UK weather

[Peter Korsten]

Martin Naef schreef:

> Absolutely. The amount of snow is definitely nothing to worry about if 
> you're used to dealing with it. But here in the UK, people aren't (ok, 
> the Scottish Highlands might be different). For a start, everybody in 
> Switzerland has a shovel in their garage to clean the driveway, council 
> trucks can be equiped with snow ploughs, and I assume farmers are 
> contracted as well to clean the streets with their tractors. So it needs 
> to snow really badly before the roads become difficult to drive on - 
> especially given that everybody has a different set of tyres for the 
> winter. Same for public transport: the train services have snow ploughs 
> as well, points have integrated heating to keep them functional even 
> under low temperatures.

This reminds me of a holiday to Canada (Ontario) around Christmas time 
in... 1998, I think. When I arrived, for the first few days it was 
actually warmer in Canada than in the Netherlands, and I figured, such a 
fuss about those Canadian winters.

Then, one night, about a foot and a half of snow fell. The village was 
cut off, and now it became clear why all the Canadians drive big pick-up 
trucks: they put a snow plough in front (for which they get paid), and a 
trailer with a snowmobile at the back.

Obviously, it was I who had to clear a path to the street, and what with 
North America having lots of space, the house was some distance from the 
street. Farther than I liked, anyway.

The next night, it snowed again, and I had to redo all the work of the 
day before. By that time, the magical shine of snow began to wear off a bit.

For the rest of the holiday, it was OK. Except on the way back from 
Hanover to Toronto, in one of those old coaches, when the weather was 
getting progressively worse and they actually closed the airport an hour 
after we took off.

> But: If you get a touch of snow once a year, and a couple of inches once 
> a decade, there's little point to have such a massive infrastructure in 
> place. On the other hand, I'm surprised how badly the Scottish roads 
> cope with a bit of rain - massive puddles everywhere causing huge 
> delays. It's not like rain would be the exception...

Well, see how the Maltese roads deal with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf3ODifNE88&NR=1

Only six weeks ago! I noticed the hail, but didn't know that such a lot 
came down in Valletta.

Please note that a thick layer of hail won't stop it from being nice and 
sunny. :)

- Peter