General weather patterns in the UK

[oldsoldier]

Good evening all, I hope you all enjoyed your recent dusting...some of the pics you posted are truly beautiful. Living in New England, I guess I take the snow for granted, as it snowed once a week almost every week since our Thanksgiving holiday (end of November). Once you have shovelled out your car for the 10th time, it kind of loses its magic. That is, until I take an entire weekend day and snowshoe through some gorgeous woods, along a local river. Of course, come monday, its back to the same old grind...and another dumping of snow. I am not sure if you have ever heard of Groundhog Day here in America, where a groundhog (woodchuck here in New England, same thing) in Pennsylvania is woken up. If he sees his shadow, it means 6 more weeks of winter. Here in good old new england, thats good news for us!!! Of course, mother nature doesnt play by those rules, unfortunately....anyway, I digress....
Judging by most people's reactions here, you dont get that much regular snow I take it? At least, not the majority of the UK? I am curious as to how you deal with, say, several inches of snow (perhaps at least 10 cm), in the course of only a couple of hours? Do you have plows, sand/salt trucks, etc....or do you improvise? Do businesses close, schools, etc? Pardon my ignorance, but here, when certain parts of the US get even 2" of snow, everything shuts down. Here in New England, it takes upwards of 8" at least to close things down! I find it interesting how different places deal with the white stuff....particularly if it isnt a regular occurrence.

 

[BigShot]

I lived in Chamonix in the French Alps for a while and the difference between there (and I assume anywhere with regular and heavy snow) and the UK is one of infrastructure.
In the UK we simply do not get the volumes of snow necessary to justify investment in the ploughs most areas with regular snow have.
This means a decent fall can cause something close to chaos on the roads.

Another issue is individual preparation. In most areas like yours each car will (or at least should) have snow chains and other winter driving gear stowed for the duration of the snow season, ready for putting on the wheels whenever needed.

It really doesn't take much snow to cause problems.
A ight dusting can cause problems purely because it makes the roads slippy.
A heavier fall could cause other problems, some areas may get roads blocked, but that's unusual in most of the country. For the most part the problems are down to the snow becoming packed to something resembling ice.

Typically the response of the authorities is grit and salt. There may be ploughs in some areas, but for the most part we don't see that kind of response.

Some businesses and schools do close, with school closures usually announced on local radio stations.

It seems really strange to people with experience of business as usual even after over a foot of snow overnight, but imagine what things would be like in your area if there was a fall of 6 inches, the gritter drivers turned up for work, but the plough drivers were on strike and everyone forgot how to use snow-chains.
That's basically what it is like here.

 

[gzornenplat]

I'm from the south - farther south than London. Here we don't get snow every year,
but most years we'll see it, even if there is so little it doesn't even settle.

The main problem as far as transport is concerned is ice. It will rain and then the
skies clear and the wet roads freeze.

The local council has gritters (well, they are still called gritters, but they spread
only salt, these days) and these will go out if there is any danger of ice.

Around here, anyway, this all works well, and it will only be very minor roads
that you might find untreated early on in the day.

I'd say that up to 2" of snow will be dealt with pretty swiftly. If the forecasters
give enough warning (like they did this time) you'll see the gritters out for a few
nights before the expected snowfall, laying down salt so there is already
something on the road before the snow falls.

But we had a foot last week - about 9" overnight, then some more in the
morning, and the local authority isn't prepared for that.

They do have a few bolt-on snow-plough blades, but around here that is
all - in the north of England and Scotland, they are better prepared,
but they get more snow and more often.

Financially, it makes no sense to have proper snow-ploughs and snow-blowers
sitting in sheds all and every spring, summer and autumn, and 19 out of 20 winters.

Everyone takes a couple of days off. You can't get out of the side-roads
because all the gritters are working full-tilt to open/keep open the main roads.

So, although a lot of people complain (there have been people on this forum
saying they can't believe that we can't cope), the same people would complain
if they found out that their taxes went on snow-blowers that get used 2 days
every 20 years.

To put it in perspective, around here, we will probably get 6 days off to play
in the snow in each of our adult lifetimes.

In my opinion that's not enough.

I had to take a few days off last week, and I work from home

Ian