http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/2010007-0107/GreatBritain.A2010007.1150.1km.jpg

Holy cow. You guys gonna get that cleaned up by the time I get there next month?

Edit: Link to high rez version.

If they took that picture again now I think it would show the UK covered in a mucky brown slush.

Come back snow, all is forgiven!!!

Cheers

Cris.

A fairly slow thaw here too, although I tried to take a country lane shortcut earlier and the middle of the road between the ruts was higher than my car, so I turned back and took the main road! All very soft though, at this rate any public road will be clear by the end of the week.

Last week quite a few places were extremely icy though, I stayed at home for two days and took the train on Friday.

Why is it, when I take the dog out early in the morning in snow or ice, that the cars I come across in ditches are, almost without exception, 4 X 4's? I'd say that the owners think that they've got an invincible vehicle, whereas in icy conditions they can often be no better than any other car.

They were probably taking avoiding action to get out of the way of people out of control in 2 wheel drive cars

All the 4x4s near me are absolutely spotless and have never seen mud. As they've no idea what their car can actually do, they just believe the adverts that 4x4 = go anywhere at high speed.

My experience with a 4x4 was if you start sliding you are really screwed the whole car would slide and you couldn't recover. The worst ever though was a rear wheel drive only.

My 4x4 for one is easier to recover once in a slide than any front wheel drive cars I've driven in ice/snow. Turn into the slide, apply a little bit more power and it straightens right out.

My Subaru has been perfect in this years unusual UK weather. I had thought that with its low profile performance tyres that it couldn't really cope with snow. But I think the poor performance in past snow "events" was just down to the fact that the tyres had plenty of miles on them, whereas this time I have a fairly fresh set on it.

It obviously can't cope the same way a nice heavy 4x4 with more skinny wheels+winter tyres can, but I've been very pleasantly surprised.

Oh my god, don't get me started on SUV drivers in my area during snow storms. I just got reminded of it during this year's freak snowfall in our area, in which the DC area had about two feet of snow.

My favorite was a snow storm about 3-4 years ago. Not terrible, but enough to make driving awful. My wife and I were heading to my folks' place, and on the way is this pretty bad hill with a T intersection at the bottom. Well, to be honest, I wasn't thinking, so I committed to the hill before I realized that I wasn't getting down it without mostly sliding down it. But to my credit, I stopped, because there was a car headed up the hill that was stuck, and I knew I would end up hitting it.

I can't say the same for the stupid SUV drivers trying to come up the hill without giving the sedan time to simply back down it. They just assumed that their cars were king, and that no amount of snow could possibly affect them. Well, the first SUV boldly tried driving up and around the initial sedan that was stuck on the hill (yes, they already had evidence that this was a bad idea). Naturally, the SUV wasn't able to make it, and eventually got just as stuck as the sedan.

That brings us to the second SUV. Despite all the evidence available to him - two cars stuck going up, and me at the top going down - he still tried to make it.

As you might imagine, this all ended in a three-car fender bender.

Finally I was able to walk my way down the hill and talk some sense into everyone, getting them to slowly back down the hill, one by one, go back the way they came, and find a detour.

I would say because of feeling overconfident and not respecting the road conditions because with a 4x4 they feel they can drive through anything. If you don't know how to drive in the conditions, it doesn't matter what you are driving.

Mostly the ones with an automatic gearbox, I suspect.

On real ice conditions (as opposed to mere snow), automatics love to keep the wheels spinning, and there's no clutch to press to stop it doing that.

Cheers

I've felt 100% safer driving my RWD BMW in snow than my old FWD Integra. Both using Hakkas.

I don't often drive in the snow, but because I'll have my transaxle in pieces soon I'm thinking of adding one of these-

http://www.quaife.co.uk/What-is-a-Quaife-ATB-differential

Having driven in ice and snow for more than 45 years, I can provide a simple and definitive answer.

4x4's accelerate much better than two wheel drive vehicles in slippery conditions, giving a feeling of invincibility. Their stopping ability is no better and frequently worse*. Needless to say it is stopping that keeps you out of ditches.

tanstaafl.

*Worse if it is a true four wheel drive (as opposed to an all wheel drive) vehicle without a center differential. Lock up the wheels on one axle and the wheels on the other axle lock up with them. Presto!--no steering.

db

Yeah, the point of 4 wheel drive on a passenger vehicle is so that you can get unstuck from the mud or the snow if you happen to get stuck in it. Those who drive with the assumption that it will make the car handle better on snow and ice are the ones who end up in the ditches.

Driving a Smart Car in the snow and ice is pretty fun.

You have pretty much the worst of all possibilities, no power, wide tyres (for the size/weight of car), rear wheel drive, automatic traction control (that can't be turned off) short wheel base and no clutch control to speak of. Oh and in mine engine braking is non-existent as the engine cuts under 5mph (although I can turn this feature off)

Still, I have been able to get everywhere, and there are some knobs on my estate that have these town style 4x4 SUV/car things and have got stuck at the first hint of snow. Although likely hood of driver error is pretty high in most cases!!!

I think tyres are the key issue, if you put my Smart Car ones onto the worlds best Landrover, that would still get stuck. Winter tyres are needed for the kind of conditions we have here at the moment, in Austria last year we had some tiny rental car with a winter set on and you could hardly tell you were driving on snow at all.

Cheers

Cris.

Close. Those who drive thinking that drive traction == braking are the ones who end up..

My Scooby has been absolutely stellar on ice & snow since I purchased it in 1998. Quite a bit better than my earlier vehicles, though all of them (including the Forester) have sported Hakkas in the wintertime (the Scooby has new Goodyears on it now .. not quite as grippy as the Hakkas, but adequate).

Cheers

It isn't just the stopping that keeps you out of the ditch. It is also the ability to recover from slides and take avoiding action before you reach the ditch.

Both my subarus have been awesome this winter despite the fact I am still on the low profile racing tyres (couldn't afford a winter set, even though it would have been a good idea). I have had to rescue folks from ditches (carrying a couple of blankets, a shovel and a tow rope in the Forester), but have only felt worried twice. The Foz lends itself very well to power sliding, and is so controllable when trying to get out the way of uncontrolled vehicles in the hands of numpties.

We still have around 4 feet of snow in the garden, and the brief thaw has been replaced by much more snow today - the thaw did kill my huge icicle collection, which upset the kids but probably saved the eaves from destruction. Check out my moblog for some of the snow and ice pictures.

What tyres have you got on them ? Was really surprised to find how much difference it made that my Eagle F1s were reasonably fresh as compared to the half worn ones I've had when it has snowed before.

Think they are the P6000s. I'll check when I leave the office. I tried the F1s for a while and although they were okay in the wet, they didn't cope as well under cornering in the dry so I went back to Pirellis.

Apparently the Prius has this problem, and the tyres are excellent to get it's fuel economy up, but useless in snow. Apparently if it detects a wheel slipping it cuts power completely for a second or two, meaing it's often impossible to get through small amounts of snow/ice.

I did read about an undocumented way to override this, it read like an old "U/D/L/R+FIRE" cheat code.