Rush hour snowstorm

It started snowing heavily in Jeziorki just as the rush hour traffic was hitting its peak. Leaving home for Platan Park this morning, I cleared the windscreen of snow, then did one side, the back, and the other side. By the time I was round the front again, the windscreen needed another clean (right).

Still, the brave Nissan Micra started without any trouble and we headed down ul. Trombity, which was completely covered in thick snow - rendering the speed bumps invisible, painful even at 20mph /30kmh.

Traffic was less dense than usual, the photo below showing not a car in sight. I guess that the far end of ul. Nawłocka must have put off a fair few drivers - it's still untarmacked.

But a little further on, I saw this amazing sight (below). Amazing, because a mere 45 minutes or so after the snow started to come down heavily, the city's snowploughs had managed to make their way to such far flung and obscure parts as ul. Trombity!

Right: Accidents will happen - don't know how, but the unfortunate driver seems to have parted company with the road along ul. Kórnicka. A few people will be very late for work.

My journey to Platan Park continues along ul. Jeziorki, which was fine, though full of slow moving traffic. Then I branched off onto the notorious ul. Poloneza. The first section, from ul. Jeziorki to ul. Ludwinowska, was reasonable, despite a few big black puddles of dense mud. But the next section...

A tale of three drivers. The Foolish driver (red car, centre), bogged down in the very centre of Poloneza (see also this post and indeed this post), has abandoned his vehicle. The Prudent driver (silver Kangoo) drove up to the edge of the bog and turned back to seek more a less viscous route to work. The Well-Prepared driver in the black 4WD (left, with snorkel exhaust), had the tyres and the traction to get through the very worst than Poloneza could offer. I took the easy double zig-zag route (Ludwinowska->Sztajerka->Hołubcowa->Krasnowolska->Taneczna->Poleczki). I faced a long traffic jam on Taneczna, but I arrived at Platan Park a mere 20 minutes late.

Just before turning into ul. Poloneza, I saw another snowplough in action. Warsaw is well able to mobilise itself against snow, unlike some other capital cities I could mention! Today's weather scarcely made the news.

I parked outside Platan Park and stepped out onto what I though was fresh powdered snow. My feet went straight through a layer of thin ice and into a deep puddle of mud, filling both shoes with icy black water.

This time last year:
The Frost Gods return
Okęcie at dusk