Tuesday 5 December 2023
I attended a community council meeting last night in a village hall a forty-minute drive from home. I wanted to go to support the need for something to be done about the flood which cuts off our road in heavy rain, which then causes the river to flow over the road. It was far more exciting than I expected. Well, not so much the meeting.
I did learn some useful things about the flood and I appreciated being a bit more recognised for living in the area. However, the excitement was the drive home. That morning, most of the ground was still covered in a thin layer of snow. Then it rained, slowly but steadily. I suppose I didn’t really notice that it rained pretty much all day. I only went for a short walk as it was windy, wet and horribly grey. Even though it was about 2°C, I couldn’t understand why it was so penetratingly cold. When I got back from my cold walk, I saw the forecast said a wind-chill of -4°C, which made sense. And on it rained. I set off in my car at around 18:00; dark, wet and windy. The last third of the route I had never driven along before. The roads were very, very wet but, no, the flood area was not flooded – the rivers have been very low so I knew there’d need to be significantly more rain for that area to flood, though it was still a concern.
Anyway, parked up, went in, had a brief chat to one of the council members, more people came in, stayed in the meeting until just after 20:00 when the Chair suggested we (about seven of us) from the flood-risk area might want to head back as we could all hear the torrential rain on the corrugated tin roof of the village hall. In a mode of jollity, we all headed off to our cars. Two vehicles from the hall turned in my direction ahead of me and I knew one couple were behind me. For the duration of the first third of the drive back, it was heavy rain and the road was so flooded in places that I had to drive in the middle of the road. No other vehicles came in the other direction. About half a mile ahead, at certain points, I could see the red taillights of the vehicle in front and occasionally distant headlights behind. I was a bit closer to the car in front, maybe a third of a mile, by the time the three of us had made the left turn back to head up and over hills, part of the Southern Uplands, for about fifteen minutes.
The rain was getting worse and made it a challenge focussing on the narrow hillside road because of the way the rain was illuminated in the headlights as it was almost horizontal towards the front windscreen. Then I noticed it was changing to sleet, which I initially felt relieved about as it was quieter and less sparkly and distracting in the headlights. Then I could see I was getting closer to the car in front, maybe now just a few hundred metres. Then I realised that the road was white and that the rain and sleet had gone quiet and it was now snowing horizontally at me. A lot of snow. Then I noticed the two sets of tracks made by the two cars in front were getting deeper and then my headlights lit up a stretch of hillside and I realised it was completely white. Still driving up hill, the car in front slowed down to less than twenty, to my mind for no obvious reason in terms of getting through the snow. By this point, I was starting to wonder if the snow in the middle was going to hinder my car by touching the bottom of the car. It was that deep by this point. At the top of the hill, the car in front indicated right to pull into a large passing area and a small van came up the hill towards us, me pulling over left. I assume the car pulled in right because it wanted me out of the way but it was a confusing situation with three vehicles, though it all passed smoothly. I honestly don’t know the logic of driving that slowly up a hill in heavy, recent snowfall, following in the tracks of one vehicle ahead (by this point, no sign of it other than its tracks) and no skids.
I have winter tyres on, which I’m sure help, but I think the snow was too fresh and dry to be slippery. My biggest concern when I had to get down to 15mph behind that car was having to brake or even go down to first gear. I don’t think that slow a speed was good. Anyway, they pulled over, I had a brief panic maybe they weren’t okay, but I knew that everyone else in that meeting was with someone else and I was on my own so I kept going. I did see their headlights behind me a minute or two later. Sure enough, once on the way down, the tracks got less deep, the snow wasn’t quite as dense and hypnotising and then it returned to rain and I drove back along our road. The flood area was fine. The last couple of miles, it turned to snow again within our microclimate and I was the first car to drive through it, but there was so much rain on the roads that it was just slush. Again, very glad I had winter tyres on. I got home and waited for Chris to get home from Nice-London-Edinburgh-Tweedbank station. He was an hour behind me and didn’t have to go over the hills but it was still a challenging drive for him too. Not a good evening for driving. While I wouldn’t say I’m glad I had that mini adventure, I feel it is all extra local knowledge in winter weather conditions.
