It's just started snowing/sleeting here in South Wales, and I'm sure if it continues for more than a few minutes the TV weather will be urging people to stay off the roads unless their journey is essential.

This got me wondering about conditions in Canada, where obviously there is Real Snow, and not the half-hearted slush we have here.

We are looking to move to the Anprior/Renfrew area of Ontario, a province which does seem to have its fair share of heavy snow, and I'm a little concerned about the prospect of having to drive through snow each day to get to work (no job lined up yet).

The following might seem like obvious questions, but I've little experience of driving regularly in a real snowfall, and would love to hear people's answers:

How do you cope on the roads with snow day after day?

Are all the roads (hopefully we'd be living in town, and not out in the countryside) cleared every day, and is it just a case of fitting snow tires and/or chains and going slowly, or is driving still a real effort?

What difference do the tires and chains make?

What vehicle would we need to be safe? I've looked at a few threads here and some people say you need a 4WD/SUV, while others say a front wheel drive car and chains is enough.

Any information would be much appreciated.

To be honest with you i live in Winnipeg which is pretty bad for snow but...Generally there is very little snow on the roads ever. When it snows people should be driving slowly until the snow crews clear it away. Snow tires help but i think it's fair to say it might snow badly 10 times a year and it is only ever a problem for the first 10 hours of the snowfall(unless a blizzard hits).

I drive 50 or 75 miles to work most days through an area with comparable weather to that which you're considering. See the blog for images of the route and of the snow volumes.

YMMV but:

- you can't use chains, they're illegal in Ontario and, besides, they slow you down too much for commuting

- road clearance depends on the county and varies hugely. However, in most rural counties you can count on the paved roads being ploughed in time for commuting.

- I moved from the city where I ran a RWD car. I acquired a FWD in order to cope with the conditions and think that was prudent. I wouldn't bother with a four wheel drive so long as your driving is on roads. We do have a four wheel drive vehicle but only use it in fields. I don't have snow tyres, I expect they'd be nice to have.

- Clearing the driveway is a massive pain in the arse. When I get home I park on the street and check to see if the drive has been ploughed in; if it has I clear it before driving into the windrow and getting stuck.

- I've pulled/pushed maybe twenty cars out this winter so far. One yesterday.
They nearly all get stuck the same way I have twice this year - falling off the side of the road. Either side of most roads is a ditch, the plough fills this with snow level with the road surface so one cannot see where the edge of the tarmac is, go too far over and the car lists alarmingly.

- it's generally very poor office politics not to come in because of weather. If you're going to have a long commute budget for a few nights per year in an hotel near the office.

- road closures are a bother. We routinely drive on the closed roads as, when the main roads are closed, the unclosed ones are generally in very poor shape but there's a potential $110 fine for each trip.

- check school closures for the area you're considering. Days on which the schools are closed (not just buses cancelled) are ones on which it's dangerous to drive; we've had a half-dozen or so this year.

- beware of warm days, melting snow means fog and that's as bad as a white out.

- watch the movie Fargo. That's the what you're getting yourself into (though not, one hopes, the wood chipper).

Thanks for the advice - that's pretty reassuring. To be honest I hadn't thought about staying in a hotel near work, but it seems really obvious and does make sense.

If I end up anywhere near the woodchipper at the end of Fargo, things will have gone badly wrong and I will be most disappointed with my experience of Canada...

Thanks for that, very helpful for us newbies!! Will send karma, thanks for typing it all out.

And am now off to rent Fargo as have no idea what anybody's talking about........

Everybody should watch Fargo, if only for the outrageous accents. Once you've seen it, you too will be going "yaah" and "kinda funny lookin'" on a regular basis.

I don't know that Winnipeg is that bad for snow, no doubt Steve will come along and give us the stats soon. I think I've seen more of the white stuff here but of course it melts after a few days which is great. And dangerous, because it refreezes.

