Why does the very concept of snow always take the UK so completely by surprise?

Question

My wife's in New York state right now and they have a couple of feet of the stuff, yet life pretty much continues as normal. We've had roughly four inches of it in the UK and traffic networks are in chaos, schools and offices are shut down, and people are being advised not to travel unless they have to. How come we have such difficulty dealing with snow? Do we not, on some basic level, believe it's something that happens in the UK?

Answer 1

I know, its mad isnt it? Weve had about an inch this morning, but its melted already, but its nothing like the snow we used to get in the 70's when I was a kid. Then we used to get great drifts of it, we just dont seem to get it now.

I remember back then life pretty much carried on as normal, if the car was snowed in, we wrapped up warm and walked.

I dont know why we are so inept at dealing with it, I put salt down on my path last night before it snowed, chucked a sheet over the car windscreen so I wouldnt have to spend time scraping this morning, and got up 15 mins earlier in case of heavy traffic, so its just a matter of adjusting to it.

i cant understand why the airports closed, cant they just grit the runway? How do they manage in countries like Canada where it snows a lot?

I suppose in countries where they get it frequently they are more adapted - snow tires etc, so they are more able to just get on with things.

I remember years ago it snowed and I stood on our local bus stop for and hour and a half along with other freezing people. In the end a bunch of us decided to walk into town to get to work, I was 3 hours late, but most people hadnt even bothered to try. It was only about 3 inches of snow and the local public transport just collapsed.

We in the Uk are quite pathetic really!

Answer 2

Hello Falco. Really it doesn't take the UK by surprise! I have friends out in Canada and they have told me that every year when the first snow falls there are parts which take 3-4 days where everything stops, then once the transport systems get used to the cold and repairs are made track heaters due to the lack of use through summer everything runs smoothly. Perhaps your wife should be out there then when it all starts!
In the UK we also have the press that exaggerate the transport issue. Take tonight one of the evening papers said that 1 out of 4 Network Rail passenger Trains were delayed by the snow today.....Well to put the paper right Network Rail does not have any passenger trains, its the TOC's (Train Operating Companies) that run passenger trains.
Anyway my trains were all on time this morning, and in fact I arrived in work Early!
As for the Schools I do not think that they have any excuse, and should have been kept open, Mind if they were out in the deepest parts of the country like the Welsh Boarders then fair enough, as the teachers may not have got into the school.

Answer 3

Rather than being surprised, I would suggest this is the norm for our nation.

The schools close down because teachers are work-shy. If I can get to work, then so can they.

The schools should remain open for kids whose parents deem it necessary and worthwhile to make that bit of effort to get to their workplace and keep the economy running.

The UK Public Sector is riddled with inefficiency and generally lacks anything approaching a work ethic, and sorry if I sound frank about this, but a couple of inches of snow is not going to prevent the vast majority of people, teachers included, from reaching their workplace.

Someone posted that they had 10 inches of snow - thats nonsense. The heaviest falls were in mid Wales and that was only 4 inches!!

Yes, there will inevitably be delays, yes ones journey may be inconvenienced, but there were ample warnings for days about snow this morning causing disruption. It's called planning ahead.

Unfortunately, we have a culture where a slight flurry of snow is seen as an excuse to have a lazy day.

....and as for the person living in London who couldnt be bothered, don't get me started. Pathetic.

Rant over.

Answer 4

I refused to go to work today because I didn't want to go outside in it. When I called my manager and told him, he said that that was fine, even though he is Canadian so he is obviously used to snow and I thought that he would tell me to get over it and go to work.

Not sure about the whole of the UK, but I'm in London and here it is very rare for us to get such heavy snow. I've lived here for four years now and this is the first time I've seen it like this. And everyone is aware of global warming and know that the planet is getting hotter, so this sort of weather should be even more rare now. In fact on Saturday afternoon, I was walking around outside in just a t-shirt and jeans because it was at least ten degrees. So that's why it has taken everyone by surprise.

Travel and transport is a different story. Our entire infrastructure is a mess and the powers that be use any excuse to justify it, so today that excuse happens to be snow.

Answer 5

Aren't we pathetic. It's almost embarassing the way we make such a drama out of the weather. The whole country comes to a standstill and nobody goes to work . Then we get a week of heatwave in the summer, and we have a drought.

Answer 6

i be attentive to! that is not any longer bloody honest is it? we've a piddly a million inch of snow in this area of Notts, and my college is open as in many circumstances happening, in comparison to another college interior the county. The humorous situation is Lincoln, Derby, Leicester and Sheffield have snow, yet we've not - bypass parent. i be attentive to the snow is undesirable, even though it sounds like we are lacking out right here, whilst each and every physique else gets time without work to construct snowmen lol.

Answer 7

I'm totally gutted,was supposed to be at work today,but they closed my kid's school. I got my kid's ready to go, got myself ready only to hear on the local radio that all the schools in the area were closing.I've lost money had to spend time entertaining my rather bored children (who after 30 minutes in the snow were cold,wet and thoroughly fed up).I have wet clothes to wash,a hallway to mop,continuous knocks on the door from over excited kid's and the best bit is,my kid's school is less than a 2 minute walk from my house! As Victor Meldrew would say UNBELIEVABLE

Answer 8

Bad snow is very rare in the South of the UK so it does take us by surprise yes

Answer 9

It's not just snow... too much rain, winds too strong, too much sun.

It's the whole British thing about complaining about the weather. If it's not the weather, we'd only find something else to complain about.

Answer 10

There is no excuse for our lack of unpreparedness! If they can run trains in Siberia and Scandinavia then surely a few commuter trains can run in a few inches of the white stuff?!!