Nick L

Precisely. Common sense should prevail. My Mum is absolutely furious with my school. My brother in Year 11 has an exam this afternoon, and the entire school has been sent home. My Mum can't pick him up because we cannot get out of our road (it is a hill and completely snowed/iced over) so he is having to go to a friend's house. All of this would have been averted if either: a) School was shut from the word go except those with exams They sent everyone home except those with exams, who would be supervised in revision classes by the few teaching staff that made it in. But of course, teachers know best don't they...

With temperatures expect to get down to about -2c tonight things could be 10 times worse in the morning, especially if we have a slight thaw early evening.

When some schools remain open regardless I think it is thoughtless and in some cases reckless. With the state that the roads are in today it is going to be inevitable that the vast majority of staff and pupils will struggle to get in. And when school reopens, teachers will have the problem of some pupils being ahead and some pupils being behind. Sometimes it is far easier to close a school than have the "we will open regardless" attitude.

Look at this message on my school website: What a bloody joke. They have cleared the snow off the paths and left the ice and they have been in their tutor groups for the last hour waiting for news that never came. And now this announcement. What a shambles.

Most of the teachers in my school haven't turned up, let alone the pupils!

I just use the radar to see how far away it is from me, when it gets to me I switch it off, because for snow it is useless for seeing how heavy it is to be honest.

BBC said perhaps turning more sleety in the south of the region, but nothing more than that. But certainly not turning to rain by this afternoon as suggested by one poster anyway. Will almost certainly continue as snow for most through daylight hours.

Nobody has said it will turn to rain? It will sit over the north Midlands and continue as snow.

Exactly. Snow still fairly small flakes (but not rubbish grains by any means) and is getting heavier. Starting to drift up walls now!

Thanks very much for those stats Mr D. Astonishing that we are only half way through winter and we have already beaten most winters in that series!

Very pleased this morning, was not expecting this much! This has certainly been a memorable cold spell.

I would say, but unfortunately this is a family forum.

It's a joke that some schools have remained open. And before the misery-bum (swear filter lol) brigade moan about schools closing, this isn't the 1960s, things have changed, people use cars and health and safety rules - get over it. 4x4s are even struggling on the roads by me. Our headteacher had the wise idea of putting a message on the school website yesterday declaring that school would be open today.

The road leading up to my school is quite a steep, ungritted hill. And apparently all the cars are having to be pushed up. Absolute joke!

Right, because I don't have any morning lessons, my road is frozen over and registration is a pointless exercise (we get registered electronically in lessons anyway) I am not going to bother struggling into school just to come home again. Most other schools have seen sense and closed except for those with exams. Very nice covering outside, with minidrifts up kerbs!

Yeah it's great, today will be my 15th consecutive day of substantial snow cover!

Yeah there is loads to come, but it will most likely be in the form of heavy snow grains with the odd real flake thrown in - which is just a nuisance!

All the holes in the now have been covered. Shame that it is dying out or I could get quite a bit of snow! My school is open though, but I don't have any morning lessons so it doesn't make a great deal of difference.

What about light hail? Can that be called hizzle?

Seems to have healed itself, but it is still moving exceptionally slowly, I could run faster than that - and I have the fitness of an obese 50 year old.

Well on Wednesday (like today) I don't have any lessons until the afternoon, by which time it will probably have melted anyway! Besides, there is always the bus...or the bike! News at 10 forecast on BBC seemed pretty promising.

DEAL NOEL!

Seems like it! This could extend my incredible snow cover run, I think it stretches back to the 29th Dec event which half melted overnight.

This is like an anti-modern winter! With prolonged cold spells and brief mild snaps, brilliant!

Anybody else had an incredibly small diurnal range today? Had a min of -0.1c and a max of 0.3c! Must be a record for me.