Snow Days

[demic]

I wasn't sure where to put this as it's just something random.

 

I'm from south-east London and for the past couple of days it's been snowing. Now in London if it snows it does so for a day and barely settles, turns to slush the next day. However, on Sunday when actually it started to snow, it didn't stop and it settled. London transport pretty much went to pot, having to take buses but walking most of the way because they couldn't go any further. I woke up yesterday, went outside to meet friends and stepped into snow that went to my knees! It's crazy, everything is covered in snow that doesn't really look like it's going anywhere. Snowball fights galore, it was an amazing experience.

 

I'm going to stop waffling on and get to it. I haven't had many snow days or stories to go with, and I wanted to hear about your Snow Stories. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, embarrassing ones, anything you want to say about the snow days you've had.

[Zeoanne]

Hi Demic! All I can say is Enjoy it whiile it lasts! My memory of the best snow fall I've ever had was in the 80's when I lived in New Jersey. While everyone decided to build a snowman I wanted to be different, I wanted something new. My children were all small. The twin boys were 4 and daughter was 2+. I started piling up snow, not knowing where I was heading to. Ended up building a life size horse!!! I have pictures of my daughter sitting on top of it! It was grand!!! They had so much fun helping me pile all that snow and enjoying the end result. Coming from the tropincs, of course, it never gets that cold, at least on the coast so moving to the states and seeing my very first snowfall was the most fun experience I've ever had! I think the first thing I did was sticking my tongue out to see how many snowflakes I could catch! LOL! Now, I live in Virginia and for the first time this season we had some snow last night, it's melting quite fast and I'm so sorry my youngest daughter will not be able to enjoy it, she's at school right now. Too bad it hardly snows in my area.... Thanks for the topic, it brings back beautiful memories!

Love and Light ~Rush~

[TalonRider]

I bet some of our members will be more than happy to send you a trainload or two your way Rush.

[MikeL]

We get very little snow here in middle Tennessee...about one inch total during all of last winter. I vividly remember the heavy snows I saw during two winters at Yosemite. There are some great pictures at Yosemite Snows.

Edited February 3, 2009 by MikeL

[Julian Alexander]

In South Florida, there is no such thing as a Snow Day. All we do get is the occasional (although not so normal now, so many of them have been occurring) cold fronts.

[demic]

Hi Demic! All I can say is Enjoy it whiile it lasts! My memory of the best snow fall I've ever had was in the 80's when I lived in New Jersey. While everyone decided to build a snowman I wanted to be different, I wanted something new. My children were all small. The twin boys were 4 and daughter was 2+. I started piling up snow, not knowing where I was heading to. Ended up building a life size horse!!! I have pictures of my daughter sitting on top of it! It was grand!!! They had so much fun helping me pile all that snow and enjoying the end result. Coming from the tropincs, of course, it never gets that cold, at least on the coast so moving to the states and seeing my very first snowfall was the most fun experience I've ever had! I think the first thing I did was sticking my tongue out to see how many snowflakes I could catch! LOL! Now, I live in Virginia and for the first time this season we had some snow last night, it's melting quite fast and I'm so sorry my youngest daughter will not be able to enjoy it, she's at school right now. Too bad it hardly snows in my area.... Thanks for the topic, it brings back beautiful memories!

Love and Light ~Rush~

 

 

It's okay, I wanted to hear from other people how they deal with snow, and I'm sorry for your daughter. Most the schools in the area, including my college, has been shut down from yesterday till tomorrow and probably for the rest the week.

 

The horse building sounds pretty cool, wish I could have sen that. Closest thing I've seen to that so far was yesterday on the walk home with a few friends we saw a snowman built about 10ft tall, and two strangely well built igloos next it.

 

Might go out tomorrow and take some pictures to post here and show how much snow there really is!

[hh5]

I have not seem a snow day since college or elementary school that was taller than me.

 

I am very happy not to be buried in snow = or = to be taken away by a snow plow and dumped into the river

[Emulated]

Not so much a snow story, but being in the UK, I have also fallen victim to the recent 'sprinkling' of the white goodness. Two days and no school, what a lovely four day weekend!

 

...Most the schools in the area, including my college, has been shut down from yesterday till tomorrow and probably for the rest the week.

 

Might go out tomorrow and take some pictures to post here and show how much snow there really is!

Tomorrow as well? Now that's just not fair. My school is open tomorrow, and the rest of the week.

