England grinds to a halt...

[68Wooley]

Anyone living in the US snow belt or Canada find this as amusing as I do?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8420057.stm

6 whole inches of snow huh?

I guess the flip side was sitting through the 'storm' in SoCal last weekend. Watching local TV here, you'd think the end of the world was nigh. For our British friends, the 'storm' amounted to a couple of inches of rain...

[gunnss]

When I was going to school at Ft Gordon in GA, we had a quarter inch of snow, they closed the post..... No traffic allowed until it was gone. Feb 84.
Regards,
Kevin

[Skuzzy]

I do not find it amusing at all.

If that weather hits the southern half of the U.S. everything would stop.  If you do not live in an area where that type of weather is normal occurance for winter, there will be a substantial lack of infrastructure to deal with it.

In those cases it is very dangerous.  Subzero temperatures with high winds are nothing to laugh at either.  People not equipped to deal with those temperatures can find themselves in situations where death is eminent and not even be aware of it until it is too late.

Hope everyone fares well and it does not last long.

[68Wooley]

I do not find it amusing at all.

If that weather hits the southern half of the U.S. everything would stop.  If you do not live in an area where that type of weather is normal occurance for winter, there will be a substantial lack of infrastructure to deal with it.

In those cases it is very dangerous.  Subzero temperatures with high winds are nothing to laugh at either.  People not equipped to deal with those temperatures can find themselves in situations where death is eminent and not even be aware of it until it is too late.

Hope everyone fares well and it does not last long.

The thing is, it is a normal occurrence for winter there. Happens every year.

[RTHolmes]

yeah must be a slow news day ... 20 odd abandoned cars out of 33 million is hardly chaos, the media love a bit of hyperbole

otoh 1000 homes losing power from a few inches of snow is disgraceful, but completely predictable. the power company is EDF (Électricité de France) who are quite happy to take profits from UK consumers but really dont give 2 toejams about maintaining our utilities infrastructure. half of our utiities are now owned by foreign companies, it bothers me that gas, electricity and even our water supply are owned and operated by people who wont suffer a jot if they fail.

[Angus]

Urban people on the highway, and you have icing and a blizzard where normally not, and it it a very bad thing.
Being a countryside Icelander, I've seen just about everything in the terms of bad weather. I managed to burn down a car engine on a distance less then a mile, since the snow input filled the engine room, melted, froze, and ripped the fan belt! In that weather, the only thing you could have done was to dig in.
In 2000 (february or march) we had a volcanic eruption close to the capital. The weather was dicey, but just about any idiot on wheels decided to have a look. The result was a catastrophy, if I recall correctly there were 1.400 abandoned cars on a certain (bad) leg of the main road. Due to the incredible effort of the resque squads, nobody died.
1.400 cars out of maybe 100.000 on the whole island is....well, 1.4%

[FiLtH]

"We should have listened!!"




(peas and carrots, peas and carrots)

[Reschke]

If we get 6 inches of snow here in Alabama you can count on lost power for at least 5 days since we will have ice with it and then the whole thing comes grinding to a halt FAST!

[Masherbrum]

I read up to 8" which is a substantial accumulation.   I'm still wondering what the point of this Thread is and who it was directed at.   

[Saxman]

I'm reminded of the 90-degree "heat wave" in France a couple years ago.

Try spending a summer in St. Louis, about a mile from the sun....

[eagl]

My wife worked at a hospital in the middle of winter, and they had 2 patient deaths from the wx.  One patient got lost walking in from the parking lot and ended up out by the service entrance, and within just a few minutes was dead from the cold.  Another one made a wrong turn inside the building, went out a side exit while wearing just a hospital gown and socks, and died before he could make it around to the front entrance.

That said, a couple of inches of snow in the same country where the Thames used to freeze solid enough for an entire market and festival to be held on the river ice, shouldn't be that big of a deal.  In general, people have gotten weak because they figure the govt ought to take care of them, and the flood of immigrants from warmer countries need to figure out how to deal with the cold in a hurry.

[Skuzzy]

I do not think snow is the only factor here though.  Sub-zero temperatures combined with driving winds and then snow mixed with it is a very dangerous combination.  I don't care how tough anyone is, that is a killer combination if you are not careful.

[FLS]

This seems to happen every time there's a Global Warming conference.

[eagl]

This seems to happen every time there's a Global Warming conference.

And isn't this just a nifty temptation to bust rule #14...   

[RTHolmes]

That said, a couple of inches of snow in the same country where the Thames used to freeze solid enough for an entire market and festival to be held on the river ice, shouldn't be that big of a deal.

lol that was 400 years ago