It has been chilly and treacherous oop north but we've had nothing like the amount of snow seen down south, nor the ensuring chaos.

You have my sympathy.

You must be wrong because "everyone" likes snow! I was only in the car for 6 hours last night and clocked up 20 miles (mind you, the last 8 took 5 hours). So I obviously got off lightly!

...when you're off work and can just have fun. When it gets in the way of your day-to-day life it's a pain in the arse.

...but fortunately I was still in the office. We're about a quarter of a mile from the M4, and I knew I'd be fine if only I could reach it. But it was gridlocked - a colleague left at 4pm and still hadn't reached the junction 3 hours later. So the rest of us walked to the pub, built a snowman on the way back and I eventually made a break for it at 11.30. Home in an hour, hardly any worse than usual.

The amount of snow was the galling bit - hardly any really, a few inches at most - yet even the major roads ground to a halt. No sign of the gritters.

Got a work based day trip from Birmingham to Stockton on Tees tomorrow, a round trip of 400 miles or so.....

Should take 3 - 4 hours or so Google Maps says.....I'm hoping the snow keeps away or I may not see home again until the next decade.

I may be some time..............

Many moons ago, I used to commute Oxford-London on the bus. 2 hours each way on a good day. Jan 29th 2004 I got on the bus at Marble Arch about 3.30 as it started to snow – all ready for the inducing of the first baby Madrid the next day, already two weeks overdue. Snow grew heavier, the South-East ground to a halt, and 8 hours later, and many pissed off texts and calls home later, I arrived in Oxford.
Unbeknownst to me the FPO had gone into labour at about the time I got on the bus – luckily with both parents and in-laws present. As the contractions grew more frequent and my texts and calls grew more pissed off and my progress ever slower a wise decision was taken at home not to tell me to avoid causing the panic attack to end all panic attacks.
In the end, I made it to the hospital with 10 minutes to spare. A memorable day.

Monmouthshire County Council gritted all the roads on Sunday evening and had the snow ploughs out before dawn on Monday morning. Even the single track lane past my gate from the main (but still only a B-) road was done.

We had about 4-6 inches but the roads were ploughed by 06:00. Comes of having few main roads for them to look after, I suppose.

...no grit to be seen yesterday morning, had to abandon first attempt at getting to work, pavements and road were insanely dangerous

Finally got in at about 11, having passed the first (and only) gritting truck I saw all day

The snow came just after 3. Work said everyone could go at 4. By 4, the roads were clogged before the gritters had had a chance to grit, so everything went wrong.

Last Friday when we'd had much more snow, it happened later in the evening, so the gritters and ploughs at least had the chance to clear the main roads before most folk started driving around. That left fewer people stranded. Plus if the snow is stopping you going to work, you're more likely to say sod it than if it's preventing you from getting home.

There's always commentators when this happens that moan on about us not being prepared. Well, it's true - but this (and February 1st/2nd) are the worst two snow incidents we've had in 20 years (in the south-east anyway) - I should imagine there would be equally vociferous opposition if all the councils spent loads of money on gritters and ploughs that sat idle in sheds for months on end. You also get "other European countries can cope" - well, they do have snow every year, so their infrastructure is better set up to deal with such things. Unfortunately we live in a peculiarly warm country, considering the latitude it's at. Plus a lot of this is the media's pre-occupation with slagging off "those in charge" at any opportunity.

It's a no-win situation, unless the weather gets appreciably colder (which is unlikely) when that sort of expenditure will be acceptable to the general public, and councils will be better equipped.

I only listen to local radio when the weather's bad and Radio Leeds has been hopeless over the past two days.

At 7am yesterday they had an interview with a bloke who moved from Leeds to Australia so the Partridge-esque presenters could talk to him about the weather.

"What's it like over there?" said one of the hypercheerful duo.

"Sweltering," said the surly Yorkshireman.

"Do you wear shorts?"

"I'm wearing shorts now. I wear shorts most of the time."

Today there was a text from a listener complaining about a pensioner travelling up a snowy pavement in her mobile scooter. "Is she mental?" said the texter.

Thank goodness for BBC's travel news on the telly.

All the way from Balham to West Norwood 3.5 miles thanks to Southern Trains-a bit slippy under foot, but had I driven looking at the traffic I suspect I would have taken longer to get home...I think I got off lightly.

It was hilarious cycling yesterday. I can't afford a car. Ergo I must cycle everywhere. Quite funny that I was faster than most cars last night. Bloody freezing though!

down in Torbay there was ... a fleeting glimpse. still cold though !

merry christmas and i hope those of you further up the line get home safely.