, it was the wrong type of snow that wreaked havoc on the rail system back in 1991
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transpo...
Here in South Central
Here in South Central Wisconsin (USA), 4" of snow is considered pretty normal (although not in early May).
With 4WD you should be ok as long as you don't try to drive beyond your abilities. Best advice is drive slow, don't stomp on the accelerator, and make sure you have plenty of gasoline (petrol) in the tank, along with an extra blanket and some food (just in case). Also make sure your phone is fully charged before you leave.
You should be fine, Sam. But I'll be praying for your safety just to make sure.
Hugs,
Erin of Wis <3
Watch out for the Unexpected Human Error
I would Recommend if you have experience driving in snow always watch for those driving beyond there own means, if they do not know how to safely drive in that type of weather and get reckless it can give you a bad day when they hit you.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Four inches is just an annoyance.....
To those of us in upstate NY! And for the life of me, I can't imagine living anywhere that the snow plows don't run because it's a holiday. I can remember getting 28" of snow on Christmas Day a few years back, and our roads were plowed throughout the storm - no matter that it was Christmas.
I work in logistics, and life goes on 24/7, 365 - it doesn't stop just because it's a holiday. In my world, there are six holidays: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. The only two that are normally non-operating days are Christmas and New Years; the remainder are paid holidays, but not shut down days. And truthfully, I have even had to go into my office on Christmas Day before, not to mention having to get off of a phone call at midnight on New Year's Eve to kiss my wife when the ball dropped.
People eat every day; they require heat, electricity, and water every day. That means that not only are the people in service industries working, so are those in logistics who support them.
I can't imagine living in a place where that isn't true.
D
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Things are different in France
Yesterday was a public holiday.
Apart from the Baker and Butcher (local stores) everything was closed. Many restauarants opened only for lunch.
The place was dead. It meant that the non autoroutes were pretty clear of traffic. Lots of traffic on the A20, A75 etc as people went home after an extended Easter break but as I said, I didn't use those roads.
So far on this trip I have spent less than 20 Euros on Road tolls and 8 of them was for a ferry over the Rhone.
Samantha
I'm Free!
And 650Kms of driving later, I'm in Angers on the banks of the Loire.
Took 20 mins to clear the snow off the car so that I could drive. The earlier rain had frozen then the snow fell on top of that.
To get out of the hotel I needed to climb a pretty steep hill. As the first vehicle to go up, I made it without issues but even so, the roads were dicey to say the least. The first town was around 12km away. Between the Hotel and the town there were 3 cars in ditches. Obviously going to fast which seems the norm for french drivers outside towns.
I do know New England Winters. I was there in 1983/84 and totalled a brand new rental on the second day. Honest Officer, I was trying to stop when I ran into the back of your car. The road was covered in black ice. This all took place close to Manchester Airport (N.H).
The snow was a surprise to me that's all. I was not prepared for snow on this trip!
Still had a good drive up on mostly empty roads (Avoiding the motorways). Off to Brittany tomorrow.
Samantha
rear ending a Peace Officers Car!!!!
You rear ended a Peace Officers Car over 3 Decades ago in the US, how did you make it out off that, Most officers I have had contact with would have started throwing the whole law code at you to see what they could get the District Attorney to say what sticks.
Either you had a nice officer in a good mood and having a really good day, or I hesitate to wonder how big the fine was.
"Cortana is watching you!"
Got away with it
As the police officer promptly fell on his posterior when he got out of his car.
Thankfully, he saw that it really wasn't my fault. He got to his feet and got the road closed.
I hit the car at less than 10mph yet the rental was a write off (plymouth Reliant).
Samantha
ah yes
A Reliant - Del Boy would've been proud of you - Glad it wasn't it wasn't the Capree Ghia! GLAD you got out of the snow!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
He may have been a Masshole.......
But to those of us who live through winters in this part of the country (my home is less than 30 minutes west of Vermont, and Massachusetts is just over an hour as I have to drive south to Albany before turning east), you deal with it, or you move. I've spent more than my fair share of time in New England, including the Manchester, NH area (did a lot of business with A-B in Merrimack), so I know the area. The closer you get to the coast, the more ice you will see - whereas in my area (Northern Hudson River Valley between the Catskills and the Adirondacks), it's more snow than ice.
On a related note, years ago while living in New Orleans a police car driving in front of me slid off the road into a ditch. I had to stop and help the two cops push their car back onto the road, laughing the whole time. When the cops got angry that I was laughing, I showed them my NY driver's license and told them that in NY it was usually the cops helping someone else - not the other way around. They kind of understood how I would be much more used to driving on ice than they were, lol.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
snow
Try 30 plus inches with 5 foot drifts. Were I am at they get the snow plows out when we get to 3 inches but not before.
Have a good day and enjoy life.
wow
I haven't seen the whit stuff for almost 25 years and I don't miss it
2 inches
Of snow and the schools in Detroit shut down. 2 inches of snow where I live is nothing. Go figure.
Re: 2 inches
I live in Toronto, not too far from Detroit. We get two inches here and we'll have at least one major pile-up, if not more.
I don't know whether we shut our schools down that soon, don't have any kids, so no need to know that info.
It's been 40 years since the huge blizzard swept through Southern Ontario. I was living in St. Mary's at that time, a small town 12 miles southwest of Stratford and a bit over twenty miles from London. We got dumped on in a major way during that storm; because St. Marys is rural or nearly so, and because we lived on the very edge of town, we got over five feet of fresh snow and had fifteen foot high drifts.
Those drifts were cool, I remember going in there and playing fort with the other kids, we had tunnels going every which way. I can't recall whether school was canceled that day or not, but I do know we had fun with the huge drifts for as long as they lasted.
There were people all around us who lost power at one point or another, I can't recall whether we did or if we had a generator.
Anyway, two inches to me back then would have been "Huh? Closing schools? Why?" It took a lot more than that to close them then.