Happy New Year 2010!

A bit belated I wish you all a Happy New Year 2010!

Here in Leeds there was a "White Christmas". It had snowed before the holidays, it snowed before New Year, and yesterday a new snow dump brought at least 15 cm snow cover everywhere in and around Leeds.



As usual, road traffic collapses here in the UK when such snow conditions occur. There is usually not much snow here in winter, so when it comes, the road services are overwhelmed. One problem is that here in the UK a lot of salt is used to clear the roads from snow. They do not use snow ploughs but instead spray salt and sand grit. This is only effective when the snow cover is not more than a few cm. But with the current snow amount, I believe it would be better to use ploughs to move the snow to the side, before spraying salt on it. This is also for environmental reasons: salt damages the environment around the road ways. It also leads to increased corrosion of cars.

Driving on the M62 Motorway across the Pennines from Leeds to Manchester on 2.January 2010.