SNOCLO
 

Folks, I've yet to see a METAR that has originated from a UK airport that has had this runway state abbreviation on it.

Now in flight, when you are listening to the VOLMET when you are coming up close to the UK in conditions that we are currently experiencing, its kinda nice to find out early where is closed and where is open...

So when is it used in the UK?

I have seen it used myself the past few days ... Glasgow and Edinburgh have both had SNOCLO in their METARs.

...as has Aberdeen, Doncaster and Isle of Man!

Latest Gatwick METAR:

EGKK 302350Z 03009KT 1000 R08R/P1500 SN BKN004 BKN007 BKN013 M01/M01 Q1009 SNOCLO

:)

Lovely...

Now, looking at the historical Edinburgh's Metars you can see that over the last few days, nil have been released with SNOCLO, where even my early morning radio bulletin on Radio 2 has revealed the airport has been closed many times.

Looking at Gatwick's they do indeed include SNOCLO, so full marks to them.

Just glad I'm off recovering from an op...

I take it back..

This mornings EDI now includes...

Why not call London/Scottish Information for any updates or runway states.....we are sitting listening just waiting to help!! :cool:

and they are friendly people too! :}

Excuse me for splitting hairs, but I always believed SNOCLO meant closed due to snowclearing.

A runway is not closed due to snow; it is unusable because braking action or contamination is out of limits, but it is not "closed". If you want to land on b/a poor, it's all yours....
The runway can be closed otoh when there is a fleet of big yellow trucks with plows on it.

The UK rules on coding METARs says 'If the aerodrome is closed due to contamination of runways, the abbreviation SNOCLO is used in place of a runway state group'.

Some airport authorities seem reticent to admit they are actually closed.

ATC: Are you closed?

BAA: No, we're open.

ATC: So the runway is available?

BAA: No, it's not been cleared yet.

ATC: So you're closed then ?

BAA: No, it's just that nothing can land or depart. We're still open.

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

<< The runway can be closed otoh when there is a fleet of big yellow trucks with plows on it.>>

Seems the phrase 'Land Over..' has gone the way of 'Land After....':E:E:E. No wonder runway utilisation isn't what it used to be.

full marks to EGKK for being SNOCLO - how about they buy a couple of snowploughs and get their act together.

A few flakes of the white stuff and this country grinds to a halt, its embarrasing!!

<<A few flakes of the white stuff and this country grinds to a halt, its embarrasing!!>>

Er....well, I'd beg to disagree; the capital investment to be geared up to have every road, side-road, alleyway, car-park, etc cleared within 6 hours would be unacceptably high. It's been - what? 36 hours? - since the real stuff fell, and unless you want to see your Council Tax doubling something has got to give.

Obviously, I'm not talking about airports now, but you DID say 'the whole country'. I remember the decision to remove the Snow Sodiums at the REAL London airport on the grounds that 'it'll never snow that much again'......

I'd hardly call 150,000 tonnes of snow a few flakes, and that was of yesterday evening, with many areas still to clear. There's been a good three feet of snow in places in the south east, over a period of just two days.

Two more snow ploughs on top of the current fleet wouldn't make a great deal of difference. Gatwick has an extensive fleet of snow clearance vehicles, including sweepers, schorlings, ploughs, diggers and de-icers, not to mention the fleet of dozens (and I don't exaggerate, I suggest 50 is a conservative estimate) of contracted flat bed lorries and JCBs pulled in to move the drifts and piles which inevitably build during clearance and can impinge on the protected surfaces of the runway.

It's fun to whinge and think we know better, and that someone else is incompetent or lazy. I don't usually rise to it, but your comment is at best naive, and perhaps better described as ignorant and moronic.

A lot of people (hundreds certainly, thousands more likely) have worked incredibly hard over the past four days, not seen their families once, and put a lot of planning into action. Kudos all round for a job well done.

It's fair to say that there may be a misconception regarding the amount of snow that has fallen in Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes. I had heard one estimate from somebody who had observed both locations that Heathrow had received only approximately 10% of the snow that had fallen at Gatwick. Incredible considering the distance. 'Snow trains' was a phrase used by The Times, incredibly directed narrow weather systems, delivery the majority of the snow to relatively localised areas.

During the course of yesterday from around 18:00 to 03:00 this morning the temperature rose from -8 degrees centigrade to +4. You can check the METARs for that data. This has been an extraordinary cold snap.

As a unnecessarily childish parting shot, what's embarrassing is your inability to even spell the word. :E

Rant over.

Minesthechevy - UK airports were 'transfered' from council control sometime ago. The council tax doubling happened irrespective of local airports buying a snowplough or two :sad:...

Someone correct me if I am wrong please!!
In countries where heavy snowfall is common, it is cost effective to invest heavily in snowclearing machinery. In countries where heavy snow is experienced maybe a couple of times a year, it isn't cost effective to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on seldom used equipment.
However, some fools still thinkit should be spent. So who pays for it? Landing fees increase, ticket prices rise, passenger numbers fall and airlines reduce their fleet numbers leaving those people whining about being embarassed out of a job( but at least the runways are clear!):ugh:

In fairness to EGKK, IIRC they can't use urea or similar for keeping runways clear of ice etc. due to the runoff into a watercourse in the immediate vicinity - contamination being a big 'no-no'.

Lets face it, when an airport is closed there is a fair chance the travelling public can't get either to/from the place anyway, so those inconvenienced are likely to be so whether the runway is clear or not.

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/imag...nta_smiley.gif

PS Wanna keep moving in snow? Get some decent winter rubber on your wheels! :ok:

SNOCLO has been going out on the METAR at EGLL all afternoon.

So much for the BAA stating LHR was "fully operational".:rolleyes:

From The Independent online:
British Airways grounded all its flights out of Heathrow until at least 5pm this afternoon, despite the airport's operator saying it is "fully operational".

A spokeswoman from the airline said: "The weather at Heathrow now is quite appalling."

"We knew that severe weather conditions were expected, so rather than asking passengers to travel down from Scotland, for example, just to have their flight cancelled, we think it's better to tell all our customers that flights are cancelled.

"We need to give our customers some certainty."

She said the airline regretted inconveniencing passengers, but insisted it was the correct decision.

"This costs British Airways a huge amount of money, so this is not a decision we take lightly," she said.

"There's a backlog from yesterday and that has an impact on today's customers.

"The main thing is we don't want customers turning up today to get stranded and not be able to get out by car or by plane. "

Winter blast brings Britain to a standstill - Home News, UK - The Independent