Heavy snowfall

[Montreal Wanderer]

I tell you what, some of the shite weather we've had earlier this year and yet London gets a few specks and it's main item on't news. Did nobody die in Gaza today or somert? You'd think this was the first time England had had snow in years. Pansies.

It's absolutely pathetic. Our London office all went home at 10.30 yesterday due to the atrocious weather. Turn on SSN at lucnhtime to see pictures outside FA headquarters of about 3 inches of snow - our London office is about 300 yards from there.

Pathetic. How do they think people in Europe manage, or Canada, or large parts of America, or even amazingly, higher parts of England and Scotland? FFS, makes me angry, the skiving bastards..

To be fair, although we in Montreal get huge quantities of snow every year (Canadian city averages in cms : Montreal 226.2, Toronto 133.1, Calgary 126.7, Edmonton 123.5, Winnipeg 110.6 and Vancouver 46.5), it is not unexpected. Therefore, like the scouts we are prepared. All cars must have snow tyres installed from December 15 to March 15, we have huge amounts of snow removals equipment to plough the roads and clear the snow, we salt the roads and sidewalks (pavements), central heating and double glazing everywhere, and one can walk miles underground in the downtown area. I go from an indoor garage at home to an indoor garage at work and never venture outside until lunch time. Countries where severe snowfalls are rare cannot be prepared, and the drivers are not trained for the conditions - and this can lead understandably to chaos. So I do have some sympathy for you.

[TANGODANCER]

The simple answer is that the cities of the UK are overcrowded. How many two-car families do we have now? People have to park on sidewalk/pavements where we live because there isn't enough parking space to take them all and the roads are too narrow to facillitate parking. The town centres are congested out of sight most of the day, and rush-hour periods are a nightmare. I stopped driving to work because of parking problems and the crazy snarl-ups trying to get home. Painting yellow lines to stop parking anywhere near town centres is a major industry with local councils.

Our public services are run on timetables and not as a passenger service. Drivers will blatantly ignore anyone running for a half-empty bus and the trains are so congested in major cities that one delay causes a knock-back of havoc resulting in two lots of passengers trying to board already full trains. A third of them are left on the platform regularly in Bolton in the mornings. Trains are cancelled without warning and passengers heading for Manchester airport are regularly told their train will terminate at Piccadilly and they'll have to get off and find an alternative one. Anyone travelling between Bolton and Manchester will attest to this.

Now add a minor snowstorm, a night of freezing or a heavy downpour and toal chaos ensues. A dutch visitor to this country posted on a website yesterday about the utter disbelief people from other countries experience when coming here after an overnight snowstorm. Yesterday, a total of six million people didn't turn up for work.

Not a rant, just a few facts.

[SuperWhiteWarrior]

Well it didn't snow again today as it said it was suppose to.

[jenkz]

Well it didn't snow again today as it said it was suppose to.

From the look of the sky over bolton it could very well do though

[boltonboris]

Well it didn't snow again today as it said it was suppose to.

From the look of the sky over bolton it could very well do though

Don't worry... That's just pollution

[jenkz]

Well it didn't snow again today as it said it was suppose to.

From the look of the sky over bolton it could very well do though

Don't worry... That's just pollution

You must be joking, theres hardly any industrial areas anymore! Used to be a lot worse.