george toni

Here we go again back in the UK it's about to snow and because of that the entire country will grind to a halt!

WHY!!!!!!!!

Its not a new thing or is it just that in the UK now there are more who have never seen snow than have

If the gulf stream stops the UK will become frozen over and the english channel will need ice breakers to cross!

Seems the 'stiff upper lip' has been replaced by the health and safety P.C. brigade.

Good luck

MnB

Totally baffles me too!

I'm old enough to remember '63 when we had so much snow it totally blocked the walk to school..... school stayed open, we walked along the tops of the banks & hedges to get to school then home again. Now they close at the first sprinkle!
Think it is a reflection of the society we live in as well as H&S, but UK never seems prepared even tho weather people have been predicting this for the last week or so!

scrubbedexpat094

Being here in sunny NZ my feeling is

MnB

And I certainly don't blame you!!

BEVS

I remember that. All the pipes were frozen in the kitchen & the outside loo. There was a park over the road and our family went to build a snowman and Dad started a snowball fight which was fine until one of mine went down the back of me Dads neck...................ooooooooo the terror of that moment.

The golf links was in walking distance ( before the by-pass came into being) and we all went sledging on tin trays Dad got from the hotel where he worked.

School stayed open . We donned our black rubber wellies & walked to school. Playtime , we still played outside but the hall was left open to come in if we wanted to.
Dad got into work ( no car) and stayed there.

Am Loolah

I remember being sick at home, round about 2005 maybe and I'd managed to get the 2 eldest to the train station to get to school (35 miles away), the third to the village primary and the youngest to nursery in town.

I'd gone back to bed when the phone rang to say there'd been a snowflake at the primary so they were closing. I hauled myself out off my sick bed and collected my son and then decided I'd better head into town to collect the youngest seeing as I was up anyway.

I managed to slip slide all over the place to get her and then simply couldn't get out of town. Maybe only an hour had passed since the school had rung but I couldn't get the traction to get up the hill. I abandoned the car at a garage and walked with the 2 youngest to my friend's house. Another friend was already holed up there! And so it snowed and snowed and snowed. My neighbour rang (before we'd fallen out with them!) to say he'd try and get into the house to see to the dogs. 8 hours later we made a break for it and then sat on the A30- for 2 hours to travel 5 miles. Making it home at 11PM! And to think I'd only popped out for an hour!

My brother in London rang to say it was on the news they were airlifting people out of their cars on the A30!

The eldest two stayed with friends near their school and Hubby had to stay the night at work!

It was all very exciting, but sadly the next day - all gone!

MnB

Happy days eh Bevs!!
Fond memories of snowball fights & sledging with my Dad, my mates and their Dads, going indoors with wet clothes & socks (despite the plastic bags worn inside welllies!) and glowing rosy cheeks.....ahhh the welcome of bread toasted over the fire...Mmmm.

Wooly_Cow

When I lived in Munich we had DEEP snow for at least 2 months a year....they just shovelled it aside and carried on.

I suppose it's what you're used to but frankly the transport in the UK is rubbish when it snows or has the wrong leaves!

mikelincs

Councils have about 6 days supply of salt and grit, less than they ever had.. Blame council cutbacks, they used to pay local farmers to take tractors and trailers and clear the smaller roads, can't afford to do that now, so they stay untouched. OK if you live by a major road, but country villages, you better have a food supply stored.

BEVS

I'd forgotten about the leaves on the line thing.

Stoof

well, i don't remember '63, but we used to regularly get a couple of weeks off in the winter up in the cumbrian hills... mind the bus driver always TRIED to get through, which once left about 15 of us kids trying to push a coach up a hill while it slid all over the road!!! don't suppose that would happen these days either!

Charismatic

British weather has always worked like this.

1. Some weather comes (heat wave, heavy snowfall, heavy rain or wind).
2. The government declares an emergency and says it’s unprecedented, people get angry at the lack of preparation that government has for...well any event really.
3. Then it goes back to being more traditionally British and everyone soldiers on in misery returning to their banal existences.

Ahhh Britain....

bdclayton

I used to hate the snow and ice in the UK
I had to cover out of hours emergencies. Out all night in the freezing cold and i mean all night. On remote sites with no lights no heating and everything frozen. Due to cost cutting the company bought all cheap vans with front wheel drive that used to slip and skid everywhere. The one Landrover we had to cover 52 sites they fitted with the wrong tyres and i crashed into a fence. The fun of being stuck for 4 hours with no heat, They spent X millions on a new sandfilter system and didn't want to spend an extra 5 grand on trace heating. it froze last year i enjoyed the "well we did tell you" wounder what mess that's in now ?
I get regular up dates via email and they have already run out of sand & Grit.
and nowadays they can only work a certain number of hours and have to have 7 hours rest EU working time directive. Somedays if there had been an emergency there was knowbody at work the next day
I will now go out to the pool have a drink in the sun and wish all of Severn Trent Water a MERRY CHRISTMAS