No, it isn't, as I was told. It's from Sweden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandvagn_206

I'm missing something - Neptune's comment, that today his Expedition is the only car, which is able to be used:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/weather/02/06/winter.storm/index.html


CougarTim has writen something in the database, so it seems, that he has electricity.


Sorry, it's nasty from me, as I can boast, that here, in my area, fortunately the snow is melted away for 99%. Just a bit dirt is left over in the shadowed edges.
We can be very happy here, in the far West. Just 100km away, in the hill-areas and further to the East, it's still cold and snowy.
Last Wednesday a few hundred people had to sleep overnight on the Autobahn 45, which was blocked by trucks - at the same time, where 40-50 km away it was nearly all melted away.

Now in whole Northern and Estern Germany the salt is gone. Nothing is left, so the winter-maintenance is stopped. Very funny.
I canot say, how happy I am, that at first in our area the winter is gone for now and at second, I can stay at home for work.


Interesting, in East Germany there is still Soviet technology in use:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-51519.html

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-50648.html


P.S. This is DDR-tech, or? http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-51376-15.html

I was out driving on a lake today, I hope to get some ice tires for the weekend so I can drive "for real", the regular winter tires don't have enough grip on bare ice.

This is what it looked like last week outside my garage:

One thing is getting popular in the last years as ice scraper: just take a CD-cover
O.k., this doesn't work, if you only have illegal made CD's from Thailand or so, with their plastic-bag-covers.


I've meant with "stupid" the fact, that ice cold glass-screens don't like to be "blitz-warmed" with hot water. Totally easy to burst them with that...


Something elst works, too, if it's not too cold: throw salt on the windows.

And I know a kid who did that, so I gave him my ice scraper. What I didn't realize at the time was that it was the only one I had. So on my next trip up north I bought one for myself, and later bought two for my parents.

These are just one of the tales I can tell about Florida kids who never saw snow before, and New Yorkers who had no idea that anyone in Florida could ever have the need for any winter-related items.

Pretty much-lucky I didn't have to use the train, and the AC held up. So hot though-and today it was colder (23ish) and windy... Weather, weather, weather.

@marioman: so this was your last night?
http://www.spiegel.de/video/video-1040805.html

Today it's a bit warmer over here, around 0 degrees. The coldest day we had at the 19th December with -17/-18 degrees here in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Bavaria and somewhere in Eastern Germany it was close to -30 degrees then.

Over here it's much less dramatical as expected. We got ca.5-8 cm of new snow, so not a big deal. It was windy, but not stormy. And it's getting warmer, around 0 degrees, so that it's even melting a bit.
This morning I've cleaned the place in front of our house, ca.80 square-meters with a shovel and a broomstick. Not a big deal, too. It's good for the fitness! So I've a good reason, not to drive no to the fitness-gym, and better sit in front of the PC, with some chocolade and red wine.


In the NortEast of Germany it's really dramatical, as the news are saying. The Baltic Sea-coast is over-covered with snow. Really bad it seems to be on the islands Fehmarn and Rügen.
There are three heavily pregant girls in trouble. They are stuck in little villages with blockaded streets.

Perhaps it will happens, like in the legendary snow-winter 1978/79 in Northern Germany. There were some children born somewhere outside, in stucked ambulances. I remember some articles about a girl, wich was born in a Bundeswehr-Panzer, a "Leopard"-recovery-tank.

It's cool, when in your passport is remarked at "place of birth" something like "Bundesstraße 199 between Gelting and Steinbergkirche" or so - yes, the people, born somwhere outside, does have this in the papers.

We got dumped with about 1ft (30cm) of snow a few weeks ago. Some of it is still around, but the temps have been going back up to the 40s. I hate driving in the snow. I already wrecked this car once because of it. But I've learned to brake before the turn, coast through the turn, then accelerate out of the turn to reduce understeer. Braking while turning on snow leads to disaster and ABS becomes useless.

In southern Canada, dealing with snow is pretty straightforward: the snowplows are active round the clock, and there's often sidewalk clearing as well if there's a particularly heavy snowfall. Most homeowners have a snowblower, a variety of shovels and salt, so clearing snow is a 10-15 minute routine that you do before you get out in the morning or when you come back at night.

Interestingly, while it seems Europe has been pounded by winter weather this year, southern Ontario has been mostly unscathed. 2009 marked the first time that Toronto has not had any snow in November since 1937.