Ahh yes I remember the 'thundersnow' event as you call it - end of January
2004, when a thundery cold front came down from the arctic. Even the
Uxbridge / Heathrow area wasn't immune. I looked out to see heavy rain. Then
a few minutes later looked out again to see a blizzard and already a thick
covering. It was amazing how rapidly that happened. Took me 2 hours to drive
15 miles home. That was an improvement on a year earlier (also end of
January) when the snow + incompetent drivers caused the whole of Northwest
London to grind to a halt, meaning a 5 hour journey home! I stopped at a
friend's house on the way home for a rest, supper and a good ol' snowball
fight! Then after multiple slip-sliding attempts made it over his icy hill
and eventually home. Not often a front-wheel drive car with narrow tires is
the best vehicle to be in... A cabbie in a rear wheel drive car only escaped
by going backwards!

Meanwhile The closest I came to a whiteout was one April about 4000 feet
above the ground in Hampshire in a glider. I was having fun soaring on the
edge of various weak showers. Above 2000 feet they were snow. Looking down
from cloudbase the snow formed lovely looking virgae below me. The a bigger
heavier shower came. Soaring along the leading edge of that shower was
awesome, with a big white opaque wall extending 2000 feet below me. After a
good lookout I did briefly nip inside to experience what it is like flying
in snow. Unsurprisingly the vis was near zero. I safely escaped back out
again before I could accumulate any significant amounts of ice, and then
flew around the shower.

(I did take pictures that day too as I'd just bought a new camera, available
at http://a.domaindlx.com/flybywire/pic...index2004.html if
DomainDlx hasn't run out of quota for me. Scroll down to 8th April 2004.
Just pretend you didn't see the self portait. )

-Mike

"Dave Ludlow" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 15:22:50 -0000, "Joe Hunt"
wrote:


"Will Hand" wrote in message
...

"nguk" wrote in message
...
Is there a chance of a whiteout or blizzard
in ea and se this week? thats what im looking
forward to seeing, with slight gusts and complete
whiteout from snow. Granted we had alot of
snow early in the year, but nothing at night whereby
you couldnt even see the house across the road
now that id love to see!

True whiteouts are very rare in lowland Britain. Only ever seen it once
myself
in the Scottish mountains where you cannot tell whether you are up or
down
as literally everything is white. Having heavy snow falling where the
visibility is reduced to fog levels is another matter, get that on
Dartmoor every winter, but strictly that is not a whiteout.

Neil,

I experienced whiteout conditions like Will describes above once in the
French Alps at about 2800m asl. The wind was blowing a good 25KT and I
struggled to see my skies let alone in front of me. Luckily we all had
walkie-talkies so managed to keep in touch.

Me, too - I remember one such occasion while walking in the Cairngorms
a couple of decades ago. There is a real feeling of accomplishment and
satisfaction when you come through an event like that (in the
Mountains) alive. We decided to follow a particular contour line
round towards the top of the ski slopes and lifts, using map and
compass at the head and rear of our group and swapping positions to
conserve energy while walking in the deep snow.

It is remarkable how quickly footsteps over a foot deep fill up in
heavy blowing (and falling) snow so we had to stay mostly within
touching distance to avoid losing contact. Luckily, we could see our
feet and after a couple of hours, we made it. 'Twas only a mile - but
it seemed like a very long way in whiteout conditions, even though
fully equipped for the conditions.

These days, near the Central Southern coast of England, it is
remarkable to experience even 5 minutes when the snow reduces
visibility even to fog levels This may have happened in the
"Thundersnow" event two or three years ago - although the entire event
was completed within that 5 minutes!

-
Dave
Fareham