Snow

[lenandsons]

Sorry all, but I am having a good laugh today, from what I have read, 10cms of snow and England becomes a nightmare, airports closed, cars getting spread accross the ice etc etc did the trains run? Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm and here is the surprise, the place still works !!!!

By no means am I being unsympathetic to all those injured or in any way inconvenienced by this in particular I hope no kids/babies have been injured. However surely snow is to be expected in winter and people make plans to overcome the hazards??

[rfn]

There was upto 11 inches of snow in Surrey. I've never heard of this much snow falling in the UK in the 20 years I've been around.. It's not something we expect to happen, so it is very difficult to be prepared.

ETA: "Snow is to be expected in winter". Not in England, maybe a bit of snow yeah, but not this much!

Edited by rfn on Monday 2nd February 21:22

[lenandsons]

OK 11 inches changes the picture somewhat, when I was in the UK for 12 years we did not come close to that, still I would have thought that Heathrow etc should have been able to deal with it better

[SarlechS]

they said it hasn't snowed like this in the UK for 18years on the News.

[rfn]

Few pics from one of the other threads on here (credits to the posters of them in the first place):

[Deva Link]

lenandsons said:

Sorry all, but I am having a good laugh today, from what I have read, 10cms of snow and England becomes a nightmare, airports closed, cars getting spread accross the ice etc etc did the trains run? Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm and here is the surprise, the place still works !!!!

So why was Barack complaining (in a jokey, but still quite pointed, way) the other day about a bit of ice closing his kids school?

[lenandsons]

Not sure, but in my part of the world, no school closures, no airport closures, no road closure, trains keeping on running, offices keep on working and life continues.

[mackie1]

Thailand didn't expect a 6C cold snap either. That resulted in emergency blankets being distributed. The SE just doesn't see this sort of thing very often!

[Puggit]

lenandsons said:

Not sure, but in my part of the world, no school closures, no airport closures, no road closure, trains keeping on running, offices keep on working and life continues.

No Health + Safety nazis mis-interpreting EU law?

[Mr Gear]

I have just come back from the alps, and everything runs just fine. The reason? People EXPECT lots of snow all winter. They have winter tyres on the cars, snow chains in the boot and even people driving small cars like Citroen AXs and Fiat Pandas go for the 4WD version. There are tractors with snow ploughs on every street and some people even have heated driveways.

Arriving back in England, the same amount of snow caused chaos. I couldn't get to work.. the reason being that my sportsbike is fitted with semi-slick tyres, using the car in London is out of the question and the two days a year that it does snow can't justify a second set of car tyres or even snow chains anyway.

We'd rather have the day off anyway... suckers!

Edited by Mr Gear on Tuesday 3rd February 14:00

[b4rk3r]

lenandsons said:

Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm

That's the difference, if it's the norm then you are better equipped to deal with it.
Why can't people see this?

[kambites]

lenandsons said:

Sorry all, but I am having a good laugh today, from what I have read, 10cms of snow and England becomes a nightmare, airports closed, cars getting spread accross the ice etc etc did the trains run? Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm and here is the surprise, the place still works !!!!

By no means am I being unsympathetic to all those injured or in any way inconvenienced by this in particular I hope no kids/babies have been injured. However surely snow is to be expected in winter and people make plans to overcome the hazards??

No it's not expected, because it only happens about once every ten years. Why would we invest in infrastructure for such a rare event? It's probably cheaper all in all to just accept that two days every ten years, the economy will shut down.

I'd imagine things in most of the world would should down if it got to -30, and the people in Canada and Sweden would laugh at everyone for the stupidity of not having engine block heaters in every parking space...

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 3rd February 14:17

[ukwill]

thegavster said:

IIRC this is the heaviest snow fall for 18 years, so that puts in into perspective a bit.

Although there were a number on here yesterday informing us all that is was "just a bit of snow". Certainly not an extreme to see such an amount.

[Deva Link]

b4rk3r said:

lenandsons said:

Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm

That's the difference, if it's the norm then you are better equipped to deal with it.
Why can't people see this?

I deal with a company in Ottawa and the guys there say that what happens is they get maybe 5 or 6 big dumps of snow per winter.

So it snows like heck overnight and the next day is chaos. Once the snow stops they clear the main roads then the minor roads. Many people have an arrangement with a contractor to clear their drives and until that happens they often can't leave the house - it's really too cold to work outside and shovel it clear yourself. People in more remote areas have their own snow-blowers - like rotovator sized things.

Once everything is sorted then normal business resumes until the next snow-fall.

[lenandsons]

Sure what you guys got yesterday is not the norm and in some way I can understand joe citizen struggling, but places like Heathrow !!!!!

When living in the UK and driving my M3 because of the likelihood of ice in winter I changed my tires from Michelin Cups to normal Michelins and had no issues, in the same way I never experienced a power outage whilst living there, but I still ensured that I was able to cook and provide heating if we did have an outage.

If a country never experienced snow fall then yesterday's chaos was understandable, but in a country that does experience snow fall and has had similar snowfalls in the past, surely the major infrastructure should be able to cope? We have all heard the " wrong type of snow " excuse used by train operators over the years .
.

[lenandsons]

Deva Link said:

b4rk3r said:

lenandsons said:

Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm

That's the difference, if it's the norm then you are better equipped to deal with it.
Why can't people see this?

I deal with a company in Ottawa and the guys there say that what happens is they get maybe 5 or 6 big dumps of snow per winter.

So it snows like heck overnight and the next day is chaos. Once the snow stops they clear the main roads then the minor roads. Many people have an arrangement with a contractor to clear their drives and until that happens they often can't leave the house - it's really too cold to work outside and shovel it clear yourself. People in more remote areas have their own snow-blowers - like rotovator sized things.

Once everything is sorted then normal business resumes until the next snow-fall.

This winter I have had to shovel my drive almost daily in temperatures dropping as far as -30 with windchill and on at least 2 occasions aprox 15cm at a time, not pleasant but do able, I suppose the fact that I drive a very large 4x4 also helps with driving through the white stuff.

[ukwill]

lenandsons said:

Sure what you guys got yesterday is not the norm and in some way I can understand joe citizen struggling, but places like Heathrow !!!!!

When living in the UK and driving my M3 because of the likelihood of ice in winter I changed my tires from Michelin Cups to normal Michelins and had no issues, in the same way I never experienced a power outage whilst living there, but I still ensured that I was able to cook and provide heating if we did have an outage.

If a country never experienced snow fall then yesterday's chaos was understandable, but in a country that does experience snow fall and has had similar snowfalls in the past, surely the major infrastructure should be able to cope? We have all heard the " wrong type of snow " excuse used by train operators over the years .
.

What part of "12 inches of snow in several hours causes issues" don't you understand?

The South East doesn't tend to get snow - let alone over a foot of it in several hours. If you can't see why that wouldn't cause problems then I can't help you.

[ukwill]

b4rk3r said:

lenandsons said:

Been living in North Aamerica this winter and 10cm snow falls appear to be the norm

That's the difference, if it's the norm then you are better equipped to deal with it.
Why can't people see this?

Nail. Head.

[mitzy]

Another snow thread

It snowed, get over it.

[Shaw Tarse]

mitzy said:

Another snow thread

It snowed, get over it.

Snowed in Winter?
Whatever happened to Global Warming?