Snow Closes Manchester Airport

[TonyToniTone]

Chaos at Manchester airport due to snow, not sure why they categorise this as a heavy snow fall ?

Manchester Airport said:

Due to heavy snow fall, we have temporary closed both runways. Health and safety will always be our top priority and operations will resume at the earliest opportunity.

Passengers are advised to contact their airline for the most up-to-date flight information.

https://twitter.com/manairport/status/160151027185...

[Otispunkmeyer]

Yeah, seen some pics, planes should be able to handle that all day long.

Surely they have ploughs (although probably not like in the Swedish airports) and de-ice units.

Think it's probably a convenient reason to cover for something else, like chronic lack of staff.

[otherman]

I've worked there. Yes, they have snow ploughs, but when it's actually snowing they need to close them until it stops, clear the snow, then start back up. Often if they say close it temporarily it means half an hour or an hour.

[ecsrobin]

They will need to go out and do friction tests on the runway. There’s no point doing it whilst it’s still snowing as it will continually be changing.

Also as snow passes through visibility and cloud base generally drops.

[FourWheelDrift]

The rest of the world would not call this heavy.

[Wacky Racer]

Maybe they are mindful of the Manchester United 1958 Munich air disaster.

[Otispunkmeyer]

https://youtu.be/lI4EadHpAHQ

Perfect opportunity to post this!

These machines are awesome. We had one in our workshop once. the back half has a 13 liter diesel engine that basically is just a hydraulic pump to operate the brushes!

[BabySharkDD]

Manchester has always come across as the Brighton of the North. It’s no surprise that 0.0005mm of snow has overpowered them

[S600BSB]

We don't call that heavy in Yorkshire.

[Athlon]

S600BSB said:

We don't call that heavy in Yorkshire.

We don't call that heavy in Manchester either! Person in charge at the airport is probably Southern..

The frost is thicker than the snowfall that came today!

[J4CKO]

Im near the airport, coming down fairly moderately now.

Knowing Manchester Airport, they will try and charge the snow for parking.

[964Cup]

Safety third, people.

I mean, really? Life is risk.

[djc206]

FourWheelDrift said:

The rest of the world would not call this heavy.

Heavy snow in aviation has defined criteria so they do. Appears to have been very short lived heavy snow looking at that level of accumulation though.

[Jasandjules]

I guess if everyone wasn't on the bull**t "snow is a thing of the past" wagon they would have enough kit to get on with it......

[eharding]

S600BSB said:

We don't call that heavy in Yorkshire.

In Yorkshire, you don't need snow as an excuse to close an airport though. Doncaster/Sheffield, I'm looking at you.

[djc206]

Jasandjules said:

I guess if everyone wasn't on the bull**t "snow is a thing of the past" wagon they would have enough kit to get on with it......

Why would they? What’s the point for a couple of days per year?

[LHRFlightman]

Bit of background here that might be useful to some.

They'll have had a met forecast of snow, with a probability percentage rating alongside it.

Someone in operations will have had to make a call on standing up people to drive the snow equipment and de-ice the airfield, based on that forecast. This can be big bucks. IIRC at LHR it was circa £500k a pop.

Bean counters will apply pressure to the OPS manager not to spend the money if the forecast probability is low, maybe less than 40%. Particularly if recent occurrences of calling out staff and de-icing have proven the wrong call.

From an OPS perspective the OPS manager will want to safeguard the operation and call out people and de-ice.

If the forecast temperature is out by a degree or two, then you get no snow, and OPS and MET look silly, and the hindsight managers will rock up and have a field day.

It's a highly pressured time and I'm glad I'm out of it and can look forward to a bit of snow.

[pghstochaj]

LHRFlightman said:

Bit of background here that might be useful to some.

They'll have had a met forecast of snow, with a probability percentage rating alongside it.

Someone in operations will have had to make a call on standing up people to drive the snow equipment and de-ice the airfield, based on that forecast. This can be big bucks. IIRC at LHR it was circa £500k a pop.

Bean counters will apply pressure to the OPS manager not to spend the money if the forecast probability is low, maybe less than 40%. Particularly if recent occurrences of calling out staff and de-icing have proven the wrong call.

From an OPS perspective the OPS manager will want to safeguard the operation and call out people and de-ice.

If the forecast temperature is out by a degree or two, then you get no snow, and OPS and MET look silly, and the hindsight managers will rock up and have a field day.

It's a highly pressured time and I'm glad I'm out of it and can look forward to a bit of snow.

One of them should get an iPhone - the light dusting of snow received (no more than about 10 mm) had been forecast overnight and then was notified about 30 minutes prior.

[Tango13]

Otispunkmeyer said:

https://youtu.be/lI4EadHpAHQ

Perfect opportunity to post this!

These machines are awesome. We had one in our workshop once. the back half has a 13 liter diesel engine that basically is just a hydraulic pump to operate the brushes!

When ever I see snow ploughs in action like that I'm always reminded of this scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt1W0F0yObg

[ecsrobin]

pghstochaj said:

One of them should get an iPhone - the light dusting of snow received (no more than about 10 mm) had been forecast overnight and then was notified about 30 minutes prior.

It really isn’t as simple as that. Forecasting is done based on models. All the models agree then high probability, all the models disagree then high uncertainty and it’s high uncertainty that’s the problem.