Hows everybody getting on with the snow.

[rob needs]

Got a bit here in Bristol (Monday) everythings moving thou.

[Forumadmin]

Just come back from Porsche Artic Driving School in Finland, so had to try out the Subaru in the snow this evening. Some 360deg in the car park and some nice drifting around some 90deg bends on a deserted farm road in a foot of snow.

I have uploaded a slideshow of the Artic experience

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyuvl-SnjaA

and video clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXpzyAjcXGk

to YouTube.

[TedAllen]

Not too much here in South Manchester. Opened the Citroen C3 this morning to get the scraper and got about a pound of snow on the drivers seat......bring back gutters. Wasn't a major problem though cos Ann was using the car, not me ! Not enough snow to play with the Grand Vitara.....no off-road round here.
Ted

[Mike Allfrey]

G'dday from the Sunny (Hot) South,

With nearly two weeks of high temperatures (mid thirties to mid forties plus) and total statewide fire bans -- our trains stopped running too! Rail tracks buckling all over the place! Media reports are all wrong, we have had lengthy spells of hot weather in the past, (before the term Global Warming was thought of) and the railways coped admirably then. No one mentions that though!

Snow? I'd like to see that!

45-plus degrees C tomorrow and a hot night before!

Keep shivering oop thar!

Mike A.

[jondowning]

I had to take e3sa934 out to get MOT'd last Monday, through the falling snow and down winding lanes to the west of Sheffield which were coated in compacted snow

luckily, I got a PASS (warning on the track rod ends though). The most difficult bit of the journey was getting the car up the slope leading out of the MOT station

[rob needs]

G'dday from the Sunny (Hot) South,

With nearly two weeks of high temperatures (mid thirties to mid forties plus) and total statewide fire bans -- our trains stopped running too! Rail tracks buckling all over the place! Media reports are all wrong, we have had lengthy spells of hot weather in the past, (before the term Global Warming was thought of) and the railways coped admirably then. No one mentions that though!

Snow? I'd like to see that!

45-plus degrees C tomorrow and a hot night before!

Keep shivering oop thar!

Mike A.

We can take it Mike,have you got any fires around your way.

[Robin Fairservice]

I couldn't resist any longer. The other day, our local newspaper said that our snow fall this year has been below normal. We have only had 173.5 cm, whereas normal would have been 214 cm. At the Prince George airport there is 49 cm on the ground, and the banks of snow along our driveway are about one metre high. Driving on snow and ice for four or five months is normal. The Javelin is tucked up in our garage until April.

What a contrast to the fire dister in Australia.

[Robin Fairservice]

I couldn't resist any longer. The other day, our local newspaper said that our snow fall this year has been below normal. We have only had 173.5 cm, whereas normal would have been 214 cm. At the Prince George airport there is 49 cm on the ground, and the banks of snow along our driveway are about one metre high. Driving on snow and ice for four or five months is normal. The Javelin is tucked up in our garage until April.

What a contrast to the fire disaster in Australia.

[Mike Allfrey]

G'dday From The Scorched South,

The bushfire situation is still extremely serious. There is a chance that two very long fire fronts could join and approach the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Club members Peter and Madeleine Coakley were missed by the Kinglake firestorm, by a very slender margin. They are up on the north eastern fringe of Melbourne.

We are on the eastern side of Melbourne and at the base of the Dandenong Hills. We are not out of it all yet, by any means.

It must be very difficult for you to fully appreciate the enormity of what is happening here. There are vast areas of forest tracts right accross the east of our State. Eucalypts burn readily while still green and, with a fire burning debris and grasses on the ground, the heat rises to the tops of the trees and gases are released from the leaves, that ignite in huge fire-ball like explosions -- sometimes 80 feet up in the trees. Then with a very hot wind to push it all along . . . .

There are many reports that the fires were deliberately lit, some fires have been lit between the two main fronts today, so there is a fair degree of credibility to these claims. These claims can be reinforced by the fact that there have been no lightning strikes, nor have there been any power line flashes reported.

