[Anonymous]

[BusinessTraveller]

Have any of you experienced flight disruption due to the snowfall in southern England this morning?

Here’s a Twitter picture from Stansted airport of the operator de-icing aircraft earlier today:

https://twitter.com/STN_Airport/status/276278103477727232/photo/1

[Papillion53]

Just a heads up for those of you like my DH who have vehicles with a timer that de-ices, warm ups the car etc., so it’s all nice and cosy and ready to go for you wimps when you get in in the morning. I don’t have that luxury, scraper and de-icer for me!

He forgot to turn the timer off last weekend, and as a result by late Sunday morning – he hadn’t been out in his car since he came home Friday evening – the battery was flat. And I can tell you the battery in a Range Rover is not the easiest thing to reach!

I am so glad it happened on Sunday, and not this morning at 0600! Mrs P would have not been happy at all to be out of her cosy bed at that godforsaken hour!!!

This morning, it took him 2 hours to do a journey that normally takes 25 minutes! Colleague took 4 hours from Peterhead to Aberdeen.

Why is it in this country everything comes to a slow stop with a couple of inches of snow???

[Senator]

We actually have a rare occasion today: both Stockholm Airports are experiencing massive delays and cancellations:

http://swedavia.offloadurl.com/

[FormerlyDoS]

Gothenburg (Landvetter) is operating normally.

My wife flew from Malta to Heathrow on the morning flight and arrived 15 mins early.

[Senator]

FormerlyDoS, GOT is more likely to experience rain 🙂

Joke aside, Swedavia claims the combined wind factor and snow is causing them to close two runways and having to plough the one open runway between take off and landings.

All inner-city buses and regional buses in the Greater Stockholm Area has now halted service completely. Regional commuter trains as well, while the “Tube” is running with some delays. They believe we may see further issues later tonight.

Even areas like Stockholm which is equipped and experienced in dealing with situations struggle when “Mother Nature” strike hard.

[FormerlyDoS]

Senator, your assumption is generally true, but at the moment it is about -6, heading for -11 and has been snowing on and off all day, but not heavily.

They are forecasting -19 tomorrow night 😉

[MartynSinclair]

FDOS, one advantage of -19 is it is too cold for snow to fall!

[LuganoPirate]

Zurich is fine with a few late flights a bit delayed taking off due to de-icing but no serious delays.

Can also report no snow at JNB or CPT 😉

[FormerlyDoS]

Martyn

You are right. Also, removing it from the car is okay, as it is powder and a brush works perfectly.

[LuganoPirate]

Papillion, on our Range Rovers and Discovery’s we had built in by Bosch a small plug to which you connect a maintenance charger. It’s very easy to do and you don’t get your hands dirty. It won’t charge a flat battery but if using car pre-warmers or leaving the car unused for a period of time it comes into its own. It wasn’t expensive either and any good car electrician should be able to fit it for you.

For when we get a flat battery we have a portable unit which you put on the terminals and turn the key. This has saved us a few times when the kids have left the car’s interior light on and once at Cape Town when we left the car for 6 weeks. We took it just in case and good job we did.

It saves waiting for the AA and can of course be kept when you change cars. We make the garage swap it for free as part of the deal when we part ex the old one model for the new one!

[Papillion53]

LP – will mention that to the DH – you boys and your toys!!! We got it started no problem as I have a “dog mobile” – Jeep Grand Cherokee in “mafia staff car” black with blacked out windows!!! LOL! It was just awkward to get the charger connectors actually to stay on the RR battery.

Still snow here today with low cloud but seems to be a bit “warmer” but still icy underfoot and underpaw!

DH driving home last night, someone coming the opposite way (thankgoodness) round a roundabout far too fast, started to spin, bounced off the central reservation barrier, carried on like a top for a few hundred yards, then stopped. Stepped out of the car, no injuries, and no other vehicle hit. Lucky, lucky, lucky!

[JordanD]

Was in Stockholm earlier this week (Monday) when it was -13C at lunchtime, and -16C by 4pm, and must say that the infrastructure worked very well throughout. Was suitably impressed (although my poor choice in footwear for a day trip there didn’t help my feet). As Martyn, you’ve rightly commented, when it gets that cold, the snow stops and the salt doesn’t work, so everything just freezes rock solid. It’s when it is slightly warmer at -5C that the skid pans of slush develop.

Hope Stockholm is back to normal soon.

[Senator]

When I walked outside this morning around 06:45, it was very pretty with all the snow from last night. Depending on your preference, you would be glad or sad to know that temperature is hovering around 0. Perhaps a few degrees below would be better so we can keep the snow for Santa’s arrival.

Stockholm-Arlanda has been operating with two runways for most of the day. Flights are mostly on schedule with a few cancellations. BA may be one airframe short as the de-icing truck hit the engine of an A320 yesterday after the passengers had been in their seats for five hours at the gate. Needless to say, the flight was subsequently cancelled.

Public transportation; buses are struggling outside of city centre. The Stockholm County Council estimates it will take a week to clear secondary roads.

We drove across town last night around 18:30, no issues…

[HonestCrew]

No problems due to snow to report from here in Entebbe.

[Author]

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