Snow and remaining snow patches

[stewfox]

95% of the snow has now gone in my location.

I was surprised therefore to see two considerable mounds of snow (10ft wide 5ft high) at my local spa ( 2 miles away).

I will endeavour (weather and her in doors permitting) to make the long journey up there (by car of course) to see if its likely to remain to the new year and take those all important photos.

I would guess the elevation is about 20ft higher then my location which suggests staff or others put all the snow there ? Not seen the council since 17th December so def not them.

Any other surviving snow patches in car parks and the like near you ??

[Guest]

Cosco's at Watford had some snow mounds approx 4'x4'x4', otherwise no snow left.

[Summer of 95]

Sainsbury's, Tesco's and Asda still have mounds 3-4 ft deep on their carparks, and some patches are still there betraying those who kept shovelling their driveways/paths.

[Terminal Moraine]

Plenty of snow drifts in the fields here without having to got to the local supermarket to find mounds of shovelled snow.

At the current rate of thaw there should be a fair number of them surviving until Saturday evening when it turns colder again.

[Rustynailer]

The remains of my 2nd Snowman of this Winter melted yesterday. My local shops snow mound went 2 days earlier.

There will be no snow in my area at all by now I think.

Russ.

[osmposm]

Um, yes....amazingly there are actually still people and businesses who do their best to clear snow from their own frontage/car park, instead of waiting for the council to do it and complaining if they don't!

A mad idea emerged from some insurance company plonker a year or two ago - and gained unwarranted credence thanks to certain newspapers and the internet - that you risked being sued if you did so. When somebody actually bothered to investigate they discovered it was almost complete rubbish - as far as I know there is no recorded instance of anyone even having taken proceedings against anyone for this, let alone of such a legal action being successful. Read this for reassurance: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8443745.stm . Basically the risk is entirely theoretical, and in reality you are quite safe, unless you acted in a way that was either obviously malicious - say, deliberately making a pile of the snow in front of your neighbour's entrance, or pouring hot water on the paving, and polishing it when it freezes - or majorly careless - like starting to clear it, but stopping and leaving a shovel sticking out of it into the pathway. Even then it would take someone to have an accident, to be so angry that they decide to take out an action against you, and to succeed in proving something that is very hard to be certain of.

Despite this, certain H&S experts are still trotting it out: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6958131/Health-and-safety-experts-warn-dont-clear-icy-pavements-you-could-get-sued.html . It's not surprising, though, with misleading statements like this from government: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3453039.stm .

On your own property, incidentally - though not on the public pavement - there is probably a greater risk of being sued for not clearing the snow. But anywhere and anyhow the risk is negligible - I'm glad your spa (SPAR? Health Spa??) just did the right thing. And there is a certain, mad pleasure in watching piles of cleared snow slowly shrink long after the main snowfall has gone - in April 1881 there was still cleared snow from the great blizzard in January lying on open spaces in London!

Edited December 30, 2010 by osmposm

[spindrift1980]

[quote.... there is a certain, mad pleasure in watching piles of cleared snow slowly shrink long after the main snowfall has gone..

[Guest]

Basically the risk is entirely theoretical, and in reality you are quite safe, unless you acted in a way that was either obviously malicious - say, deliberately making a pile of the snow in front of your neighbour's entrance, or pouring hot water on the paving, and polishing it when it freezes - or majorly careless - like starting to clear it, but stopping and leaving a shovel sticking out of it into the pathway. Even then it would take someone to have an accident, to be so angry that they decide to take out an action against you, and to succeed in proving something that is very hard to be certain of.

I suppose we did something like that when we were kids - we used to make a slide along the pavement which with use got better, more slippery and longer the more we used it. We used to get most upset when a woman came out of a nearby house and started pouring salt over it. Looking back on it, it was the common sense thing to do for her to do. At the time we were enjoying ourselves so much that the thought of some elderly person did not enter our heads - shame on us but I don't suppose we did anything different to any other kids at the time.

[AderynCoch]

The very last remains of a snowman built on the evening of the 17th are still hanging on for dear life. Good old compressed snow!

[stewfox]

The very last remains of a snowman built on the evening of the 17th are still hanging on for dear life. Good old compressed snow!

Still a fair bit around the Spa (shop) and local farm.

