We've gone soft :(

[irocfan]

Seriously WTF is it with all these weather warnings - I accept that some parts of the UK may get heavy snow fall but when you see pictures like below touted as showing 'heavy snow' you do wonder WTF is wrong with us these days. Maybe I'm falling into the trap of being a grumpy of man but (insert inevitable, rambling anecdote here) 35ish years ago when I was at school these scenes would have been taken as a sign that winter was nearly over and not a cause for the country grinding to a halt








am I wrong and a grump old git or have we really 'lost it'?

[NormalWisdom]

You are not wrong - country is going to the dogs, too many H&S namby-pambys running too much

[valiant]

Just for once I'd like the weather bods to say, "It's winter. Deal with it."

[GadgeS3C]

I've come to the conclusion if they can't describe it as "worst (insert weather condition) since records began" then it isn't news.

[The Don of Croy]

Times have changed and 'the system' seems to have determined we have to be beholden to certain strictures - much tighter than hitherto (see 'PC gone mad' or 'surveillance society' or 'equality agenda trumps all').

It may just be an inevitable part of developed comfortable society. Or dangerously complacent.

Looking back at newsreels of 1947 and 1963 you'd think we'd get a little perspective.

Edited by The Don of Croy on Thursday 29th January 14:26

[Timmy40]

You may well think it odd that these days a thunderstorm or light snow now gets treated hysterically but you have to remember all of this is definite evidence of how extreme the weather is becoming and totally proves that manmade global warming is occuring.......

[V88Dicky]

valiant said:

Just for once I'd like the weather bods to say, "It's winter. Deal with it."

Weatherman Thomas Shafernaker (sic) often does.

Surprised he's still allowed on the BBC

[Nick Grant]

In Scotland we have Windy Wilson on Facebook/Twitter, the only weather worth taking note of, he doesn't pander to this nonsense.

[55palfers]

I was in junior school in 1963 and I don't recall the schools ever being closed.

We didn't have central heating either.

[CAPP0]

We have a yellow or amber warning out down here in balmy Kent, courtesy of the Met Office (who presumably, as above, are worried that someone will sue them if a flake appears and they didn't forewarn us). There is a forecast of *possibly* something other than rain precipitating later this afternoon but if it so much as lightly dusts the ground for more than a few hours I'll be extremely surprised.

I'll report back later, I need to go to Tesco and stockpile bread, (long life) milk, water, torch batteries, and canned food in case I die.

[menousername]

To be fair, thanks to lack of resources, funds, planning, competence, interest, whatever, those few inches of snow do represent impending chaos and doom in a country where the infrastructure does literally ground to a halt at the first drop of a snowflake.

perhaps if the powers that be could clear the odd road here and there, we could still go about our business

[jonby]

Timmy40 said:

You may well think it odd that these days a thunderstorm or light snow now gets treated hysterically but you have to remember all of this is definite evidence of how extreme the weather is becoming and totally proves that manmade global warming is occuring.......

Absolutely. Especially as it's not like we ever had extreme weather before evil polluting humans inhabited the earth

[Dog Star]

It is bloody ludicrous - however I think that stuff does really grind to a halt - at the moment I can walk outside my house and see cars in all sorts of trouble slithering all over the road. This just (no pun intended) snowballs as everyone else gets stuck behind them. I'm sure a lot of this is down to the massive fat tyres, flat tyre profile across the tread etc that even the smallest cars have nowadays. I drove everywhere in snow on ordinary tyres when I was younger (80s) without much issue; these days I've only regained mobility by changing tyres.

Schools closing though: gaaaaaah!

[menousername]

Dog Star said:

It is bloody ludicrous - however I think that stuff does really grind to a halt - at the moment I can walk outside my house and see cars in all sorts of trouble slithering all over the road. This just (no pun intended) snowballs as everyone else gets stuck behind them. I'm sure a lot of this is down to the massive fat tyres, flat tyre profile across the tread etc that even the smallest cars have nowadays. I drove everywhere in snow on ordinary tyres when I was younger (80s) without much issue; these days I've only regained mobility by changing tyres.

Schools closing though: gaaaaaah!

agreed - but also there is far more to hit these days if you do lose slight control... so many parked cars etc, its too risky.

on an empty road, being careful, you could fudge your way along reasonable roads in reasonably low snow but these days there is no room for error

and where people NEED to get to work etc and do attempt it they usually make the road much worse... they mush up the snow which then ices over

[V8covin]

At 1pm today the local radio reported some schools were closing and could parents pick their kids up by 1.30.
Do they not think these parents may have jobs and can't get away ?

Half an hour later the snow stopped and within an hour the roads were clear.

As someone who went to school in the 70's I can safely say we were never let out early because of the weather

[egor110]

55palfers said:

I was in junior school in 1963 and I don't recall the schools ever being closed.

We didn't have central heating either.

I expect a lot of the teachers lived in the same village as the school plus there were no h&s rules as to how many children a member of staff can look after.

[boyse7en]

V8covin said:

As someone who went to school in the 70's I can safely say we were never let out early because of the weather

I can remember being sent home from school due to snow in about 1982/3. The double-decker bus ground to a halt halfway up a hill on the way home and we all had to get out and walk home - which for me was about 4 miles.

The kids who lived over the moor used to get sent back 3-4 days every year because of the snow risk. By the time it was snowing at school it could be 6" deep on the top road. Leave it too long to decide and the buses couldn't get through and you then have a couple of hundred kids stranded at school.
It's not an easy decision for the headmasters to take.

[Dog Star]

V8covin said:

At 1pm today the local radio reported some schools were closing and could parents pick their kids up by 1.30.
Do they not think these parents may have jobs and can't get away ?

Half an hour later the snow stopped and within an hour the roads were clear.

As someone who went to school in the 70's I can safely say we were never let out early because of the weather

This is something that really, really annoys me (and I haven't even got children; if I did have them I think I'd blow a gasket).

I've got quite a few friends who are teachers and there are a fair number of them who simply *love* it when it's a "snow day" - there they are on Facebook sledging and having a great time with their own kids (just checked - there's a deputy headmistress posted just that today). Simply marvelous. What about the poor saps who are at work, cannot get time off or only have 20 days a year holiday, not 12+ weeks?

If they stay at home they should be made to study complex subjects or equations etc (and be tested), do some of that marking or lesson prep work (oh, sorry, they do that all summer), or even endlessly crank a handle with a counter on it like in a Victorian prison.

Flame suit on I'm especially liking my cranking handle idea

Edited by Dog Star on Thursday 29th January 16:06

[Timmy40]

Oddly I think it's worse in towns, where I live everyone has a 4*4 not for posing, but because in winter you're going no where without one if it snows. In towns people don't tend to have vehicles with the appropriate tyres/ drive for snow/ice. So a dusting causes mayhem.

[motco]

V88Dicky said:

valiant said:

Just for once I'd like the weather bods to say, "It's winter. Deal with it."

Weatherman Thomas Shafernaker (sic) often does.

Surprised he's still allowed on the BBC

He was kicked off for a while I seem to recall. He once said that back home in Poland this weather would seem like summer was coming.