How is the snow in ur area

[Mark_T]

Truth of the matter though is that we (UK) are simply not geared up to handle the change in weather, other countries are better equipped and are used to this,

We get caught in the problem that while it is annoying when it happens, it doesn't happen for several months or even weeks at a time so the investment needed to deal with it is hard to justify unlike some other countries.

Same goes for the roads, we could gear up to deal with it, but do we really want to spend large amounts of limited resources fixing a problem that only affects us for a few days in a bad year?

[spunkmyer]

Yep got around 5-6" here and a little snow is falling now.

[debrooker]

Only had to dig my car out twice on the way to and from the field

what was i thinking - type R on un salted single track country roads - still got me nice and warm all that shoveling.

[p4ddy]

Truth of the matter though is that we (UK) are simply not geared up to handle the change in weather, other countries are better equipped and are used to this,

This is exactly the reason i took the original comment to be refering too. Why doesn't it have things in place like other countries do?? That's why people get pi....d off with the whole situation.

[p4ddy]

We get caught in the problem that while it is annoying when it happens, it doesn't happen for several months or even weeks at a time so the investment needed to deal with it is hard to justify unlike some other countries.

Same goes for the roads, we could gear up to deal with it, but do we really want to spend large amounts of limited resources fixing a problem that only affects us for a few days in a bad year?

But the intitial investment will pay for itself if you think of the amount of buisness that is lost in one day

[Mark_T]

But the intitial investment will pay for itself if you think of the amount of buisness that is lost in one day

I'm always very suspicious of any figures quoted for business 'lost'.

Obviously some is indeed lost never to be found again, but most is merely displaced from one day to another so there really isn't that much to gain from trying to cover the extremes to perfection.

[Mart61]

But the intitial investment will pay for itself if you think of the amount of buisness that is lost in one day

No chance. Why? Cos they'll spend even more money bickering about whose budget the initial investment comes from.

[alioth]

Here in the Isle of Man we've had more snow than in the last 5 years combined... in other words, about three inches. There's no wind today, the sun is out, so I maidened my BeastX T-Rex 600 on a snowy school playing field :-) (I set it up yesterday, while it was snowing, hoping for a snow flight)

[del19_82]

It's snowing hard again here! It snowed the other day for a couple of hours but it was fairly light so never lay too heavy!!

[alioth]

Same goes for the roads, we could gear up to deal with it, but do we really want to spend large amounts of limited resources fixing a problem that only affects us for a few days in a bad year?

And it's not necessarily up to the government to do everything, we must take some personal responsibility in "gearing up", such as:

- fitting winter tyres to our cars
- making sure we have warm clothes with us if we do intend to travel, in case we get stuck. If there's snow in the forecast, even for the most mundane journey I have in my backpack some skiing trousers, an insulated motorcycling jacket, my insulated motorcyling gloves and a thick warm hat - so I can walk the rest of the way if necessary).
- learning how to drive in the snow (and those who can't drive in the snow shouldn't).

It took me an hour to do the first two miles on the way home on Friday not because people's cars were incapable of making it up the hill, but because the drivers were incapable of driving them up the hill. The people who were polishing the ice by revving their engines to 3000 rpm with wheels spinning madly were causing the problems. If everyone knew what to do, the traffic would have been slow but no front wheel drive car would have got stuck. (And then there's the 4x4 owners. Grrr. They don't seem to realise that everyone has 4x4 brakes, and they won't get stopped any faster - we had one go roaring down the hill as if the roads were bone dry. If there had been a stuck car going up with people trying to pass it, he'd have caused quite a bad crash... funny how all the crashed vehicles I've seen in the snow here are 4x4s...)

[Mart61]

My cat has the right idea:

[AcidDrink]

That is, perhaps, because you understand neither what goes on at an airport nor what it takes to deem an aircraft unsafe to fly.

Trust me, none of these decisions to either close an airport or cancel a flight are taken light-heartedly.

If somebody that knows more than you makes a decision that putting to the skies is unsafe, trust me you should trust them.

Live Flight Information - Oslo Airport
BBC Weather | Oslo

www.berlin-airport.de
BBC Weather | Berlin

Need more and did we ever meet? You seem to know me very well.
Heathrow was closed because equipment and infrastructure to handle light snow is non-existent there, which is a damn joke.

p.s. Not snowing in Guildford at the moment.

[Mart61]

Need more and did we ever meet? You seem to know me very well.

This is why I said "...perhaps, because you understand neither what goes on at an airport nor what it takes to deem an aircraft unsafe to fly."

So you've proven your ability to find weather forecasts and flight information. Now what knowledge have you on airport operations or aircraft safety?

[AcidDrink]

This is why I said "...perhaps, because you understand neither what goes on at an airport nor what it takes to deem an aircraft unsafe to fly."

So you've proven your ability to find weather forecasts and flight information. Now what knowledge have you on airport operations or aircraft safety?

Please stop patronizing me, I have no business posting my CV here.

I just wanted to show that other airports can operate in light snow conditions and it's nothing unusual.

Frozen tarmac is a side effect of airport operators being unable to well.. operate airport in light snow conditions and assuming "let's wait till it melts" tactics, screwing up hundreds of thousands people in the process and causing lots of damage to airlines, shops and businesses at peak of holiday season. Yeah, let's just stop all inbound traffic at key international airport, because we rely on luck (maybe there will be snow, maybe not, let's not spend money on equipment just in case we have no snow)?

[Mart61]

Forgive me, I'm not trying to patronize you, or any others on this site or thread.

The point I'm trying to make, and perhaps failing, is that there are many "armchair experts" out there that pass judgement on the decisions of others that may be far more experienced to make such decisions.

I stand by my views - if the airport or airline operators decide to close an airport or ground an aircraft, perhaps it's best we concur with their decision.