Why does the UK grind to a halt with a little snow?

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dirtydog said:
Essex all the time - my profile is meant to be a sarcastic observation on UK immigration.

Either snow is worse where you are than where I am, or you are very young, or your memory is bad. Because the snow I've seen today is nothing to write home about. A few inches, and temps above zero all night and all day - in February, who'd have thought it :confused:
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I was saying the same to me dad earlier while watching BBC news, Seen worse before. Just requires extra care while out.
 
dirtydog said:
What country, England or the UK? Because in other parts of the UK snow often lasts a lot longer.

Here in north Essex we haven't had a foot of snow, nowhere near and the main roads were fine today. Yet the schools are closed and I bet plenty here are off work, probably on full pay.
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i'm within the m25. further from London you get the better(clearer) it gets to be honest. Its the opposite to normal!
 
dirtydog said:
Not getting paid isn't very appealing either. I guess we're too pampered in this country if we have the choice of staying home :)
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The only "work" I got is helping someone with their wifi network, and that person lives 5 miles away. I'm not really going to be making much off it as its literally a 10 minute job. Other than a reschedule, I'm not going to be losing much by waiting for conditions to improve.
 
dirtydog said:
Essex all the time - my profile is meant to be a sarcastic observation on UK immigration.

Either snow is worse where you are than where I am, or you are very young, or your memory is bad. Because the snow I've seen today is nothing to write home about. A few inches, and temps above zero all night and all day - in February, who'd have thought it :confused:
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Not that young! What part of essex other than north are you in? From what i've seen it seems worse over this part, I know everyone in my office in this area didnt go in to work today.

As for the memory, it does suck a bit, but i remember the snow in the early 90s (91) and when we had those snow storms a few years back i was in t'north at the time having fun driving round in their snow storms. It may also be because in my area there isn't a whole lot of snow clearing that went on, and along my entire commuting journey that it seems worse. The only clear road i saw (and still can see) was the A120.
 
From what i've head speaking to my co-workers it seems the eastern part of essex didnt get it so bad, shame that the roads werent dealt with properly as my commute takes me to chelmo :D
 
dirtydog said:
True :) London is usually the least affected by any snow. I'm up in Colchester here.
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the band of bad snow stops roughly Brentwood way. North of Brentwood its only a few cm. Closer to London you get the worse it gets. I think that's why we are having trouble understanding each other, and maybe comparing South Essex to North Essex was wrong too...When did it start snowing for you? It started here about 2pm yesterday and still hasn't stopped :)

Normally when it snows a little bit here, i head off up north to your area to find the deeper stuff, so that's probably why we are comparing 2 totally different "histories" of Essex snow :)
 
Overlag said:
When did it start snowing for you? It started here about 2pm yesterday and still hasn't stopped :)
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Pretty much the same. It has stopped or got lighter at times but there's been lots of (for Essex) heavy snow throughout the day. I would estimate a few inches' worth. The roads are mostly slushy rather than thick snow, due to volume of traffic.
 
Dolph said:
Because we get snow so rarely people aren't used to or prepared for it, because it's false economy to own snow tyres etc for the one time in every 4-5 years when they might be useful.
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Spot on.

It isn't cost effective to invest in such a rare occurrence (at least in most of the South of England). Areas where there is more snowy weather have made the investment required (Scotland, parts of Wales, parts of Northern England).

What p***** me off is that the Department of Work and Pensions has given their staff the rest of the day off.

cheers
 
dirtydog said:
Pretty much the same. It has stopped or got lighter at times but there's been lots of (for Essex) heavy snow throughout the day. I would estimate a few inches' worth. The roads are mostly slushy rather than thick snow, due to volume of traffic.
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yeh here they thick snow and small(very) drifts in areas. Traffic has cleared some though. A127, A13, M25 was all down to 1 lane last night. They look pretty clear now (judging by traffic cameras).

my dad still is sitting in the staff room at the bus garage. his shift ends soon lol.
 
Spleenus said:
I'll vote you in so you can spend tens of millions just so everyone can get to work on the one day it might snow every decade? Cities like Chicago spend a vast proportion of their budget on things like this, I suppose you'd like tax to go up to fund the vast road clearance operations?
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But you wouldn't need tens of millions, because the UK doesn't get as much snow as places like Chicago. All you'd need is a much smaller budget to take care of the simple precautions and solutions that should already be in place.
 
Evangelion said:
But you wouldn't need tens of millions, because the UK doesn't get as much snow as places like Chicago. All you'd need is a much smaller budget to take care of the simple precautions and solutions that should already be in place.
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Yep. I dread to think what would happen in England, if we ever get a week or two of heavy snow. Probably supermarkets would run out of food and we'd get people starving to death.

Government should take responsibility for ensuring that all main roads are safe and passable 365 days of the year.
 
Yeah coz that first pic by the OP is so much deeper than the snow on our roads today...not. A clear path has been made through the road to the poitn where it looks better than the state of most of the UK roads today. I had a mate up in Aberdeen in a right old stress today saying its pathetic and how he used to walk to school in 3 foot of snow etc etc. Yeah...that nice and all, but if planes, trains and cars cannot be used properly then we do grind to a halt. Not a big deal. It just happens. Pointless trying to be a hero for 1 - 2 days every couple of years putting your life at risk trying to drive to work when you just wait for a day. Ive worked from home all day today anyway like a lot of people with no difference in performance from when I would be at work.
 
jaybee said:
Yeah coz that first pic by the OP is so much deeper than the snow on our roads today...not. A clear path has been made through the road to the poitn where it looks better than the state of most of the UK roads today. I had a mate up in Aberdeen in a right old stress today saying its pathetic and how he used to walk to school in 3 foot of snow etc etc. Yeah...that nice and all, but if planes, trains and cars cannot be used properly then we do grind to a halt. Not a big deal. It just happens. Pointless trying to be a hero for 1 - 2 days every couple of years putting your life at risk trying to drive to work when you just wait for a day. Ive worked from home all day today anyway like a lot of people with no difference in performance from when I would be at work.
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Is it because a lot of people on here are office / IT workers, that they seem to think we can all work from home?

What if the bad weather went on for a long time?

I personally didn't go to work because I'm a hero, I went primarily because otherwise I wouldn't get paid. Also to do the job I'm paid for, which I think I have a duty to turn up for unless I have a good reason - and a bit of snow in winter ain't it.
 
dirtydog said:
Yep. I dread to think what would happen in England, if we ever get a week or two of heavy snow. Probably supermarkets would run out of food and we'd get people starving to death.

Government should take responsibility for ensuring that all main roads are safe and passable 365 days of the year.
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What a waste of money that would be.
 
dirtydog said:
Is it because a lot of people on here are office / IT workers, that they seem to think we can all work from home?

What if the bad weather went on for a long time?

I personally didn't go to work because I'm a hero, I went primarily because otherwise I wouldn't get paid. Also to do the job I'm paid for, which I think I have a duty to turn up for unless I have a good reason - and a bit of snow in winter ain't it.
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1: The weather never does go on for long time.
2: I don't know anyone who for not going to work today, will not get paid. Obviously this depends on your profession and circumstances and if you have to you have to.
 
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