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Monday, 2 February 2009

What a difference an hour makes!

An hour ago, I blogged about the weather - the fact that all my friends and colleagues (and my Mum) thought we would have snow here in Edinburgh - wasn't that surprising, however we had blue skies.

We had a mini blizzard at 4am, then another around 10.40am but now we have snow but I am not convinced it will settle that much.

The weather man on STV has just predicted heavy snow for Edinburgh this afternoon and evening so let's see.

The weather we are seeing down in London is bizarre to say the least, but what still annoys me (it angered me when I lived there) is that we cannot cope. I always recall when my Mum lived in Ardgay in Sutherland, snow fell the trains put on a snowplough and just got on with it.

Okay, some roads couldn't cope - the Struie often would get closed but that's because it is so open across the hills and the drifting would be bad.

Come on Britain - get on with it.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I remember going across the Struie in Winter on the way home to Caithness. A lovely part of the world, if very remote.

Plenty of snow here in Livingston.

Matthew Huntbach said...

I suspect in Ardgay in Sutherland snow in fairly large amounts is a regular occurrence, so it makes sense to spend money on being prepared for it.

In London now, enough snow to settle is probably a once-a-year on average phenomenon, while what we've seen today hasn't happened in a long time and maybe won't happen again for many years - or, unless global warming plays the funny making Britain colder trick some people have suggested - won't ever happen again.

So it does seem to me to be silly to compare how they deal with it in places where it happens regularly, and in London where it happens so rarely it wouldn't be worth making huge investments needed to get people to work on time on the rare day when it does happen. Also, I suspect now that snow like this is so rare, most people have just lost the old snow readiness that would know how to deal with it that existed in the days when weather like this would have been normal winter stuff rather than a weird phenomenon.

Andrew Reeves said...

The problem is Matthew, I lived in London for 15 years and every single year this happens - although the snow may not be as heavy as this year - so actually there is a point.

I lived on a major commuter route and therefore the cost would have balanced it out in my opinion.

I don't mean a snowplough on every train but clearing major routes should be a priority!

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