Oh yes, i was driving out into Norfolk back roads every days for several years, down lanes to a farm where the offal we took helped keep several thousand pigs alive, the job had to run no question.

A roads in Suffolk/Norfolf 3/5 ft drifts with only really single lanes still treacherous where tractors had cleared a path of sorts, had to traverse about 5 miles of single track lanes to the farm itself, this would be 3 times a day because 3 of us ran the job 24/7, the farmer or his son, decent folk, would always greet us whatever time of day we arrived and kept thre route clear for us with their JCB, when we left the farm be it 5/6am or the 8 hourly sections in between they would follow us out to the main road in a Landrover to make sure we were back on passable roads, at the farm we'd have to play hot water onto the body of the tipper trailer as the offal would be frozen solid to the sides, again by the time we got back to the yard the water drainings from the front section of the split tipping body would be a foot deep block of solid ice in the rear section, again requiring hot water playing on the raised body before that ton or so block suddenly broke free,

Using Daf artic trucks, they proved unstoppable and totally reliable,

I'm more inclined to think the winter that was so bad in Norfolk, the one i recall was more like 1983, but difficult to place the timeline given my memory for dates so it could easily have been the 81 winter.

Also had a hair raising journey back from Lowestoft around 2002 ish, the year blizzards came in suddenly and many people got stuck overnight on the M11, can't tell you the route i took back but somehow managed to get through and got home very late at night with the engine running on 5 cylinders, got stuck at one point in a Cambridgeshire village somewhere just north of Royston, not a chance of making it up that road and had to turn around in a side road, i'd estimate 7/8pm at the point, from out of one of the village houses came an apparation, one of the loveliest women its been my pleasure to meet, she brought out a tray with mugs of coffee and a plate of biscuits for another lorry driver and myself who were stopped outside her home trying to decide our best plan to carry on...rekindles your faith in humanity simple kindess like that.

Another interesting event, one of my lads was took into hospital in the neighbouring town, main roads all cut off but there was a back road which went up over high ground, i had an old Volvo 245 estate at the time. Coming back from the hospital in a full blizzard and reaching the high ground met a factory minibus that was just turning round as couldn't make it through the drifts, around 8 or maybe 9 workers were starting to make their way along the road, i stopped and offered them a lift if they didn't mind mucking in best they could, filled all the car seats and probably 4 of them sat in the boot and we just went for it, ploughed straight through the drifts and we all made it home safely, someone was watching over us that night too, RWD no good in snow they say, they know nothing.

I hope we get some decent snow, for the kids mainly.

Edited by gordonbennet on 09/12/2022 at 21:47

I don't remember anything special about 1981 because from 1967 to 1992 I always lived within walking distance of work. But having experienced four Canadian winters 1963-66, I did wonder why UK drivers found a few degrees of frost such a problem. Of course the main reason is - unless one lives north of the border - it doesn't happen very often, so people see little reason to prepare for it, and when it happens they are out of practice. Over the pond, one has to learn how to drive on packed and glazed ice and in freezing rain. Now that is real fun, I can assure you.

In those days we had proper snow, I was 16 then and did not have a licence so in 1981 it was someone else's problem,

Since then I have done recovery work for Green Flag, and 2 other recovery firms. There is so much good advice online I do not need to repeat it. But just a couple of quickies ..

1 . I f you have an old blanket then place it on the engine overnight. ( ps do not forget to take it off when you go out. and wait until the engine has cooled down before you put it on )

2 . Make sure you have sufficient anti freeze.

3 . If your tyres on on or close to 1.6 m, consider getting new ones for the winter. and swapping back again during the summer.

4 . NEVER defrost your windscreen by pouring boiling water on it.

But above all, treat yourself to watching a safety video about winter driving.

PS If we get a bad winter put sleeping bags in the car for every person travelling, esp young children it can get very cold very quickly if you cannot keep the engine running. and make sure there is a hat for every person, we lose something like 70% of our body heat through our heads.

Can't say I remembered much about the weather back then, but then I was only a nipper at the time. I do remember that my fave footie team was doing rather well at the time...

On the other hand, I very much remember the 'white out' 2 hour blizzard of the end of January 2003. Many people stuck on the M11, and many colleagues tried - and failed to get home afterwards despite leaving the office early at 4pm.

I stayed on until the normal end of the working day and proceded to make my way - slowly (mostly due to other vehicles in front experiencing difficulties) - back home, including up a quite steep hill. I'm glad I owned a 1L Micra with reasonable profile (60) tyres, which also suited my driving style.

Loved every minute of it. Have driven on snow in that car and my current Mazda3 since, and still find the experience puts a smile on my face, despiet never having had either car shod on winter or all-season tyres at the time. Ironically, the Mazda now has 65 profile 15in CC+ A/S tyres on it and I've never had to drive on snow in the nearly 5 years I've had them on the car. Here's hoping for a white Christmas this year...

wow! how driving has progressed since then. I vaguely remember this winter as I was driving by then, see how few vehicles are using any lights, the broken down vehicles didn't have hazard lights either, the vintage London bus with an open platform for boarding / alighting! I can remember getting stuck trying to make a 3 point turn, the car (Datsun Sunny or Bluebird with rear wheel drive) had difficulty with an icy road surface in the camber, no grip to climb out.

I'm running CrossClimate tyres these days, hopefully the only hazard to progress would be other vehicles blocking traffic .. the latest video by Tyre reviews testing CC tyres with just 2.5mm tread is very encouraging to watch.

Edited by Smileyman on 10/12/2022 at 23:28

I remember a really dodgy winter in the late 70's just before I was driving. With my Dad driving his Cortina mkII and the heater (advanced for it days) was failing to keep anyone warm in the car on a really dodgy run on the fairly recently built M62 section from the Ouse crossing to Hull. The video link above seemed tame compared to the white out conditions we experienced at the time - and I've experienced since on my "previous" commute along the horrible A1079.

We had a hotel break in North Yorkshire a couple of days ago and up in the Yorkshire Wolds & Moors things were very icy with some snow cover. Fortunately my Michelin Crossclimate's were amazing. I encountered a steep hill where cars were struggling up hill and bizarrely even more down hill. I simply progressed carefully but at no point did I experience any skidding / slipping.

Edited by Big John on 10/12/2022 at 23:48

I recall driving in Canada, in December a couple of weeks before Christmas. No problem starting - car was in an under cover car park. Two of us set off to drive from Ottawa to Montreal. No problem steering, roads were all nice and driveable. The problem was that the feeble heating system couldn't stop the windscreen icing up. It was about minus 20 C. We were warm enough, just the moisture in the air constantly deposited itself on the outside of the windscren. We had to stopo every few miles and chip the ice off. Adtr a few if these we gave up, turned round at the next exit, and wrnt back to our nice warm hotel.

This was in the 90s- either extreme conditions or just rubbish north American rental car.

Edited by Sparrow on 11/12/2022 at 11:53

I remember it very well. I was a student in Durham at the time, and with my good friend Paul cycled to his parents' home near Nottingham, via York and Lincoln youth hostels, in the middle of December. Freezing fog was fun -- we had sheets of ice down our fronts -- but roads were not bad on the first day. Less good on the second and third days, to put it mildly, when it was pretty much continuous packed snow and ice under our wheels. I remember arriving at Lincoln youth hostel in waist-deep snow and going inside to find that the heating was broken and even the toilets were frozen over.

On the positive side, there was very little motor traffic about so it was not too much problem when we fell off once or twice, typically into snow drifts for a soft landing.