CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

"Severe weather warning"

(7355 posts)

  1. amir
    Member

    The forecast is looking a little dodgy for this Saturday's Audax. Cross fingers!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  2. I'm thinking of getting some of those studded tyres for the mountain bike. How do they behave when there is no snow or ice, say on a slightly damp road?

    Posted 9 years ago #
  3. duncans
    Member

    Marathon Winters are fine on road, rice crispie sounds. Heavy and slow.

    Ice Spikers I find quite skittish on tarmac.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  4. Kenny
    Member

    @galaxy - fine but noisy. If not icy, pump up hard. If very icy, run low pressure. If in between, in between.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  5. Snowy
    Member

    @galaxy Fine, but be aware that rough tarmac, cobbles and potholes are very good at removing the metal studs from the tyres. You can however get replacement studs online which can be pushed into place with a small screwdriver...there's a knack but it's not hard.
    The studs are very tough but will inevitably wear down if you just ride on tarmac.
    Reduce the pressure a bit. High PSI + studs = very exciting cornering.
    Be aware that with studs you may not realise you are happily cycling on sheet black ice until you halt, dismount and fall over like a drunken monkey.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  6. crowriver
    Member

    Aye, looks like it will be very cold tonight. Expect ice and frost on paths and non-gritted roads tomorrow.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  7. Greenroofer
    Member

    Towpath seemed ice-free this morning*. No evidence of frost, and pretty dry. 4C when I left Morningside. Cold breeze though, so it felt cooler than previous days.

    *DISCLAIMER: you'll be aware from previous posts of my limited ability to notice ice on the towpath. And I did have studded tyres on...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  8. wingpig
    Member

    Leith Links and the WoL from Sandport to Dean ice-free, though extremely heavily leafmulched on the Rocheid and St Bernard bits.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  9. jdanielp
    Member

    I'll second Greenroofer by saying that the towpath was fine.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  10. Min
    Member

    Temperature has been dropping since sun up though so it may be colder for the ride home.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  11. jdanielp
    Member

    Yeah, it looks like it may get down below zero tonight...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    This morning's BBC Weather website had the wintry showers symbol for Sunday's Edinburgh weather.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  13. gembo
    Member

    @kaputnik they have had the snow flake on sunday since Monday last, they must be predicting something. ALso quite windy.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  14. SRD
    Moderator

    MMW well gritted. Dry.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  15. gembo
    Member

    Much snow forecast this morning but gone by tomorrow. Hope that is right

    Posted 9 years ago #
  16. Dave
    Member

    All week I was optimistic that the crispy blue skies would hang around for the half marathon in the Pentlands today, but no dice :)

    I have no idea what to wear. Might just take my whole wardrobe up in the car and change when I'm there!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  17. gembo
    Member

    Dave dependent on when it starts could be in the snow. Wht is the route?

    Posted 9 years ago #
  18. SRD
    Moderator

    heavy rain here just turned to snow. I *thought* the clouds over costorphine hill looked like snow.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

  20. gembo
    Member

    Small flurry of light snow about one hour ago. Sunny now. Pretty cold. My interpretation of the wee snowflake on the bbc forecast is that if precipitation emerges from the clouds it will fall as snow but it won't stick. Fingers crosssed

    Posted 9 years ago #
  21. SRD
    Moderator

    snow hitting pentlands

    [

    Posted 9 years ago #
  22. gembo
    Member

    Sunshine and sleet together now. We have been alternating previously this a.m. Also total blackness possibly just when SRD put the photo up

    Posted 9 years ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Met Office warnings issued for
    Edinburgh
    ACTIVE
    Yellow warning of snow
    Updated 7 December at 11:35
    From:
    1140 on Sun 7 December
    To:
    1200 on Mon 8 December
    Showers will affect Scotland for the rest of Sunday, overnight and into Monday morning. These showers will fall as snow, particularly above 200 m with a mixture of hail, sleet and snow to lower levels away from the west coast. Icy stretches are likely to form on untreated surfaces, particularly after dusk on Sunday. Hazardous driving conditions can be expected over higher routes with reduced visibilities and blowing snow.

