Snow in the UK? No really!
Feb. 3rd, 2009 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olivia_suttonHi all,
As some of may have guessed from my periodic posts on the subject, I'm genuinely interested in weather. For one thing it's always changing, and here in the Midwest, the weather frequently is news, but there's also a lot of weather-related stories that are just interesting. Out and out interesting.
I also recently discovered iGoogle. Now, talk about something fun to play with. iGoogle allows you to create your own "homepage" (it's not, really), and you can install widgets to it. It also includes a free RSS reader. The only catch is you have to find the newsfeeds using Google's list - as far as I know you can't type in a .url. But I've now got it set up with local radar, local temps/wind speed/wind chill, three Doctor Who news feeds (two from the Beeb itself and one from Outpost Gallifrey, plus the DW quote of the day), I also added a couple of BBC newsfeeds. Finally, some decent news (and I left CNN on there, just for contrast. I should look for a NY Times feed), oh -- and four Wired feeds - general, culture, science, and tech I think. But it's cool, and free and I urge you to try it.
But here's a story I've been following for two days: it snowed, in the UK, alot. London, England, got 8 inches of snow -- the city ground to a halt. Mind you, I still have over 8 inches of snow on my patio.
But, I think the problem really was that the UK just doesn't get snow like that so they didn't know what to do about it. Lots of schools were closed, but even workers couldn't get into work in downtown London because of the lack of buses (pulled off the road due to dangerous driving conditions) trains (snow on the rails, presumably), and even the tube was affected. Airports were closed, the Eurostar wasn't running (which was I think a train from London to France - which also got snow). It sounded pretty bad, actually. But It was also amusing, because, like hey -- we get all that sort of stuff all the time. Heck, it's been snowing since mid-November, with only periodic and short warm-ups.
What was amusing was a BBC reporter that they sent to Russia, who was talking about emergency equipment the Russians keep in their cars -- and he's holding a snow brush and a 2-liter bottle of windshield cleaning fluid -- and explaining what they are for.
And I'm thinking: "That's all?"
A well-equiped car in Michigan has the following in the trunk: snow brush with ice chipper, first aide kit (with space blanket), wool blanket, car emergency kit with jumper cables and extra bottles of all fluids, seperate 1-gallon bottle of windshield cleaning fluid (the type that doesn't freeze), WD-40, lock de-icer, as well as spare tires and belts. Oh, and 20-60 pounds of kitty litter (in bags) placed over the rear wheels - to prevent fishtailing, and to use in front of the tires if you get stuck (winter only). A snow shovel is also a good idea.
And in the back seat - an afghan (small blanket), and in rural areas, granola bars and water (tho' admitedly, this freezes, so you also need a way to warm it up). And a bright-colored bandana to tie to the radio aerial is also a good idea.
I've actually seen the required list for someplace in Canada (possibly Manitoba, I'm not sure) when I was looking to do some traveling - and it was not only longer, but even more detailed.
Yep, ready for any weather emergency, that's us. (For the record, you should also always have a battle-powered weather radio in the house).
But you should see the pics -- and the stories from the UK. Unbelieveable!
One thing I disagreed with, tho', was some (idiot, presumably) actually complained about schools being shut, saying "it sends the wrong message to children, that when it's rough you can just stay home".
Uh, no. We do that too - for blizzards, extremely low temps (where exposed skin will get instantaneous frostbite), and for ice storms. Most school districts in Michigan even have a schedule which has a few days built in to the schedule that are "extra" on the assumption that at some point during the school year, kids will get a snow day. The deal is -- closing schools and businesses gets hundreds of people off the roads, reducing accidents and making clean-up easier. Point two - during a bad snow storm or blizzard it really is much too dangerous to drive. Believe me, you do NOT want to be behind the wheel of a car during white outs and blowing and drifting snow. I mean, on the 18th of December I was dressed, make-up on (ugg) and all set for work, and fortunately actually had the TV on and watched the coverage of the snow storm we got (the first of three in December 2008), and when the state cops warned people not to drive and to only go out if it was absolutely necessary, I re-thought my plans and didn't go in to work.
Closing businesses and schools - keeps people off the roads, defacto preventing accidents, and clears the roads for emergency workers and the county road commission (who clean-up the snow).
Well, enough of my views on UK weather, here's mine, directly from NOAA.
Temp: 12 F (-11 C)
Humidity: 67 % (that's real low for here)
Wind speed: N 10 MPH
Wind Chill: -1 F (-18 C)
And we're supposed to get snow flurries overnight.
