Kaaren

It's been snowing here in Chingford for the past 20 minutes....not settling of course but wow! quite a surprise.

Huge fluffy chunks of snow here in Chingford. Nothing settling yet.

It's raining. Boo!

Dry, 'caster sugar' stylee snow here that isn't degrading into slush when the cars drive along the road and it appears to waft, then those tracks are again covered with more dry snow. No sign of abating and 3cms. No idea of the temps as gizmo kaput

Teensy flakes but dense consistent snow for 3 hours now. The road is covered with a dusting so temps must have fallen since my last drive out at 17.30 hrs. Bigger flakes now...gusting winds.

1.5 here and heavy snow that is settling on cars, roofs, pavements, (Woodford Golf Course) but not the roads.

A near neighbour here and can confirm its SNOWING and settling! Fine miniscule flakes but its snow and exactly as we know it Jim!

After a lull, now snowing heavily again here in Chingford E4.

...Also awoken by a MASSIVE clap of thunder and lightening at 06.07 and no idea as to whether it was snowing before that but immeditaley after was an ice shower, and now we have white-out conditions with an accumulation of 2 cms of massive fluffy flakes!

Its been snowing for 10 minutes now. Initially small, powdery granules that blew about in the wind, settling in crevices. Now, the size of flakes sticking to everything plus the sheer volume of snow has given a covering of 2"! Blizzard conditions that I've only experienced in ski resorts! Awesome!

My children commute to a school in your area and are already packing overnight clobber in case they get snowed in tomorrow! Horizontal flurries of polystyrene type 'alpine' snow (as opposed to the normal wet stuff) here but cold and still here at the moment. Ou et la neige....?

It's SNOWING!!!!!!!!!! Blizzard conditions for the past 20 minutes and trying to settle in the gusty wind.

Evening Pisteurs! I'm off down to Le Grand-Bornand, Haute Savoie on Tuesday for 15 days. Awesome amounts of early season snow (70 cms / 120 cms), considering it's a relatively low resort. Temperatures have remained in the minus figures, plus it's alpinage so the snow will stay. Of course as the dumping has happened quicky and in one hit, there hasn't been the freeze-thaw cycle that 'glues' the snow base, hence a considerable avalanche risk. :o The resort is 80% open although all black runs are off limits. (Obviously.) We ski there a couple of times a season but Christmas back in 2006 there was no snow! Plus the temperatures were above the critical minus 3 in order that the snow cannons were cranked up. So, we went 'next door' to La Clusaz , a higher resort within The Aravis range but rock, (vaiselles!) based and the snow degrades faster, mullering newly ground and waxed skiis. Grrhh! :o To everyone skiing this season, do have fun and stay safe. Joyeux Noel!

I'm now back from The Haute Savoie and Aravis range, based in Le Gran-Bornand enjoying an unlikely 15 days of hard and fast skiing!! The resort advertised limited skiing with the Chatelet lift being open onto the Maroly area but this amounted to a scree slope on the lower run which did nothing to improve the underside of my skis, nor sons' snow-boards. Despite having created the largest reservoir in the whole of Europe in the summer to feed the snow cannons, this wasn't operational for two reasons: the dew point temperature was too high initially, (must be below -3), and also during the testing phase, a resident in Chinaillon felt so aggrieved with the operating noise overnight that he hit the emergency stop, causing a major blockage which necessitated a part being made in Switzerland to restore the system. Altogether an almighty debacle. Travelled the 6 kms to La Balme,(2600 metres), in La Clusaz daily which did have great skiing due to altitude and effective use of cannons on the lower pistes. Clusaz has a rock base as opposed to Le Grand-Bornand which is pasture land and needs less snow to be skiable but this benefit is cancelled out by the lower altitudes, although it does ski longer into the season. Still pretty bizarre that I didn't see even one naturally occurring falling snow-flake in my time there!!!?? A great holiday and I'll try and get back in February half term which is my usual start to the season. Apparently this snow drought occurred 12 years ago and locals see a pattern emerging in that the season seems to be delayed a week each year? They are expecting a huge and welcome dump on Wednesday so all you skiers about to head out, please watch and take heed of the avalanche warnings. Enjoy!

Dang!! :blush: Nevertheless, thankyou Mr. West for that link to TOL. Fingers crossed that the real cold is heading for The Aravis Range and they get a huge dumping. Soon.