I'd say that drivers slow right down here in snow, until the roads are clear, they didn't in Winnipeg. But the authorities here and in Detroit seem to be "running out of salt" at the moment which is a little worrying and there were a couple of 20+ car pile-ups over the border at the weekend

I've been amazed at the ploughing in a small town like this, they're driving round 3 or 4 times even before it's stopped snowing. Bored, obviously! My Ontario geography's lousy but I wouldn't ever want to live in a lake-effect snow zone, what a bother that seems to be.

Went to the real Fargo several times from Winnipeg, very disappointing, didn't hear anybody speak like in the film, only really heard Somali accents

Winnipeg this year has been good to be honest only one bad storm but then again it was between -20 and -40 for around 6 weeks. and when it's cold it doesn't snow.

plus i do have the added benefit that i live in a city and not rurally. most of our highways have been shut this weekend though because it snowed around 10 cm on thurs/friday and the warmed up over the weekend which caused ice, also the wind was high....nice weather

The hardest thing I've found is some of the other drivers.... especially some of the truck drivers! They're used to it and don't slow down. Being overtaken by an 18 wheeler and covered in slush at night is not fun!!!!

Keeping in lane can be a challenge too. The white lines can't be seen (even if it's just been "cleared") and they don't have cats eyes.

I'm slowly getting used to it (we've been having snow since November, over 3 metres now).... just go real easy to start with!

The blowing snow was horrible, only had that a little bit of that here. I remember coming back from Grand Forks one night and it was so bad, we were using the sat nav to know when there was a bend coming in the road because we couldn't see a thing out the windscreen

Hello Grendel...I'm in Ottawa where we have had the 2nd snowiest winter on record (something like 320 cm since November 20 and continuous snow cover since that day), but the driving has been quite good. Renfrew/Arnprior get similar weather patterns as Ottawa.

Here is the 1971-2000 average for Renfrew

http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec....4359&autofwd=1

Despite what dbd said, Renfrew gets little to no lake effect snow and snowsqualls that they get on the lee side of the Great Lakes (i.e Wasaga Beach, Owen Sound, Goderich, Parry Sound) as it is too far away from the Great Lakes....what it does get is probably colder clear winter nights and more synoptic snow (general weather pattern moving through).

The roads are plowed efficiently and quickly unless you are on a minor road in which case it may be a day or two after the snowfall (you just need to get to a main road). During that day or two the cars on your road will pack the snow down. Chains are illegal in Ontario and many people in your area are wise to use snow tyres (they are more efficient than regular tyres below 7 c). Next winter they will be mandatory in Quebec.

Hope this helps and good luck in your job search in the 'prior or the 'frew.

I don't know that they're used to it, they may just be mad. I don't like driving on the highways in bad weather as one has very little control over what's going to happen; I stopped on ice because the car in front did, the one behind didn't and all the cars shot around like snooker balls, a slab of ice flew off a van in front of me and went through my windshield, I'm often delayed because trucks jacknifed or blew over on bridges. Slush and the lack of mudflaps on trucks means, as you say, frequently driving blind. If I see a truck from Khalistan Trucking coming I get off the road, other than that there's little one can do.

You'll be wanting synoptic tyres for that then, I expect it's both special and metric.

Well, perhaps. My girlfriend has managed for years with only FWD, but having driven AWD and FWD on snow here I'm definitely getting an AWD car; I'd never even consider taking the FWD car anywhere near the crappy roads that the AWD handled like they were dry tarmac, because it did so badly on any kind of snow.

Now, all three cars were on all season tires, so I'm sure the FWD would do better with winter tires. But having seen the difference -- and how badly my girlfriend's FWD handles the snow at times -- I think it's an easy choice.

Incidentally, I was reading yesterday that, based on sunspot observations, the sun appears to be entering a cooling phase; so cold and snowy winters may be with us for quite some time.

I was rather amused by the 'Picture of the day' on the BBC News website showing 'A snow plough clears the path for traffic after overnight snow at Hartside in Cumbria.'