For those who don’t know what urea is, it’s basically cow urine. You know the old saying about not pissing into the wind? It applies to urea when an aircraft is spooling up in front of you. Found that out in my youth when I was cleaning off some weight scales for an air freight company. Always, Always throw urea with the wind to your back.
The stuff I had was in the form of white crystals which easily dissolved in water.
So, on the off-chance that this might turn out to become a regular event, what are the essentials that any pedestrian/automobile user should have lying handy?
I’ve seen these clip-on crampon type of things that look a worthy investment, if you can determine the best pair, but in the absence of snow-wheels, what is the best way to get a vehicle that is spinning on the spot moving again? Is there a tried and trusted way for one person to be able to do it? I was thinking some little chunks of wood placed in front of the wheel/s without traction might help!
Well, not just cow urine, technically. We all make urea. I will bear this is mind if we get snowed in. 
I might have to start drinking lager again.
Yet they spew salt all over the roads without caring about corrosiveness for cars…
Really? We’re practically neighbours! I thought you were north of the river for some reason. My litt’un goes to nursery down that way - I plowed* through the pristine snow on the sidewalks** to get her there the other day, only to be told upon arrival that they were closed. Grr.
The trains and buses seems to take the snow the worst - the Docklands Light Rail and Croydon trams have been running just fine, but I’ve had to stay home once or twice due to cancelled trains and unreliable bus services.
And I’ve been using a light sprinkling of dishwasher salt*** on my front walk, which seems to do the trick.
*okay then - “ploughed”
**“pavements”
***large-grain salt crystals normally used to soften the water
Well, in all fairness, if they go wrong, they only have a couple of feet to fall.
It’s now nearly 2 pm and, according to my weather station, the outside temperature is -1C. I think this is the first time of this present cold spell where the day-time temperature hasn’t risen above freezing. Forecasters are now warning of very strong easterly winds. That will crank up the wind-chill factor somewhat. Happy days!
It’s -8C here. This is starting to piss me off. I’m off to the pub shortly - I may be some time…
Fingers crossed the weather and conditions allow my partner to get back safely to the Southampton area from Dover this evening; in the rush and distraction to get me packed up and to the airport, we forgot to load his boots in his car when he went out there on Tuesday. 
Any gritty substance will help get your wheels gripping again. If you don’t have sand handy (who does?) then ashes from the fireplace work great. Sometimes placing an old towel, rag, scarf, etc. under the drive wheel helps.
You also need to learn how to “rock” the vehicle when stuck in the snow, i.e. shifting strategically from forward to reverse in an increasingly progressive manner in order break free.
I know people sometimes use cat litter (the stony kind, I presume) to clear driveways and such.
I’m in the minority who’s kind of enjoying the current weather. The walk into work through the fog and snow this morning was beautiful. It’s bloody cold but when you’re wrapped up warm and moving it’s easily bearable. The icy pavements have caused some spectacular almost-falls; today I slid a good five feet shouting “woooooooah” all the way, staggered around a bit before regaining my balance, took a bow. Brilliant!
Probably would not be having the same level of frosty fun if I had a car or had to travel cross country (returning to Glasgow from the Highlands after Christmas was a nightmare).
Snow chains, you mean? Those are compulsory in Spain, a country where I think you can’t even find snow tyres (people looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned them, my brother’s best friend who is a truck mechanic said he had heard of them) but where it’s perfectly possible to be at the beach at 20C+ and then drive to a ski area in time for lunch. They take little space and they’re easy to put on; nowadays you don’t even need to lift the car (you used to need to).
I saw a car going sideways. Put me off driving my motorbike. Although, going to check on it, the D-lock is frozen so I can’t get the key into it. The Trent outside my window is a sheet of ice. Confused swan.
In Poland everyone just puts snow chains on in September and leaves them there until the spring. But there are a lot of problems with snow chains, especially in countries where there’s not usually a lot of snow: most snow chains limit the speed of the car to about 30mph (50km/h), they significantly decrease fuel efficiency, and if there’s not much snow around they damage the roads and eventually break themselves.
I’m enjoying the snow as well: the only thing that’s starting to piss me off is things being closed. My local gym has been closed for 2 days now - all the main roads are drivable and it hasn’t even snowed since yesterday morning. People make a fuss about walking being dangerous but it’s not like anything is an ice rink around here, it’s just covered in snow or slush. We just like to moan when it snows, moan when it rains, moan when it’s hotter than 25 degrees, moan when it’s colder than 15 degrees… etc…
I haven’t had post for three days - and I live in a town centre. I went to the sorting office - on clear roads - to collect my post, and I was told that it is down to the individual postman whether he works in this weather or not. But if he does choose to work, the Royal Mail doesn’t cover him for any injuries - so they’ve all chosen not to work. According to the latest forecast this weather will continue for another 7-10 days, so I’m not expecting my post to be delivered for a while.
As another example of the Royal Mail’s ineptitude, only one man was working at the sorting office, and as most of the town and surrounding countryside were queueing around the block to collect their mail, I can’t understand why those postmen who aren’t delivering couldn’t be drafted in to help out.
I was watching The Weather Channel and there was a message on the bottom of the screen which read:“Britain is running out of grit to spread over snow covered roads”. How long will it be until you all can order in some more grit? After all, it’s only January; there’s some more months of snow ahead.
:eek:
I run chains on my plow truck, but it never gets more than a mile from my house. Chains all winter? On passenger cars?
It’s funny. Such different lives. We drive on snow 6 months out of the year in the Colorado mountains. We get snow six months a year….at least. I use 4x4 6 months out of the year every day just so I can get home.
Two years ago we measured 30 feet of snowfall at my house through the year.
Thirty feet.
It’s not a matter of if you need a 4x4 up here. It’s what type of 4x4 is best. And tires. Well nobody bothers with studded tires because we run our snow tires year round. Summer is too short to worry about ‘road’ tires. And frankly, studs only help you on ice.
Studs make no difference when it’s you and 2 feet of fresh snow that you will be making tracks in to try to get home. Sure, they help on ice, but after a few years of driving on it, you figure out how to deal with it.