--Olivia
As some of may have guessed from my periodic posts on the subject, I'm genuinely interested in weather. For one thing it's always changing, and here in the Midwest, the weather frequently is news, but there's also a lot of weather-related stories that are just interesting. Out and out interesting.
I also recently discovered iGoogle. Now, talk about something fun to play with. iGoogle allows you to create your own "homepage" (it's not, really), and you can install widgets to it. It also includes a free RSS reader. The only catch is you have to find the newsfeeds using Google's list - as far as I know you can't type in a .url. But I've now got it set up with local radar, local temps/wind speed/wind chill, three Doctor Who news feeds (two from the Beeb itself and one from Outpost Gallifrey, plus the DW quote of the day), I also added a couple of BBC newsfeeds. Finally, some decent news (and I left CNN on there, just for contrast. I should look for a NY Times feed), oh -- and four Wired feeds - general, culture, science, and tech I think. But it's cool, and free and I urge you to try it.
But here's a story I've been following for two days: it snowed, in the UK, alot. London, England, got 8 inches of snow -- the city ground to a halt. Mind you, I still have over 8 inches of snow on my patio.
But, I think the problem really was that the UK just doesn't get snow like that so they didn't know what to do about it. Lots of schools were closed, but even workers couldn't get into work in downtown London because of the lack of buses (pulled off the road due to dangerous driving conditions) trains (snow on the rails, presumably), and even the tube was affected. Airports were closed, the Eurostar wasn't running (which was I think a train from London to France - which also got snow). It sounded pretty bad, actually. But It was also amusing, because, like hey -- we get all that sort of stuff all the time. Heck, it's been snowing since mid-November, with only periodic and short warm-ups.
What was amusing was a BBC reporter that they sent to Russia, who was talking about emergency equipment the Russians keep in their cars -- and he's holding a snow brush and a 2-liter bottle of windshield cleaning fluid -- and explaining what they are for.
And I'm thinking: "That's all?"
A well-equiped car in Michigan has the following in the trunk: snow brush with ice chipper, first aide kit (with space blanket), wool blanket, car emergency kit with jumper cables and extra bottles of all fluids, seperate 1-gallon bottle of windshield cleaning fluid (the type that doesn't freeze), WD-40, lock de-icer, as well as spare tires and belts. Oh, and 20-60 pounds of kitty litter (in bags) placed over the rear wheels - to prevent fishtailing, and to use in front of the tires if you get stuck (winter only). A snow shovel is also a good idea.
And in the back seat - an afghan (small blanket), and in rural areas, granola bars and water (tho' admitedly, this freezes, so you also need a way to warm it up). And a bright-colored bandana to tie to the radio aerial is also a good idea.
I've actually seen the required list for someplace in Canada (possibly Manitoba, I'm not sure) when I was looking to do some traveling - and it was not only longer, but even more detailed.
Yep, ready for any weather emergency, that's us. (For the record, you should also always have a battle-powered weather radio in the house).
But you should see the pics -- and the stories from the UK. Unbelieveable!
One thing I disagreed with, tho', was some (idiot, presumably) actually complained about schools being shut, saying "it sends the wrong message to children, that when it's rough you can just stay home".
Uh, no. We do that too - for blizzards, extremely low temps (where exposed skin will get instantaneous frostbite), and for ice storms. Most school districts in Michigan even have a schedule which has a few days built in to the schedule that are "extra" on the assumption that at some point during the school year, kids will get a snow day. The deal is -- closing schools and businesses gets hundreds of people off the roads, reducing accidents and making clean-up easier. Point two - during a bad snow storm or blizzard it really is much too dangerous to drive. Believe me, you do NOT want to be behind the wheel of a car during white outs and blowing and drifting snow. I mean, on the 18th of December I was dressed, make-up on (ugg) and all set for work, and fortunately actually had the TV on and watched the coverage of the snow storm we got (the first of three in December 2008), and when the state cops warned people not to drive and to only go out if it was absolutely necessary, I re-thought my plans and didn't go in to work.
Closing businesses and schools - keeps people off the roads, defacto preventing accidents, and clears the roads for emergency workers and the county road commission (who clean-up the snow).
Well, enough of my views on UK weather, here's mine, directly from NOAA.
Temp: 12 F (-11 C)
Humidity: 67 % (that's real low for here)
Wind speed: N 10 MPH
Wind Chill: -1 F (-18 C)
And we're supposed to get snow flurries overnight.
--Olivia
