White Christmas
Dec. 23rd, 2009 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluefirebirdWell in the UK we get snow so rarely (certainly in the south) that every year there is betting on a White Christmas. The definition of this is basically that a single snowflake will be recorded as falling at a designated point (or points - I've never really cared).
This year we already have a White Christmas, snow fell overnight on Thursday 17th December where I live, only about 4 inches, which is trivial for countries accustomed to snow, but enough to begin causing chaos here. If it doesn't rain and wash it away we will have snow at Christmas.
By the weekend it had just about begun to thaw, I drove to the south of London and had no trouble once I got on the motorway round the corner. Coming home was fine too. I was supposed to be collecting something from a local town on Monday evening, but as more snow was forecast and our usual bike ride was not appealing on slippery roads we went in to town and collected the item and done with. We did, however, have some difficulty getting the car back into the garage. It fits with a couple inches to spare on either side of the mirrors and I got it lined up, we unloaded and then instead of going backward it went sideways - not my usual problem!
As expected, more snow arrived Monday evening - again only a couple more inches - but enough to cause major chaos on the local roads, with local towns gridlocked by abandoned cars. The motorway over the back had nose to tail traffic in both directions at 6pm and Northbound was still nose to tail at 10:30pm, finally clearing around 11pm. The following day the news reported that folks got stranded overnight in a local department store (10 miles away, but crucially it would seem, up the hill) and also in the town we'd been to the previous day.
Warm and snug in my own home I was sorry for them, but the decision to go out on Sunday rather than Monday was a calculated one that paid off. We did slither on the bikes to the town two miles away on Monday to collect some extra food, as the other half has requested an Xmas dinner on Christmas Eve (assuming he does make it back here by then) and that involves a pork joint that wasn't in my earlier pre-Christmas foray to the supermarket. Then we are off to our respective families over Christmas - assuming the weather doesn't confound us Brits further. I see freezing rain has turned roads and pavements (pavements and footways?) to sheet ice down near the South Coast, causing even more car accidents and bone breakages for pedestrians.
I went out for a short walk last night, and the snow was just freezing after above zero temps all day and crunched nicely under-foot, it did seem pretty festive.
This year we already have a White Christmas, snow fell overnight on Thursday 17th December where I live, only about 4 inches, which is trivial for countries accustomed to snow, but enough to begin causing chaos here. If it doesn't rain and wash it away we will have snow at Christmas.
By the weekend it had just about begun to thaw, I drove to the south of London and had no trouble once I got on the motorway round the corner. Coming home was fine too. I was supposed to be collecting something from a local town on Monday evening, but as more snow was forecast and our usual bike ride was not appealing on slippery roads we went in to town and collected the item and done with. We did, however, have some difficulty getting the car back into the garage. It fits with a couple inches to spare on either side of the mirrors and I got it lined up, we unloaded and then instead of going backward it went sideways - not my usual problem!
As expected, more snow arrived Monday evening - again only a couple more inches - but enough to cause major chaos on the local roads, with local towns gridlocked by abandoned cars. The motorway over the back had nose to tail traffic in both directions at 6pm and Northbound was still nose to tail at 10:30pm, finally clearing around 11pm. The following day the news reported that folks got stranded overnight in a local department store (10 miles away, but crucially it would seem, up the hill) and also in the town we'd been to the previous day.
Warm and snug in my own home I was sorry for them, but the decision to go out on Sunday rather than Monday was a calculated one that paid off. We did slither on the bikes to the town two miles away on Monday to collect some extra food, as the other half has requested an Xmas dinner on Christmas Eve (assuming he does make it back here by then) and that involves a pork joint that wasn't in my earlier pre-Christmas foray to the supermarket. Then we are off to our respective families over Christmas - assuming the weather doesn't confound us Brits further. I see freezing rain has turned roads and pavements (pavements and footways?) to sheet ice down near the South Coast, causing even more car accidents and bone breakages for pedestrians.
I went out for a short walk last night, and the snow was just freezing after above zero temps all day and crunched nicely under-foot, it did seem pretty festive.