 

I'm going to hold you to those pictures, to see if you're slacking for no good reason!

[KJames]

Not so much a snow story, but being in the UK, I have also fallen victim to the recent 'sprinkling' of the white goodness. Two days and no school, what a lovely four day weekend!

 

 

Tomorrow as well? Now that's just not fair. My school is open tomorrow, and the rest of the week.

 

I'm going to hold you to those pictures, to see if you're slacking for no good reason!

 

 

I saw the pictures on the news this morning while my cat was trying to wake me up at 6:30am...I don't envy anyone east of the rockies in the USA, nor anyone affected by the snow in the UK...but we're having a heatwave in So.Cal., and I'd love to send you guys at least 15F degrees...it's hot out there!

[Jack Frost]

Here in Montreal, only snow from a nuclear winter from nuke bombings will justify giving students a snow day.

 

I never had a snow day in this country. Hence I went to school whatever Mumma Nature throws at me... Be it -25C with -40C wind chill... Be it a blizzard with blowing snow... Be it an ice storm... Be it a 30cm snowstorm... Been there... Survived those...

 

It's okay, I wanted to hear from other people how they deal with snow, and I'm sorry for your daughter. Most the schools in the area, including my college, has been shut down from yesterday till tomorrow and probably for the rest the week.

You Brits could learn a lot from the Canadians. We still go to work, school, shopping, eating out, movies during snowstorms worse than what London just had.

 

And the busses and metro will work almost perfectly. As I said... A snowstorm may cripple the city to some degree due to the traffic slowing down, but it doesn't completely shut it down. A 5 mins bus delay doesn't bother me. Plus, we're very smart enough to put the metro trains completely underground because the railway tracks will be nothing but frozen for five months a year.

 

 

When I found out on the news about what happened in London. I couldn't help not laughing that a few centimetres would shut the whole freaking city down.

 

A Brit showed me this yesterday. So true.

 

Dear rest of the world,

 

We regret to inform you that UK plc will be closed for the whole of Monday, 2nd February and probably Tuesday 3rd due to adverse weather conditions - known as

[demic]

Tomorrow as well? Now that's just not fair. My school is open tomorrow, and the rest of the week.

 

I'm going to hold you to those pictures, to see if you're slacking for no good reason!

 

 

I guess I will have to go out tomorrow then to live up to my promises! But I am not guaranteeing amazing quality .

I can't believe that my school is shut, according to the boys in my sixth form who went to the school years 7-11 they have NEVER had our school close due to snow. To be honest my secondary never closed when we had snow just no one could be bothered to turn up most of the time (the school had poor record of attendance for most student all the year round).

 

 

 

 

You Brits could learn a lot from the Canadians. We still go to work, school, shopping, eating out, movies during snowstorms worse than what London just had.

 

And the busses and metro will work almost perfectly. As I said... A snowstorm may cripple the city to some degree due to the traffic slowing down, but it doesn't completely shut it down. A 5 mins bus delay doesn't bother me. Plus, we're very smart enough to put the metro trains completely underground because the railway tracks will be nothing but frozen for five months a year.

 

 

When I found out on the news about what happened in London. I couldn't help not laughing that a few centimetres would shut the whole freaking city down.

 

A Brit showed me this yesterday. So true.

 

Dear rest of the world,

 

We regret to inform you that UK plc will be closed for the whole of Monday, 2nd February and probably Tuesday 3rd due to adverse weather conditions - known as

[kitten]

You Brits could learn a lot from the Canadians. We still go to work, school, shopping, eating out, movies during snowstorms worse than what London just had

 

You need to bear in mind that you Canadians get such weather every year, but this is the worst we've had for 18 years. Furthermore, your snow lasts for weeks or months every year, whereas here, even though it is the worst for 18 years, it will be gone in a couple of days. Also, not all of the UK was so badly affected. Where I live there was no problem at all; we had less than 1 cm of snow yesterday and rain had got rid of it all by the time I went to bed.

 

So it's worth you Canadians investing in snow ploughs, gritters, and whatever other stuff is required to deal with that kind of weather, but it's not worth us spending billions of pounds on equipment and contingencies that we'd use for a total of around 10-20 days every century. It actually costs us much less (and is much more fun!) just to close things down for those few days every century. Basic economics.

 

Kit

[Jack Frost]

I wouldn't suggest spending billions of pounds on snowplows and salting trucks, but it's winter and the southeastern UK gets snow and freezing moments every year. I would've expected some measures to prevent a few centimetres of snow from shutting down a metro system, effectively preventing shutting down most of the city itself. That's where you could learn at least from other European countries that don't see as much snow as Canada.

