Snow Chaos – UK almost grinds to a halt last few weeks, but is the snow on your roof melting?
garry | Friday, January 15th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
There is no doubt snow had arrived in the UK over Christmas and in some areas the conditions caused major chaos on the road and with public transport. Temperatures recorded in Oxfordshire was as low as -17 C and in Scotland -22 C it was colder than the north pole.
The smart advice was, if you didn’t need to travel then stay at home. I thought this was sensible and good advice. Last week however 1 in 7 people did not make it to work, I suggest that even with the severe low temperatures and conditions for some it had become an opportunity to just not turn up for work – period. I don’t mean stupidity, taking unnecessary and excessive risks but why are some so keen to give up after just looking out of the window from their bed, making no reasonable attempt to establish conditions or to get to their work place.
Even the Meerkats took a look!
I took my Son to the station over the last two weeks, and on day two of his first job opportunity after leaving University the roads near Winchester were well salted, were almost clear of cars, (although I acknowledge it was 6.30 am in the morning) and passable with care. On arrival at the train station, though a reduced service was in operation my son was still able to get to London by 10am only about an hour late for work.
If everyone just decided not to make the effort the country would simply grind to a halt.
My respects goes out to whose hardy souls particularly nurses, doctors, emergency services, police, coastguard, mountain rescue, and even those farmers that have helped to keep us moving by fitting snow ploughs to their tractors (though I sure there’e a bob or two to be made).
Now thats off my chest, this brings me to the second part of this article, is the snow melting on your roof? Do some roofs have lots of snow on them, when compared to your neighbours that may have little snow?
Roof voids that have good loft insulation say over 270mm, current building regulations, may hold the snow on the roof longer, when others has already melted. 
Note how the snow will melt at the top first, around roof lights and chimney’s and those roofs which have less snow indicate where heat maybe being lost through the roof due to poor insulation.
So this is time to get that loft insulation up to specification, but make sure you install the right insulation, and do no block any cross ventilation otherwise you may create other consequencial problems with condensation on the underside of felt underlay, plumbing, etc, leading to possible long term problems of timber decay.
On the subject of snow, chaos and how the country copes. I was amazed to hear on the radio that farmers who strap a snow plough on their tractor and help clear local roads would have HMRC knocking at their door if they used the red diesel they do on their farms. The advice was that they could use red diesel to clear the roads to their farm and then only for feed to be delivered and milk collected Anything else they would need to drain their fuel tanks, fill up with tax paid white diesel, then put on their snow plough and get going to clear the roads ….. or they could of course roll over in bed and have a lay in!!