[Leica] Re: UK snowstorm

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

It all depends on what you're used to and 
prepared for. People in Florida aren't fools for 
not being able to deal with snow; I'm not 
prepared to deal with alligators here.

I grew up mostly in northern Alberta, where snow 
comes starting September and is largely gone 
early May. Every year. When the first snow comes 
there are some accidents and then people get used 
to it again, the snowplows come out and life goes 
on.

Here in Vancouver we usually get a bit of snow, 
then it rains soon after and that's it until next 
year. If it's 6 inches we hunker down for a day.

When we get a lot of snow like this year, we're 
in trouble. The city doesn't have real snowplows, 
the streets aren't designed for snow clearing, 
and people for the most part don't use winter 
tires, just all-seasons. Also, the temperature is 
near 0 (all temps in Celsius) when it's at its 
slipperiest. In Alberta we can go years without 
snow that we can make a snowman out of; on the 
other hand it's real easy to clear with a snow 
blower.

A foot of snow at -20? is a lot different than a 
foot of snow at 0?. The latter causes your car to 
get hung up, the former is hardly slippery and 
only causes real problems if it's drifted into 
hard pack.

There's a town here in BC, on the Trans-Canada 
Highway, that gets 20+ feet of snow per year. The 
snowbanks at the sides are a lot higher than the 
trucks. They have snow clearing equipment, a 
budget for it and you don't park your car at the 
side of the road where the snow plows come 
through. They don't have a problem.

In northern Alberta there was one town where I 
lived where the temperature went down to -55? at 
least once each winter, and in the summer it 
regularly hit 45? as a high. If those 
temperatures came to London, it would truly be a 
disaster, but that town in Alberta was 
(reasonably) ready for those temperatures, and no 
extra fuss was made about them.

It's only the exceptional that wasn't reasonably 
prepared for that really causes problems, not the 
fact of the snow/temperature/rain etc in itself. 
People are mostly very good at dealing with 
whatever weather they usually get.




At 7:12 PM -0700 2/2/09, Charcot wrote:
>As a former Syracusian - now in Denver I can say 
>that after a few mild winters you can get soft. 
>Last Monday we had maybe 6 inches with the 
>snowfall stopping at 1 PM - the moans and groans 
>were unbelievable.
>AND all these Coloradoans with their hugh SUVs - 
>There's more of 'em per capita here in Denver 
>than in Syraucse!  I once heard of someone 
>AFRAID to taker their Hummer out in weather like 
>this!!!!
>
>
>ernie nitka
>On Feb 2, 2009, at 6:26 PM, Charlie Meyer wrote:
>
>>  A Englishwoman friend on a Basset Hound email 
>>list was wondering if Britain was the only 
>>nation who cannot handle 6 inches of snow. I 
>>assured her it was not the case at all.
>>
>>  I am a native of upstate NY long ago. When my 
>>son married up there last fall, his PharmD 
>>bride made it clear they were moving up there 
>>once the Northern Virginia housing market 
>>improves. Brendan had never seen winter north 
>>of the DC Beltway.  I told him I would buy him 
>>his first pair of snowshoes.
>>
>>  When several inches of snow covered the roads 
>>as I arrived in Athens, GA 25 years ago, a 
>>helpless panic that approximated the Second 
>>Coming gripped Jawja.
>>
>>  I told dear Rebecca how the Merkins in DC 
>>would deal with such a snow storm: Everyone 
>>piles into their 4WD 'Chelsea Tractors' and 
>>race to the Tesco to stock up on milk, lavy 
>>rolls, and 'family planning needs', so 
>>everything can close tightly for a few days.
>>
>>  She said the M25 round London was backed up 
>>fifty miles. I thought that was normal most 
>>times I was on the M25. Several weeks ago, an 
>>overturned beer truck backed up the M25.  Maybe 
>>Brits don't handle snow all that badly.
>>
>>  Photos of Morse the Basset Hound seems to show 
>>he was having a ball in the Chelmsford snow.
>>
>>  FWIW, when it snows here in the mountains, 
>>this Upstate Native wonders what possessed him 
>>to leave Honolulu.
>>
>>  Charlie
>>
>>  On Feb 2, 2009, at 7:29 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>>
>>>  The news this evening was full of accounts of 
>>>a "catastrophic" snowstorm which buried London 
>>>in a foot of snow. All activity in London came 
>>>to an abrupt halt save for snowball battles 
>>>amongst bankers and stockbrokers who couldn't 
>>>get to their usual jobs of cheating the 
>>>public. This verifies my opinion that most 
>>>Brits are weather wimps. A foot of lake effect 
>>>snow falls every winter day before lunch in 
>>>upstate NY, Vermont and New Hampshire. Buffalo 
>>>and Syracuse had over 100 inches so far this 
>>>year and Punxitawny  Pete promised another 6 
>>>weeks of winter to come.
>>>
>>>  Can some UK photographers brave the snow with 
>>>their Leicas and document the trials and 
>>>tribulations of snowbound Londoners? Perhaps 
>>>Gee Bee can show pictures of cross country 
>>>skiers in the Lake Country.
>>>
>>>  Larry Z
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>  Leica Users Group.
>>>  See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>
>>  Charlie Meyer
>>  West Virginia Coordinator
>>  Basset Rescue of Old Dominion, Inc. (BROOD)
>>  Droolassic Park
>>  Keyser, WV
>>
>>  Basset Hound Rescue: Work With Women. Pick Up Dogs.
>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Leica Users Group.
>>  See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

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    *            Henning J. Wulff
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