    Alert originally issued on Thursday to expand the area and include Ice as a dual warning with snow.
    Show More
    ACTIVE
    Yellow warning of ice
    Updated 7 December at 11:35
    From:
    1140 on Sun 7 December
    To:
    1200 on Mon 8 December
    Showers will affect Scotland for the rest of Sunday, overnight and into Monday morning. These showers will fall as snow, particularly above 200 m with a mixture of hail, sleet and snow to lower levels away from the west coast. Icy stretches are likely to form on untreated surfaces, particularly after dusk on Sunday. Hazardous driving conditions can be expected over higher routes with reduced visibilities and blowing snow.

    Alert originally issued on Thursday to expand the area and include Ice as a dual warning with snow.
    Show More
    Yellow early warning of wind
    Updated 7 December at 12:04
    From:
    0015 on Wed 10 December
    To:
    0600 on Thu 11 December
    Severe gales may affect much of North Wales, Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland on Wednesday and at first on Thursday with a risk of storm force winds for parts of Western and Northern Scotland.

    In addition to winds, waves will be unusually high, bringing the risk of overtopping waves, particularly over western Scotland. The public should be aware of the potential for disruption to travel and perhaps also power supplies.Frequent wintry showers will also affect these regions bringing an additional hazard.
    Show More

    "

    Etc.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  24. Kenny
    Member

    6am Corstorphine, ice on paths and roads. I slipped multiple times on way to bus stop. Take care out there...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  25. BenN
    Member

    Back roads between Roseburn Park (Murrayfield) and the Balgreen Tram stop (I think this is family route 8?) were end to end black ice this morning at 06:45. Came off three times - two controlled and one ending up a few metres from the bike. Then gave up and headed slowly for the main road.

    Marathon Winters are going on tonight!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  26. MeepMeep
    Member

    BenN - hope you're not hurt. I wasn't even out of the end of my street this morning before I came a cropper on ice. Scuffed calf, bruised hip and tender elbow.

    Eltringham Gardens (where they've recently re-surfaced the road to a very shiny, slippy surface), Robb's Loan and Chesser Crescent by far the worst though. The Gyle has some patchy parts of ice; combined with strong gusts of wind and idiot drivers not appreciating how slippy the roads actually are, it wasn't a pleasant cycle this morning.

    Take care out there.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  27. Greenroofer
    Member

    Towpath Meggetland to Wester Hailes had large patches of smooth black ice at 0745. Grip is available in some areas where the tarmac pokes through the ice, but I'd say it's barely passable to an un-spiked bike.

    Wester Hailes to Gogar Station Road is better, some sheet ice, but large ice-free areas. The towpath beside the Scott Russell Aqueduct is a single sheet of ice.

    Gogar Station Road over the M8 is pretty much all ice, both on the road itself and the accompanying shared-use pavement. I saw one bike come a cropper here as they tried to get from the road onto the path at the bottom of the hill.

    This assessment is based on visual inspection from the cockpit of a bike with spiked tyres front and rear, running at low pressure. It's hard to say how much grip ordinary tyres would have: there was a bike following me at one point, but I was taking it very easy indeed and it was still not keeping up with me. Most of the time my tyres were silent, and I take this to mean they were running on actual ice...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  28. Min
    Member

    Greenroofer, the timestamp on your post (at least on my computer) shows it to have been posted 1 year in the future. Cool.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  29. minus six
    Member

    Wretched black ice from Sth Queensferry to Cramond earlier this morning

    Posted 9 years ago #
  30. Hmm, I was wishing I hadn't taken the car this morning while stuck in slow moving M8, but now it sounds like I made the right choice.

    Posted 9 years ago #

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