 

It's also basic economics to prevent a city from losing millions of pounds per day of productivity into the economy. So I can't imagine it being so costy to make the signals and railway tracks to be more resistant to temperatures down to at least -10C. Skipping a school day might not be too costy, but it means giving the teachers and workers a day of salaries for nothing.

 

It is also not expensive to have a set of snowchains to keep in your car's trunk in case it gets too slippery for the tires. Snow tires are a plus as well though you wouldn't need it more than a few times per season.

 

I know it's unusual for you Londoners this year... But this time I am talking about hearing the same thing every year on the BBC website. Now don't you think it's a little silly to let a few centimetres of snow cause such chaos? Unless BBC is overhyping everything every year.

 

Of course, enjoy the snow while you have it anyway.

 

Me in converse

O,o

 

I wear my converse every day regardless of the weather. Just avoid the puddles and put in two socks if you think you'll be walking for quite a while.

[demic]

O,o

 

I wear my converse every day regardless of the weather. Just avoid the puddles and put in two socks if you think you'll be walking for quite a while.

 

Didn't really work when we were knee deep in snow pretty much wherever we walked and that was before the snow started to get really heavy. Really wasn't expecting that much snow, out of pure sinicism that the weatherman may have been tallking out his a**e.

 

Where I live it's really not really centimeters, I mean me and my best friend took his niece out in his back garden and over half of her got consumed by the snow and she's about 3 maybe 4 feet tall.

 

Snow here, like I said before, is more like an hour of light dusting that melts away by the end of that day. My parents have not seen snow like this in London since they were kids and they're now 46. We Londoners are built for the weather we get the most, which is mainly rain; that we're fully prepared for.

 

But snow... not so much.

[TalonRider]

I remember one particular snow event that happened back in 1978.

 

During the month of January, I had become friends with a Med Student who was doing a rotation with a group of Surgeons. I had invited him over for the evening of the 26th, a Wednesday. By nine that evening we had six inches of snow on the ground. His parents lived ten miles away. So he spent the night. Long story short, he didn't leave until Sunday morning to go home. During the night, the snow storm turned into a blizzard.

[Jack Frost]

Where I live it's really not really centimeters, I mean me and my best friend took his niece out in his back garden and over half of her got consumed by the snow and she's about 3 maybe 4 feet tall.

You got 1.5 feet of snow? I'm only seeing on the news that London only got about 8 inches.

 

Actually, that may be snow drifts where his niece got in. Wind tends to pile up snow quite well.

[Drewbie]

Fondest memories as a kid, the snowball fights, and such, no found moments with ice though,

[hh5]

Snow here, like I said before, is more like an hour of light dusting that melts away by the end of that day. My parents have not seen snow like this in London since they were kids and they're now 46. We Londoners are built for the weather we get the most, which is mainly rain; that we're fully prepared for.

 

But snow... not so much.

 

Oh - Your parents can share a special British Invention invented before MTV.

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/232/5101006...8db1be7.jpg?v=0

[Dalmatia]

You Brits could learn a lot from the Canadians. We still go to work, school, shopping, eating out, movies during snowstorms worse than what London just had.

 

I said the same thing to my mum this morning. Over here in West Wales we only got the snow the night before last. We run our own shop though so my mum trudged her way the 40 miles to work to open up, but she said that only 1 in 10 shops in town were open. 1 in 10, I mean that

[demic]

Oh - Your parents can share a special British Invention invented before MTV.

 

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/232/5101006...8db1be7.jpg?v=0

 

Huh? :wacko:

 

And Jack Frost, I live in Greater London, technically Kent which has one the worst hit areas. And the news is saying that it used to snow like this all the time in the 60's when they were able to be prepared for it, but hasn't been like this in 18 years. So that pretty much means that they haven't had to worry about heavy snow fall like this for my entire short life span, I'm not surprised we weren't prepared. For the mean time the snow is slowing up but they reckon there'll be more by thursday/friday

 

And fyi - my schools out today, so there will be pictures later.

Edited February 4, 2009 by demic

[kitten]

I wouldn't suggest spending billions of pounds on snowplows and salting trucks, but it's winter and the southeastern UK gets snow and freezing moments every year. I would've expected some measures to prevent a few centimetres of snow from shutting down a metro system, effectively preventing shutting down most of the city itself. That's where you could learn at least from other European countries that don't see as much snow as Canada.

