Sazandra

Oh boy did Oxford has horrendous traffic at the moment..  The current flooding has closed Abingdon Road (going south out of the city centre); Botley Road (coming west) was partially flooded in several places and where it turns into Westway it's completely flooded then overnight they closed the road completely; plus yesterday was day back after Christmas & New Year for many schools etc too.  The rivers around here have been on flood alert since Christmas, it's only these last couple of days, with even more rainfall, that it's turned to flood warnings.

High Street and St Aldates were gridlocked yesterday evening and the bus driver of the number 10 I was on from Cowley to the city centre suggested we get off at Queen's Lane and walk the rest of the way.  When I got into the city centre I could see hellishly long bus queues in St Aldates and again in Bonn Square for another route.  George Street was strangely quiet, the queues weren't too bad and an S1 arrived at the stop shortly after I joined the queue.  Of course the bus soon found traffic and it took rather a long time to do the two miles to Botley/Elms Parade thanks to no doubt some traffic that would usually use the Abingdon Road combined with partial flooding in several places on the Botley Road and all the way across where it becomes Westway.  Got home at 6:40 pm (having left the office at 4:15 pm).

A bus using colleague who left the office after me last night ended up walking most of the way into the city centre as the gridlock in the city centre spread further and further out and thus up the Cowley Road.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10917592.Cameras_snap_water_logged_land_as_floods_swamp_county/?ref=mr
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10917571.Homeowners_are_on_edge_as_more_rain_is_due_to_fall/?ref=mr
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10915254.Here_come_the_floods/?ref=mr

Today with Botley Road closed the journey into Oxford this morning was diverted along the A34 from Botley to Peartree then down the Woodstock Road to drop off at the usual (pickup) bus stop in George Street and amazingly I was still in St Aldates to get my usual 6:50 am number 1 bus.  Tonight coming home I had a lift from a colleague who lives in village about three miles north of here and I got home 35 minutes after leaving the office without having to run the gauntlet of the city centre or the S1 on diversion.

At least both major bus companies have got their act together quite well considering the traffic. The 400 Park & Ride service that usually goes Thornhill P&R (east of Oxford) to Seacourt P&R off the Botley Road hasn't been going to Seacourt since Monday when that car park started flooding so they've now got the 400 running to and from the railway station (it usually goes past it like the S1 etc)  to city centre (then off on it's usual route to Thornhill) so that all the other bus routes that usually terminate at the railway station are able to terminate in the city centre (or at Gloucester Green bus station)  - and it's not like there's a lot of trains running since there's a whole load of flooding (as usual) on the lines to/from Didcot limiting speed etc. 

Link to stuff today:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10920703.Blog__Oxfordshire_flooding_latest__Wednesday__January_8/?ref=var_0

1 day until Chevron 8.0 and I have almost finished packing, basically just my kindle to go in my new shoulder bag and a few odds and ends to go in my case, and the weather looks like it will be reasonable as in dry and reasonably warm for the weekend, which is something of an upturn considering this year so far has been the chilliest  in 50 years.

The forecast for today was for rain with snow showers on higher ground further north and west of here in the Cotswolds, what we actually had here was a bit of rain followed by an inch or two of snow.

Seems the county got caught out a bit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-21821820 ;

When the snow first started coming down here about 8:30 am it wasn't normal sized snowflakes, it was two or three inch long feather sized pieces that laid quickly even though it was onto wet ground.  Once the snow stopped falling it soon started to melt on the roads and pavements.

Am thinking it will be winter boots again in morning as it's forecast around freezing overnight, even if it's dry under foot it will be chilly at the bus stops.

Following on from yesterday's post, Thames Water are ending the hosepipe ban from midnight tonight :) Does this mean the weather might improve? Around the time they brought the restrictions in the weather went downhill.

1) Story about drivers spending the night stuck on roads.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16891654

2) Picture of sheep/cattle/other herd of animals in snow.
fifth slide in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16889537

3) Critizing authorities etc for not being prepared.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096586/UK-weather-Now-big-freeze-thanks-sub-zero-nighttime-temperatures.html

1) and 3) the forecasters have been warning us for several days of inpending S N O W ! There is such thing as having to wait for it to fall and settle before you can deal with it, you can't exactly catch it on the way down and ask it nicely to fall on fields but not on roads.

Here we had less than an inch of snow, barely enough to cover the grass and on the road outside it turned icy on cold surface but has melted somewhat and turned slushy and grey. Unlike the last few times we've had a fall of snow no desire to go out and take photos, not really enough of the stuff to look picturesque here and I'm quite happy to stay snug and warm indoors - and it is quite a bit warmer that the last few days.

BBC News - Last December UK's coldest for 100 years

Definitely not our imagination then!

and I missed this in the run up to Christmas BBC News - Time to spend more money preparing for colder winters?

BBC News - Sleepover for snowbound shoppers

Well there are way worse places to get stuck in bad weather.

Yesterday afternoon Dad and I went for a walk.

Somewhere in the middle of this is the River Thames:
( Read more... )

Wellies at Henley this year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6267132.stm

Pictures of hailstorms this afternoon:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6267038.stm
It doesn't look like it can possibly be July in some of those.