Reminds of me when in Kansas in March years ago, it was 50f and still large areas of snow.

I would expect with temperatures dropping these snow patches are good for a few more days ?

Off to the Canary Islands for a week so will probably miss their demise, ah well . lying snow for 2 weeks now

[J10]

Went to the football today and still quite a few large piles of snow swept from the Car Park.

[stewfox]

I was at Sainsbury in Banbury Oxfordshire on saturday and saw two very large mounds of snow

One 10ft by 4ft high

Can't believe anything has lasted since December, anyone else seen this ??

[cheeky_monkey]

theres a huge mound right at the end of my cul de sac virtually at the end of my drive..is about 20ft high and maybe 30 ft long..left from when they ploughed the roads now it has formed a mini roundabout in the road...still wont be going anywhere fast as it was -38c last night

[Norrance]

Snow piles still several feet high at my nearest supermarket by about twenty feet long and there are some much higher than that where pavements and car parks were cleared with a digger. Even my office car park near the riverside still has a couple of piles but down to about 1 foot high now. These piles were created at the end of November.

[Zerouali lives]

Prime snowpatch retention conditions for the Summer and Autumn ahead in the next 2 days - those north-east facing gullies in Obersevatory gully and Aonach Mor /Beag will be filling up like hell!

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

Prime snowpatch retention conditions for the Summer and Autumn ahead in the next 2 days - those north-east facing gullies in Obersevatory gully and Aonach Mor /Beag will be filling up like hell!

I've never understood, now do north-east facing gullies get filled with snow when the winds are westerly?

[Harve]

I've never understood, now do north-east facing gullies get filled with snow when the winds are westerly?

The wind blows the snow into the gullies, but since they are sheltered away from the wind, the snow stays there and just builds and builds.

[Norrance]

The wind blows the snow into the gullies, but since they are sheltered away from the wind, the snow stays there and just builds and builds.

Quite right. The same wind blows the snow right out of West facing gullies and across plateaus before depositing it in the NE gullies. Thisis best for Summer snow retention as some of the NE gullies hardly see the sun, even in mdsummer.

Meanwhile my own pet snow piles at Liff school from late Nov / Dec are down to about five feet high now but still look good for some weeks even if the Easterly doesn't make it.

[Norrance]

Just back from my nearest Tescos. Snow piles are sill around 6 feet high. In the Call Centre car park down the road they look somewhat higher and larger in area too. Not bad since the last week of November.

[Harve]

Pretty certain that there''re no snowdirfts in the Peak District below 500m, above that, especially on Kinder Scout and Bleaklow, which reaches 650m, there could be a fair amount. Though i haven't been there for a while.

[The watcher]

Our ASDA car park snow mounds lasted right upto the 2nd week of January, although by that stage they had become a huge mound of dirty ice I suppose.

[4wd]

There's still a few decent patches on the NYMoors in North facing gullies anyway.

I have a feeling they won't last into March though.

[Norrance]

The snow patches from November in car parks at places like supermarkets have now made the local press here with comments about how they are now rock hard like cement after the freeze thaw cycles. There was even a picture in the local rag, the Courier yesterday, though it was hard to tell that the pile pictured was originally snow as it was so dirty.

I expect that this weeks milder weather to come will melt them somewhat but I guess that some will make it through to the end of the month.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Norrance

[firefly]

The snow patches from November in car parks at places like supermarkets have now made the local press here with comments about how they are now rock hard like cement after the freeze thaw cycles. There was even a picture in the local rag, the Courier yesterday, though it was hard to tell that the pile pictured was originally snow as it was so dirty.

I expect that this weeks milder weather to come will melt them somewhat but I guess that some will make it through to the end of the month.

Fascinating, actually. For a mound of snow to persist for 3-months, even in winter, in a supermarket car-park must be unusual. I don't suppose there's a photograph anywhere I could look at is there?

[Norrance]

Fascinating, actually. For a mound of snow to persist for 3-months, even in winter, in a supermarket car-park must be unusual. I don't suppose there's a photograph anywhere I could look at is there?

If they make it to Saturday I will see if I can get a picture or two. Today has been the mildest day here since 29th October so I guess that they will have melted a good bit but they have been remarkably resilient and were in good nick last week.

I am sure that there are a good number about here and also in Angus and Perthshire so someone else may have or be able to get a photo.