 

1) We get much less snow than anywhere else in Europe because they have a Continental climate and we are kept warm by the Gulf Stream.

 

2) My experience is that it's very rare that snowfall causes such disruption in UK cities. Certainly it doesn't do it every year and even this year, the worst for 18 years, it's only for 2-3 days. Most years we don't get more than more than a few cm of snow totalled over the whole year, and it rarely stays on the ground for more than a couple of days. If you have real figures that contradict my experience, please produce them.

 

3) I don't know where you get your claim that the BBC has the same sort of reports 'every year' . Every year since when? Please provide evidence. (Brits love to complain about weather. It is one of our favourite hobbies and the main topic of conversation between strangers).

 

4) If you don't suggest snow ploughs and gritters, what are the 'some measures' you would expect?

 

5) Basic economics. Putting measures in place that have to be paid for during the whole of winter every year is a waste of money when they wouldn't be used every year and even in years they are used they would only be used for a few days. Losing a few million pounds every 18 years really IS cheaper.

 

6) Brits as individuals quite rightly don't even think it's worth their money to buy snow chains and snow tyres for their cars, so why should we want the government to waste our tax money on national measures to combat the rare effects of snow?

 

7) Even if it had been economically worthwhile in the past to invest in measures to combat the rare effects of snow, in the future it is ecpected that we will get even less snow (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1951084.stm), so it certainbly isn't worthwhile investing now.

 

8) Brits not only love to complain about weather, they love to use it (and any other excuse) to take a day off work. Thus lots of fuss has been made of the snow here - it helps to justify a day off work.

 

Kit

[demic]

Hey I took some pictures in my back garden for now, I'll take some more when I make my way to my friend's house

 

And yes that is a shopping trolley in one of the pictures, something my little brother brought from his travels on Monday.

Edited February 4, 2009 by demic

[wildone]

I think Kit's #8 post probably holds the most weight of all of them, and us Canadians are just jealous of you that you can do that .

 

Actually growing up in Western Canada, I too have never had a snow day either. I do know that rural schools occasionally have to close for a day due to heavy snow fall which makes the school buses and moreso the teachers unable to get to the school. This is usually only for a day as most muncipalities and cities and towns all make bus routes the highest priority for sanding, plowing and graders (by the way Kit, is gritters the name for what we call graders. Always interesting to see different terms for the same thing).

 

To be totally honest, the Lower Mainland of British Columbia (Greater Vancouver Area) weather is much like the UK's I imagine. Every few years they get a bit of snow and the city basically shuts down. We also cannot forget when the ex mayor of Toronto declared a state of emergency due to a snow storm and called in the military and reserves to help 'save' the city . Toronto has been the butt of many Canadians' jokes since that happened.

 

I see what Jack is saying though. Maybe in the future as train switches need changing out, why not put in better ones that can accomodate a bit of cold and snow. Even if it is only needed one day a year, than it would be most likely worth the cost.

 

As for best memory, in my Grade 11 year we got a huge May snowstorm. It was like 3 feet overnight of heavy, heavy, heavy, wet snow. Showed up to school and probably only half of the students and teachers showed up (so I guess technically it was a snow day). The principle gave us the option of staying and studying or taking the day off (guess what we all picked ). One friend, that had a 4x4 truck and a winch on the front, and I took off and pulled people out of the snow for $10 a shot. Were we being opportunistic, hell yeah, but the towing companies were running about 8 hours behind and were charging $100 a tow. I'm pretty sure a local bar ended up with most of our proceeds that day .

 

Steve

[Emulated]

I Like the pictures demic, but that's hardly enough to justify a day off school!!! I have at least a couple more centimetres outside my door.

 

Mind you, doesn't the forecast say that more is on the way? Perhaps I'll have another chance to build that snowman...

 

And yes that is a shopping trolley in one of the pictures, something my little brother brought from his travels on Monday.

A Sainsbury's shopping trolley if I'm not mistaken

[JamesSavik]

In Mississippi, snow and ice are rare. We get snow/ice storms about once every 2-3 years.

 

When we do get it, we're paralysed until its over.

 

Back in the day it used to mean party- we'd get whatever (OK booze & weed) and pile into a house with a fireplace.

 

At one of these snow-parties an orgy broke out that we weren't really prepared for.

 

You'ld be amazed at what you can use olive oil for.