I thought i would make a Thread on the UK Snow Choas as I would like to know how some of you non UK residence feel about this. I find it quite redicilous how 5-10 cm of snow can literally bring a whole country to a standstill. Me beeing German nationality I am quite used to a little snow over the Winter months, but it seems like the UK, England in particular cannot handle the Snow. Every time there is the slightest layer of snow, Public transport such as Trains and Buses just dont operate anymore, Schools are also shut etc... etc... Now I live on the Southcoast where this isnt as severe as elsewhere in the country, but most of the time it stops me getting to work into town or the other usual things.
I have to say, it sometimes feels like a bad dream of some Zombie movie where the whole world has ground to a halt.
For me it seems a little pathetic, seeing as coutries like Russia are used to meters of the stuff and they seem to cope with it quite well.
The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
You think the UK are bad? You should have seen Ireland last Winter, we ran out of salt really quickly, the whole country was shut down for almost a month, it was hilarious really
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
To be honest, Snow this year is extremely early. due to the Eastern winds from Siberia. temperature on the 3rd of November was 17.8 degree's Celcius. one of the hottest days on record in the UK for November. Now its swing to -11 I think the news showed. 3-4 weeks. Thats about 28degree's difference. Sorry if the numbers are wrong.
But i doubt anyone saw the snows hitting this hard this early considering the temperatures early this month.
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Because you are prepared for it. We don't even have enough salt to grit the roads.
In reality though the news exaggerates everything and it barely affects people. Miss a day of work, have your commute made a little bit more annoying than usual and moan about it a bit. That's the only effect it really has.
On December 01 2010 20:25 Kennigit wrote: The article says up to 30cm fell. It's not that the snow itself is bad, its that the govt isn't set to deal with it. In canada when theres big snow fall, the roads are loaded with salt/sand trucks + plows all night long and through the day + snow tires + everyone is used to driving in it.
It sounds ridiculous, but its actually a pretty reasonable situation imo.]
edit: ah i didn't realize this happens every year. Do you not have snow tires in UK lol?
Well it's only really started happening every year in the last 3 years or so. Before that there was only very, very light snowfall every year. About once a decade we'd have a decent amount. Recently though, weirdly enough, we've been getting quite a bit on an annual basis.
In my home country this happens every year too.. I mean, we don't have that much chaos and stuff, but the people that are responsible for maintaining roads get 'caught off guard' every year, even if they know it's supposed to snow.. We blame them they want to save money and hope the snow will go away quickly, so they don't clean roads in the beginning and then stuff goes to shit.
I am now in Finland and this kind of stuff makes me giggle, really..
On December 01 2010 20:24 KoN_Ulla wrote: I think it is funny, this happends every year and it sees like Great Britan is taken by a shock every time, like they never knew this would happend
Norwegian newspaper always makes fun of it ^^
Uh...it happened last year but that was the coldest winter for 30 years. For the last like 8 years before that we got one token day of snow a year. This is the earliest and biggest snowfall since 1993 and certainly the most snow that I can remember seeing.
Anyway here's the view out my window atm
Ah, ok, but Norwegian newspaper/radios still makes fun of you for that one day ^^.
And I know we are prepered for it and you guys arent, but I find it strange that airports forexample does not have salt and equipment ready for the winter (don't know if thats the case now).
And November was warm there? Here we got the coldest November since 1880, no snow tho, but we had a week of snow early in october.
Bah, its like 6 months intill I can were shorts agian, next year I wanna try to escape the winter, don't like it!
The majority of the UK just isn't used to dealing with snow. Scotland is generally the only place that has to. I live on the south coast, the snow in January was the first real snow that I've experienced in my 23yrs. We've had the odd bit but it rarely lays and is never more than a few centimetres.
Wow thats preety sick. The climate is so fucked up right now.
Here its so warm around 15-20 C in november and not even a sign of snow for now. I dont remember this happened till now and we've seen snow even in early october in the past years.
This happens every year to my English cousins. It's ridiculous, they're the obly family in their neighbourhood to have snow tires, and all the school close after 10cm.
Luckily I live in Northern-Eastern America. We have enough snow to enjoy things like winter sports and occasionally miss school, but I've never seen it get dangerous.
The reason it's a bigger deal then it should be is because we aren't used to having so much snow, so we don't have the necessary equipment to deal with it (Or we do, but not enough of it e.g Gritting the roads.) So now we start to run out of grit, and it goes down hill from there.
EPT
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