How crap is the UK at dealing with the weather?

[Starchild]

You ain't seen nothing yet. If the North Atlantic Drift current shuts down to any significant degree, the winters will be more like those in Moscow or Montreal. Say hello to -25 degree C weather and 2 metres of snow.

Of course, I've been training in Canada for the past four years for just such an occassion, so I'll be fine.

[Evil Knevil]

I like days like that too.

I was in the thick of it, very heavy snows up in Grampian, at least 4 inches in places.

But did we stop? Hell no! We had gritters out on the roads, and most people that didn't need to go out, stayed at home. I got the train into work.

Silly poncy Englishmen, I bet those miserable Southerners that want to ban old People from buses during rush hour. Oh heaven forbid I'm slightly late.

****s

[Zkribbler]

I just heard the numbers for January. 11 days of 80F+ temperatures in L.A. & zero rain. Second warmest January since records started being kept 125 years ago. Ohh, I could learn to this.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I just heard the numbers for January. 11 days of 80F+ temperatures in L.A. & zero rain. Second warmest January since records started being kept 125 years ago. Ohh, I could learn to this.

Hope you still love it when summer rolls around. Meteorologists are predicting that 2003 will be the hottest year on record.

[loinburger]

When I went to school in North Carolina we got about four inches of snow in Raleigh, which is unheard of. (A fair number of my classmates had never seen snow in their lives before this.) The school shut down for a week, and people were sprinkling table salt on the sidewalks to try to thaw them.

Compare this to Michigan Tech in Houghton Michigan, which IIRC has shut down once due to snow in its entire history, and that was the year that they got 400+ inches of snow. It's all a matter of how much you're used to the weather.

[Getao321]

then they'll just move up to canada

[Rogan Josh]

For all you guys whining about the gritters not being out fast enough, I have a question. Do you have winter tyres on your car, or do you just use the same tyres all year round? And do you have snow chains in your boot?

I do. How about you PH?

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
For all you guys whining about the gritters not being out fast enough, I have a question. Do you have winter tyres on your car, or do you just use the same tyres all year round? And do you have snow chains in your boot?

I don't think anyone here does. Which is part of the reason why we suck at dealing with the weather.

[loinburger]

Snow tires are no fun at all. They don't let you spin around.

[Provost Harrison]

What are 'winter tyres'?

[Sikander]

My girlfriend and I saw this on BBC and started laughing. What they were calling a "blizzard" we would call a "dusting". My stepdaughter then called and started complaining about all of the trouble it was causing (she goes to Uni in London).

Of course this sort of incapability is not limited to England either. When I was stationed in Texas we got a light snow and the base commander shut down the base. I though this was more than a little bit of an overreaction until I saw the Texans try to drive in this stuff. Yea Tex, you've got your pickup truck spinning its wheels at 60 mph, I'm sure if you press down the accellerator just a little more you'll be off in no time. I watched amused as he spins slowly into the ditch.