The reason its a big deal in the SE is that it happens but once in a blue moon and no one is really prepared for it. People don't buy snow shovels, snow tyres, snow chains, or rock salt for their own use when it might only get used for one day, or more likely, one morning, every ten years. With snow on the roads for no more than two morning commutes no one has the chance to learn to drive on it, or if they do know, they will have forgotten by the time the next lot arrives.
I used to live in New York a long time ago and I remember when we had 6inches of snow on the 5th of November, and the ground wasn't free of the stuff till March. But it wasn't unsual. The garden centres had a range of snow shovels for sale every autumn, the city didn't just rely on throwing salty grit at the roads, they had real plows which pushed up heaps of snow four or five feet tall. Everyone had to get used to it.
I recall reading a few years ago about somewhere in Europe where traditionally they had lots of snow, but then they had a run of warm winters, during which everyone forgot the routines needed for coping with the snow. When they next had a hard winter, they didn't do much better than they do in the south of the UK.