Freezing Rain...

[seriousrikk]

...b****r me that is evil stuff!

I think I have just experienced the worse driving conditions in my life! Rain falling on ungritted roads and freezing - I think I'm a pretty competant driver and the recent weather has caused me no problems at all - but this? Orrible.

The roads were properly shiny polished sheet ice. Which would have been great fun if it weren't for all the cars that had simply been abandoned on the hills near me and where I work.

I need a stiff drink!!!

 

[sitemaster]

HI, I used to live in Edmonton (Canada) where freezing rain is fairly common, imagine coming out to your car and finding it covered in a quarter of an inch of ice that is solid and rock hard in a temperature of 20 to 25 below. It's so smooth and hard that a scrapper just skims over it. Only way to remove it is to start the car and wait until it starts to melt. Still I would go back there tomorrow given the opportunity.

 

[photon]

I heard a black ice warning for Notts on the radio this morning.

I've got 3/4 Tonne of solid fuel being delivered today. I cleared the path yesterday, which is now very slippery, so I trust the coalman has some sacks he can lay on it.

When I was a kid we had a coal delivery one snowy Christmas Eve. The driver thought he couldn't reverse out and was going to abandon the truck on our driveway and walk home. My Dad was very unwell with rheumatoid arthritis, but knew about proper winters from his time in the army in Germany, and ordered the driver to come back and then instructed him about how to get out and on his way. Dad gave up using a cutthroat razor when one froze to his face in Germany...

 

[seriousrikk]

Yea, the radio was pretty accurate.

I've actually enjoyed getting out early and driving in the slippy conditions we have had recently. I've taught myself how to control a slide in my car on the quiet business park roads near where I work, and generally larked about a bit in the car park.

Today, I knew it was a bit slippy when my dog was struggling to walk on what looked like clear pavements. On the road when the car started to slide after I changed down a gear (Good, rev matched downchange) I knew things were different. By the sounds of it snow is coming later, that doesn't please me greatly.