Chaos on the m23 last night.

[Lynned]

Snow was forecasted well in advance. Can't believe that a major road was not prepared. What a shambles. We just cannot cope with snow country.

I just don't think it's worth buying snow tyres for 3 inches of snow in Kent falling maybe twice a year. And then the faff of changing all your tyres for snow that lasts a day or two, then changing them back again. Last year I bought a sledge and we had no snow at all. I'd say for 30+ out of 37 years of my life there was no significant snowfall in winter.

It's hardly Chamonix is it?

Winter tyres wear above 7o so unless you live somewhere consistently cold all winter then they aren't necessarily going to help. If there is lying snow chains/socks more effective but that is still unusual in UK.

oh and still not much compensation for inappropriate driving for conditions !

gritters were out and about across sussex yesterday - I passed/drove behind/got sprayed with grit several times as I was driving around.

as others have said, it was the poor visibility and the high winds which were causing the most problems, coupled of course with the most astonishing examples of bad driving.

In the morning, trying to get dd1 to school, it took us 2 hours to travel 15 miles. If dh and I hadn't been going on afterwards, we would have given pu and gone home. yes, it was snowing. but at that point it wasn't laying properly, and driving was fine, if a little caution was exercised. but we got stuck in jam after jam - nothing actually blocking the road, no accidents, just ridiculous tailbacks caused by people who cannot drive properly.

once we got through all that, we merrily drove around east and west sussex, and parts of surrey - it all started closing in again about 4pm, and the winds were really high at that point.

Apparently the roads were gritted in the afternoon & the falling snow melted quickly, washing the grit away with it. The problem was that the temperature dropped very quickly - here it went down from about 3C to -1C in under half an hour - so all the wet slush froze hard very fast.

I remember several years -long ago- when the summer and winter temperatures were not that much different down south.
At school, we were taught that the British Isles had a temperate climate due to being surrounded by seas and the Gulf stream.
We occasionally had the odd day or 3 of snow. Remember 3 days of it in March 1970, in particular.
The longest period was 1962/3 which lasted from December - June with Cheshire missing it entirely.

I can also confirm that the gritters were out in Sussex during the day and night yesterday. At precisely the time the OP reports the "carnage" on the A23. However, being motorised vehicles themselves, gritters are also unable to get past lines of stranded drivers - as was the case on the A27 last night.

I agree that we don't cope with snow particularly well in this country but that's partly to do with the fact that we don't get enough of it. Or for long enough. Which is why so many people don't know how to drive on it and why local authorities don't have unlimited budgets to throw at winter maintenance.

It won't be " carnage" for much longer. Being the good mumsnet law abiding person I am, I've reported it and asked for the title to be changed or thread pulled, not fussed either way. But Its interesting to hear from eye witnesses, rather than just listening to the bbcs take on it.

I saw significant snowfall (6-12 inches) when I was about three, so late 70s. I didn't see any snow like that again until 2011, in fact more snow than I'd ever seen in my life, about a foot falling in a few hours.

I saw significant snow a few times in my childhood in the 80s, and this was on the South coast (rather than Scottish Highlands )

the first year must have been 1984, and it was quite bad in 1986 or 1987 too - it snowed in about March that year too.

Some snowy years in the early 90s, but I don't remember anyhting too bad until i was at university - it snowed in June in 1994! that was freak circumstances, though, rather than sustained wintry weather.

From 1985 to 93, I travelled from Germany to north London end of March Every time I left Germany in well below freezing with not even a daffodil blooming, and arrived in Heathrow with all the spring flowers and bushes in bloom.
I'd return 3 weeks later with trees blooming and arrive back in Germany still with no leaves on the trees and not even a daff blooming < grimace face>

Do remember once landing in Heathrow in hurricane force winds and the plane shuddering, rocking from side to side and rattling. We did land safely and we all cheered out of relief.
It may have been grey and flowerless in Germany, but never experienced hurricane winds at the airport.

I know everyone says that people in other countries copes, but I have to say that where I live (E Europe, snow for up to 3 months, very cold winters) when it's actually snowing people try very hard to avoid going out. In fact this year the government was talking about closing main roads in heavy snow to allow the snow ploughs to get through without having to work round abandoned cars.

It isn't just about learning to drive in snow, it's also about accepting that sometimes you can't.

Hi,

We've made a slight change to the thread title. How bad was the weather yesterday!