About time the UK faced the fact that it snows here

[RichC]

I'm rather embarrassed that the fact that this country of ours cannot cope when it snows for a night and things start to ice up.
Okay, 80 people have died in this cold snap currently gripping Europe (not just the UK) and it is a lot worse in France and elsewhere.

But, look at the situation every year where 1 inch of snow falls on our roads and it shuts the road network down due to cars being stranded in a bit of ice and snow.

Take the Eurostar for example also. Heard the latest excuse from Eurostar.... the snow was "fluffier" than usual. And i thought "the wrong type of snow" was a thing of the past...

When i was married and in Canada (ex wife is Canadian).... one year it was stupidly cold. I experienced the worst snow storm to hit Canada for 16 years.
TWO FEET of snow fell in just ONE night (Doubling that of 1 feet that fell in the Eastern US's worst snow storm this weekend).
The Canadian Government instantly put into affect a curfew on the public driving their cars. No one was allowed out in it because the Government knew how much of a problem it would cause.
The only drivers allowed out were the Emergency services and those who had 4x4's. What i did notice though, those who had 4x4's had snow chains and had snow ploughs they had bought to fit on the front which was novel and a good idea to help out the official snow clearing ploughs.

When it went manboobs! up that night, the drifts came up to the 2nd story of the house. Everyone in the morning help each other with snow blowers and snow shovels in the whole neighbourhood... not just for good will, because it was a sensible thing to do. Everyone worked together to get the residential roads clear.

The worst thing came immediately afterwards. As the snow started to melt slightly we had Ice Storms. Temps got down to -21° (air temp) and -49° with wind chill where we were (the coldest place at the time was North Dakota in America at -54° with wind chill).
Powerlines froze solid and pylons broke in half tumbling to the ground, trees froze solid and you could smack the branches with a pole and they would shatter.
During the snow storm and ice storm afterwards it did shut down everything but rightly so, anyone who has experienced temperatures and snow like that knows that transport and any public system cannot cope. Many people died also.

Now, look at the UK....
1 inch of snow and it cripples the country.... the wrong type of snow and it cripples transport.
Yet in the highlands of Scotland (Around Ben Nevis etc) they have temperatures as low as -20 (it was -12 last night there) and they have snow very deep in the winter and yet they can cope up there fine with the major roads.
Why is it, our trunk roads in England and motorways get congested with abandoned cars at the sight of 1 inch of snow and why can't our Government departments (Councils) cope with it?
I know ice is a major factor in closing the roads but why not put a curfew on if needed. The Met Office has warned for the last few days of a Red Alert for Icey roads and yet you still get people going out and crashing on ice after being warned.

This was the whole reason why in Canada they put curfews on vehicles. Its a sensible idea even though it does shut down the transport system for a while, albeit controlled.

It was always a discussion point in Canada when they approached me to ask why the UK shuts down after so little snow and ice. I had no answer after seeing their snow storms for real and feeling temperatures so low that when i did go out, my eyes watered and my eyelids froze and icicles coming from my nose.

So what do we have here that shuts us down:-
The wrong snow
leaves on tracks
too cold
bit icey
not enough grit salt.

For a country which resides at the latitude it does we should be more than capable for coping with these snow storms and ice. New York and elsewhere which also sit on the same latitude see way more snow and colder temps so the Government should think for a change and realise it can happen here. All it takes is an arctic or siberian blast and we'll get it very one year...and this Government or the councils won't know what to do next. It's crap and laughable.

[SteveS]

I think the problem is that we get snow like this once, maybe twice a year - sometimes not at all in Winter. Therefore, it seems when it's not snowing everyone in the country forgets about it, including those who are meant to solve any problems should snow occur - until the next time it happens! Last time it happened, some idiot politician, I forget who, recommended we all got snow chains for our cars. Silly wally forgot about the fact they only work on snow and would completely f*ck up any roads without snow on it.

Mind you I heard a council official being interviewed earlier about the lack of gritters out and about. She basically said, we could not allocate precious funds, in a time when funds are likely to be more and more scarce regards public expenditure, to an issue that may or may not occur once a year. Silly girl, in other words "We can't afford it."

Steve

[SteveS]

Well that'll teach me, the flat and indeed the whole street has been plunged into darkness. Laptop battery fading fast.......should I never return......remember me.............

[GOOSE]

Well that'll teach me, the flat and indeed the whole street has been plunged into darkness. Laptop battery fading fast.......should I never return......remember me.............

We will remember you............

[Mike]

I've lived in Inverness for almost 30 years and I'd say that during at least 10 of the winters we've not even had a dusting of snow.

However !

We've got about 6" just now,Dingwall has over 12" and in Inverarnie they've got 2 FEET (Inverarnie is about 6 miles South of us at about 700 feet above sea-level).The temperature is well below zero and will stay that way for a day or two.

We had one of those little snowplough/gritters thingies out that do the pavements today,the driver had the plough at it's highest possible setting so it didn't even touch the top of the snow on the pavement so he could drive it really fast(the same guy did the same thing yesterday).He did stop it near the local shop to go for fags though !

We had pavements with about 4" of packed snow/ice this morning and we still do !

The good old Highland Regional Council.

[Mike]

Well that'll teach me, the flat and indeed the whole street has been plunged into darkness. Laptop battery fading fast.......should I never return......remember me.............

Shove some money in the meter,miserable git

[RichC]

Going back ... the only reason we don't see as much snow as we should is because of the gulfstream and the location of the jetstream each winter....
The fact we are not very far from the arctic circle should make people realise that if the jetstream shifts again etc that we might have a winter where it will shut down the whole country