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UPDATES: Severe weather warnings for London and the south east across the weekend as snow hits.

9:05am Saturday 18th December 2010 in News

Snow is causing disruption across London and the south east as shoppers attempt to complete their Christmas buying.

Trains known to be struggling include:

Richmond to Stratford - suspended
Clapham Junction to Willesden - severe delays
Dalston Junction to West Croydon - severe delays
Hounslow and Witton - no service
Motspur Park and Chessington South - no service
Teddington and Shepperton - no service

Southeastern suspended between:
Nunhead and Lewisham
Blackheath and Charlton
Grove Park and Bromley North
An amended timetable is operating on all other routes.

Around three to four inches of snow has already fallen today, with forecasters warning of showers across the weekend.

Gritters have been out in force as roads and pavements become hazardous due to freezing snow.

And rail operators are running reduced timetables on many routes, including Southern Railways.

Are you out and about? Are you struggling with public transport? Send your pictures to pogalj@gmail.com or tweet us via @pogaljoners

London and the south east is bracing itself for fresh snowfall today.

As shoppers prepare for the busiest weekend of the year, forecasters are predicting snow from around 9am in places.

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings across London and the south east, with "significant accumulations" of snow predicted.

Temperatures are expected to struggle to break freezing.

A Met Office forecaster said of Saturday: "It will become cloudy with outbreaks of snow, becoming heavy at times, spreading in during the morning from the west to affect most places and lasting into the evening."

He said more snow was also expected on Sunday.

For live updates follow us on twitter, @pogaljoners For a full forecast visit www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/weather

Comments(7)

minky_monkey says...
2:33pm Sat 18 Dec 10

"Gritters have been out in force"

Are these magical invisible gritters? Because they sure as hell weren't out in force on the A3. It was atrocious on there this morning, cars failing to get out of the underpasses, failing to negotiate the very slight incline from New Malden to Tolworth. It took nearly 40 minutes to cover that small stretch this morning. It was a joke.

I wouldn't mind if it wasn't expected, but this was known well in advance. Extremely dangerous conditions.

Kingston Council get your act together!

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rw4732 says...
5:54pm Sat 18 Dec 10

There were no gritters here in Swanley and the Town centre and main road through swanley quickly turned into gridlock as the snow got flattened and turned very slippery and the vehilcles were slippering all over the place, KCC Highways have not put salt into their grit mix, it just appears to wet sharp sand at least that is what is in the grit boxes. this is the second time that Swanley has ground to a halt the first time was on the 30th november, after the fiasco of running out of grit / salt earlier this year, one would have thought that KCC would be better prepared this time.

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jca111 says...
5:58pm Sat 18 Dec 10

People seem to think that salt/grit is a magic ingredient that fixes everything. It does not. The A3 almost certainly was gritted, but the snow fell so fast, that the salt was useless.

I observed this today. I use dishwasher salt to keep my path and the pavement near my home clear. I have a disabled neighbour, so I clear the pavement to help him and other get through.

5 mins before the blizzard started I covered the pavement. In the past this has worked. Today - it made no difference as the snow was so quick, and it was still -3 outside.

So the A3 would have been gritted, but it was just overwhelmed by the snow.

People also need to take on responsibility themselves. I used to live near the great lakes in the US, where snow fall is much heaver than here. People here expect the council to clear every road etc. This is just not feasible. People say that they cope in Sweden, the US etc. Thats because they have snow tires, and/or snow chains. You cannot expect to drive around (even in a 4x4) in virtually slick summer tires and not expect problems, even in a slight amount of snow.

If you need to get around, invest in snow chains or even snow tires, they make a huge difference even on 2 wheel drive cars.

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mcblount says...
10:21pm Sat 18 Dec 10

We had a look at Halfords on the internet, and there were no more snow chains left. I enquired about snow tyres, and apparently they don't do them for my car.

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jca111 says...
7:37am Sun 19 Dec 10

mcblount wrote:
We had a look at Halfords on the internet, and there were no more snow chains left. I enquired about snow tyres, and apparently they don't do them for my car.
My point was more to do with the prepared mentality of the Swedes etc. They would have their chains ready before the snow even arrived. Of course Halfords have run out, but get some for next year or, better still, try a different retailer. More shops for cars exist than just Halfords

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mcblount says...
9:36pm Sun 19 Dec 10

jca111 wrote:
mcblount wrote: We had a look at Halfords on the internet, and there were no more snow chains left. I enquired about snow tyres, and apparently they don't do them for my car.
My point was more to do with the prepared mentality of the Swedes etc. They would have their chains ready before the snow even arrived. Of course Halfords have run out, but get some for next year or, better still, try a different retailer. More shops for cars exist than just Halfords
Any ideas which ones?

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martnal says...
9:01am Mon 20 Dec 10

This business of South West Trains closing the Shepperton line for the second time in a month, BEFORE we even had snow has got to stop. They can still run service trains on the line as I can hear then from home. It must greatly incomvenience anyone on the line, and it must cost shops in Kingston an absolute fortune in lost business.

On Friday they announced the latest cancellation, nearly 18 hours ahead of saturday's snow, just like they did last month. I hope the powers that be remember this when it's franchise renewal time.

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