Reality Bites

Overnight, the weather which has afflicted the rest of the country for several days reached our area. Conditions were appalling but nothing like January of this year when preparedness was much less obvious. It was a mixed bag though. A surprising six inches or more had fallen before I left the house in a car carrying provisions for various eventualities. I chose a safe route to work and was initially encouraged by the clearance which had taken place. Once again though the A27 in Fareham had received less attention that it should have. Key areas such as Titchfield gyratory were not the disaster areas they had been 11 months ago but my safe climb of Swanwick Lane was not emulated by those who followed. Abandoned cars led to road closures and those added to the stress of assessing the viability of a journey home. People had made substantial efforts to reach work, many walking the whole or part of their journeys. Some would stay in the area overnight to ensure that if air traffic was affected by weather it would not be additionally affected by staff shortages.

In the event road traffic was down to about 10-15% of normal and my departure after a busy morning on Heathrow led to an uneventful if careful journey on roads which had been further cleared. Snow continued to fall albeit lightly and it was disappointing to find ASDA petrol closed. The postman had not been and I can't say I blame him as our estate roads were an icy nightmare. The same ice will presumably keep the dustmen (refuse disposal operatives) away tomorrow. The scenery screamed 'photography' but ones senses screamed 'keep the car moving and your feet dry' so I took a handful of pictures at work and published only one.

The weather forecast is, to say the least of it, fluid and unreliable but it is due to get warmer and rain. The question is, will we get more of this in the remaining winter?