Back to the cold, saw images of great shards of ice falling on the Severn Bridge's roadway last night. That must be quite something. This morning I was told that flood waters had reached the level of a viaduct in Bath, Somerset. Good grief!

I think it is 1947 all over again, a very cold British winter and at the same time, a very hot summer in New Zealand then.

My Jowetts are as safe as I can make them in my back workshop. The two Rovers are in the front garage and the steel doors are closed all the time.

Just on this snow business, back in the 1960s, my Jupiter had remarkably good traction in snow and ice, but was absolutely hopeless on wet grass. I used to live up the hill from Clapton in Gordano, near Bristol in Somerset, and used to love being out first thing after snow at night. There was something about making those first tracks before the roads were gritted. One night I drove up to Derbyshire through a snow storm and, being dark, did not notice that the boot was full of snow when I put the hood up. The snow melted in the late night and then the resulting water froze in the boot. The one Jowett component that didn't leak!.

In the wedge of ice was my long playing record collection, and they are still used today! I learnt from that, that with the hood down and driving through a snow storm, the air flow is such that the boot can fill with snow. Mad fools and Englismen drive Jupiters in the midnight snow!

Regards to all,

Mike A.

[Mike Allfrey]

G'dday From The Scorched South,

The bushfire situation is still extremely serious. There is a chance that two very long fire fronts could join and approach the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Club members Peter and Madeleine Coakley were missed by the Kinglake firestorm, by a very slender margin. They are up on the north eastern fringe of Melbourne.

We are on the eastern side of Melbourne and at the base of the Dandenong Hills. We are not out of it all yet, by any means.

It must be very difficult for you to fully appreciate the enormity of what is happening here. There are vast areas of forest tracts right accross the east of our State. Eucalypts burn readily while still green and, with a fire burning debris and grasses on the ground, the heat rises to the tops of the trees and gases are released from the leaves, that ignite in huge fire-ball like explosions -- sometimes 80 feet up in the trees. Then with a very hot wind to push it all along . . . .

There are many reports that the fires were deliberately lit, some fires have been lit between the two main fronts today, so there is a fair degree of credibility to these claims. These claims can be reinforced by the fact that there have been no lightning strikes, nor have there been any power line flashes reported.

Back to the cold, saw images of great shards of ice falling on the Severn Bridge's roadway last night. That must be quite something. This morning I was told that flood waters had reached the level of a viaduct in Bath, Somerset. Good grief!

I think it is 1947 all over again, a very cold British winter and at the same time, a very hot summer in New Zealand then.

My Jowetts are as safe as I can make them in my back workshop. The two Rovers are in the front garage and the steel doors are closed all the time.

Just on this snow business, back in the 1960s, my Jupiter had remarkably good traction in snow and ice, but was absolutely hopeless on wet grass. I used to live up the hill from Clapton in Gordano, near Bristol in Somerset, and used to love being out first thing after snow at night. There was something about making those first tracks before the roads were gritted. One night I drove up to Derbyshire through a snow storm and, being dark, did not notice that the boot was full of snow when I put the hood up. The snow melted in the late night and then the resulting water froze in the boot. The one Jowett component that didn't leak!.

In the wedge of ice was my long playing record collection, and they are still used today! I learnt from that, that with the hood down and driving through a snow storm, the air flow is such that the boot can fill with snow. Mad fools and Englismen drive Jupiters in the midnight snow!

Regards to all,

Mike A.

[rob needs]

Yeah ok mike,snow need to repeat youself

[Drummond Black]

Mike, We are only too aware of the seriousness of the situation. Having visited the area last September / October and been driving around a lot of the places mentioned in news reports we are agast at the destructive power of the fires. We contacted Jamie & Lisa ( our Relatives in Tecoma ) who we stayed with during out trip and they confirmed that they are Ok at the present time. Their home is at the start of the forrest of the Dandenongs.

We are all praying for the safety of all our Australian friends and rellies.

Good Luck

Drummond & Ruby.