Souvy

I know the feeling. We did not get the flash freeze but it still froze. Judging from the way my snow banks are glistening in today's sunshine, I could probably bounce a brick off them.

I used the brief thaw yesterday to clear an approximately non life threatening path down my drive but I'm still not inclined to go out today. I would not get beyond my driveway without going down. I cracked the back of my head hard twice last year. I have no desire to do it again.

Oakvillian

Sidewalks are stupidly slippery round my way - especially those that had previously been shovelled. Where there's a bed of churned up snow, the ice crust at least affords an illusion of grip. The road surface itself on our street has a bed of packed snow with grit on top, so is actually quite grippy. The drive into work this morning wasn't too bad, the urban highways are clear, a couple of prats in the ditch or the guardrail were hindering progress somewhat.

I'm particularly wary of icy surfaces. It's not quite a year since I snapped my leg in half in a fall on ice.

Jerseygirl

That made my eyes water.

Greenhill

They're saying there's a giant "arctic hurricane" at the centre of all this weather, currently battering everywhere between north Quebec and north Nunavut.

Do we have any BE members who live in those areas?

Souvy

I tend to avoid flat surfaces. I pick rough bits.

Souvy

I don't think we have one in Nunavut. If I recall correctly, there is one in Sept-Iles, QC. That is north of me but it's on the St. Laurent, so it's not really north-north.

Zoe Bell

the roads downtown aren't too bad but the sidewalks vary from "so heavily salted that they are bone dry" to "marginally cleared but with a deceptive thin coat of ice" to " we haven't made any attempt at all"

I don't know which of the latter two is the worst to be honest.

My boss at work very kindly texted me this morning to instruct me to get a taxi into work.

Oakvillian

I bet not half as much as mine did at the time

BristolUK

Me too. Often, though, a 'strip' of rough is too narrow for both feet. But traction for one is better than none.

The bits that puzzle me are the milky white patches that you can see is solid ice but never seems that slippery.

Also deceptive is where you're on the sidewalk and what appears to be the kerb is actually sort of an extension made up of ice/snow; like the sidewalk has moved over a bit.

So you walk on what you think is the edge and it seems okay until there's a softish bit and you turn your ankle or slip towards traffic.

Did he kindly offer to pay?

iaink

So its cold, big deal. Its been colder here for sure, and probably will be later in the winter ( its about -20 today), although the wind is unpleasant. The roads didnt seem that bad, the 401 was pretty much clear and the backroads were not all that bad considering the amount of freezing rain and the flash freeze.

Someone should point out the BBC that they do this every year in Ottawa

Zoe Bell

[QUOTE=BristolUK;11067347


Did he kindly offer to pay?[/QUOTE]

yup

BristolUK

I must admit I had a similar response when I was reading in the guardian about life threatening temperatures in the US.

Most of the places they mentioned had temperatures not as bad as much of Canada gets.

Now if it was merely unexpectedly cold for what they are used to, one can understand that's newsworthy compared to Canada. But the focus wasn't on that, it was the life threatening/frostbite aspects. Some recognition that just "up a bit" regularly gets that too would have been nice.

They even mentioned New York City having a record low of -14. [sarcasm]Shiver me timbers. [/sarcasm]

orly

Yea I did chuckle slightly when I saw that on the BBC site. I wonder if they'll be back for a "Ottawa using explosives to break up frozen canal ice" article in a few months.

Think our building needs some new windows...

jaminsk1

I think that was fahrenheit - makes it about -26 centigrade.

BristolUK

Nope. They gave the fahrenheit and then the celsius. I looked twice to make sure.

I see the guardian's latest is including Canada this time.