dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
978

poacher 1rtd
Premium Member
join:2004-02-25
oxford UK

poacher 1rtd

Premium Member

Eastern United States hit by winter storm

A swathe of the US eastern seaboard is being engulfed in a winter storm dumping heavy snow as it sweeps north.
...................................................
So why does the UK think they are the only ones to cancel flights

Hundreds of domestic and international flights have been cancelled and severe weather warnings are in place from Georgia to Vermont as temperatures continue to plummet.

Delta Airlines cancelled about 850 flights mainly from North and South Carolina up to Boston.

Continental Airlines cancelled 250 flights from Newark Liberty International Airport outside New York City.

United Airlines also cancelled dozens of Sunday flights from Newark, Philadelphia, New York's LaGuardia and JFK, Boston and other airports. AirTran and Southwest Airlines also cancelled flights.

British Airways and Virgin are among operators cancelling flights into many eastern destinations, including New York.

Have you got a sledge Jv

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell told the Weather Channel that snow driven by strong winds would make travel conditions hazardous.

»www.bbc.co.uk/news/world ··· 12080925

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

jvmorris

MVM

said by poacher 1rtd:

A swathe of the US eastern seaboard is being engulfed in a winter storm dumping heavy snow as it sweeps north.
...................................................
So why does the UK think they are the only ones to cancel flights

It seems to me that the biggest distinction regarding air travel in the US and the UK is that flights in the US are typically cancelled well in advance, so there's lots of notice. (I think that's usually true on the Continent also.) Delta started announcing Christmas Day flight cancellations on Thursday, mostly flights through Atlanta, which is sort of their regional southeast US hub. The storm came right through Atlanta.

Of course, we are fortunate to have 3,000 miles of land mass to the west of us and almost a thousand to north and south (of DC metro, in particular), so we have a fairly good idea of what kind of weather is coming long before it arrives. We also have Doppler radar, something I've never seen as being present in the UK. This generally lets us know not only that there's precipitation on the way, but whether it's rain, snow, or 'mixed' (what we call sleet and freezing rain, which is particularly dangerous). We knew well in advance that the current storm might miss us (here in Reston) completely or we might get up to five inches, depending on the precise storm path. (We got only a trace here, but 60 miles to the east there are places that got a foot or more.)

Here on the southern edge of the snow belt, we've finally built up a substantial supply of snow moving equipment and supplies of grit and salt. Farther south, not so much -- not that it would matter much since down there the big threat are the deadly ice storms.

. . . United Airlines also cancelled dozens of Sunday flights from Newark, Philadelphia, New York's LaGuardia and JFK, Boston and other airports. AirTran and Southwest Airlines also cancelled flights.

British Airways and Virgin are among operators cancelling flights into many eastern destinations, including New York.

Have you got a sledge Jv

Nope, not here (but we do in Shropshire). Here it's expedition-size back packs, snow shoes, Leki ski poles, goggles and arctic parkas.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell told the Weather Channel that snow driven by strong winds would make travel conditions hazardous.

»www.bbc.co.uk/news/world ··· 12080925

, and, it's important to remember that what's 'hazardous' in Virginia is merely 'inconvenient' in up-state New York or Michigan.
jvmorris

jvmorris

MVM

Two Bostons

 
 
Here's an example of the difference in weather radar available in the US and UK. One shot is of Boston, Mass. (yes, in New England! and the other of Boston, UK (where is that, Norfolk?).

For the US, I can see snow falling to the west, a strip of mixed precipitation and then to the east (out over the North Atlantic) a band of fairly heavy rain. The US shot is based on surface-based Doppler radars. The UK shot just shows me how heavy the cloud layer is, no idea of what if any precipitation is falling. The UK shot is satellite imagery.

poacher 1rtd
Premium Member
join:2004-02-25
oxford UK

1 edit

poacher 1rtd

Premium Member

Just looking for info on doplar in the UK and almost got redirected but the firewall saved me.

At least they ban parking on some of the roads to be able to clean them in the US, in france they close the motorways to heavy lorries till they have cleaned them. Here they let heavy lorries close the motorways and nobody can clear them.

The Mayors of Philadelphia and Boston declared snow emergencies - with parking banned from some roads to allow snow ploughs to move through with ease.

Boston in the UK is in linconshire

More
»www.bbc.co.uk/news/world ··· 12081749

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

jvmorris

MVM

Yes, they've been shutting down Interstates in the US in heavy snow situations for over 40 years -- and I understand why.

In February 1967, we were driving up to Poland Spring, Maine during a forecast of "occasional flurries". The occasional flurries turned into a blizzard that dropped over 16 inches of snow in less than four hours. After sliding off the road into a snow bank on one occasion (and getting rescued by a Quaker Oats tractor-trailer from Tennessee (natch, of course ) ), we pulled off at the next rest stop and decided to wait for the 'flurries' to end. That didn't happen and so, after an hour we headed back to the car -- and couldn't find it. it was completely invisible even when approached on foot. By the time we found it, dug it out, and put chains on, they'd completely shut down the Maine Turnpike and we literally had to bull-doze our way out on a service road. We ended up spending the night at an inn in Kennebunkport, ME. And, when we got up the next morning, the car park and roads had already been cleared.

It would have been impossible for a plow to see any stranded vehicle. They weren't so much concerned about damaging a vehicle as about damaging a snow plow.

Along the Eastern Seaboard, every major urban area from DC Metro north has designated Snow Emergency routes on which no parking is permitted during major snowfall events. They start towing once the Snow Emergency is declared -- and good luck on finding where your car has ended up afterwards.

So, Boston is in Lincolnshire? I want to go there some day, see the Fens, etc. A little matter of "Nine Tailors" -- and the fact that I lived on the Fenway in Boston one year (and should have stayed forever).

poacher 1rtd
Premium Member
join:2004-02-25
oxford UK

poacher 1rtd

Premium Member

This nine tailors:- The Nine Tailors is a 1934 mystery novel by British writer Dorothy L. Sayers,

Stranded in the Fenland village of Fenchurch St. Paul on New Year's Eve after a car accident, Wimsey helps ring a nine-hour peal of bells overnight after Will Thoday, one of the ringers, is stricken by influenza. Lady Thorpe, wife of Sir Henry Thorpe, the local squire, dies next morning and Wimsey hears how the Thorpe family has been blighted for 20 years by the unsolved theft of jewels from a house-guest by the butler, Deacon, and an accomplice, Cranton. Both men were imprisoned, but the jewels were never recovered.

jvmorris
I Am The Man Who Was Not There.
MVM
join:2001-04-03
Reston, VA

jvmorris

MVM

Yep, that one. There's only one place anywhere close to me here in the States (and it's not really all that close) where they still teach ringing the changes. I wouldn't mind hearing it done, although sans a blizzard or flood would be nice.

»www.washingtonpost.com/w ··· 531.html