For the past week the
Met office has been issuing dire warnings of the large amount of snow
expected within a few days. Disruption of power supplies, road
closures, school closures, you know the drill, well we waited, and
waited ,and waited,for the heavy snowfall that was foretold.
Situated in an area
where winter snow storms are often severe I suppose they considered
it a safe bet that we should be one of those worst hit, and so did
we.
Yesterday our logs
arrived, we had ordered them a little early before the weather closed
in, stocked the freezer with fresh meat and ensured that we had
enough candles ,lamp oil and other necessities and went to bed last
night expecting to find that there had been heavy snow overnight.
Thorough out the night,
whenever I happened to be awake I peeped through the curtains and
each time I was disappointed, not only was there no snow but the sky
was as clear as crystal and set with a million stars. By morning the
garden was as green as ever and I put aside my plans for a snowman
for about the tenth time this winter!!!
Some areas had seen
snowfall but as far as I could see nothing extraordinary had taken
place. Of course the BBC did their best with this damp squib of a
story as each of the reporters sent out to witness this great
weather event made their appearance on roads where there was barely a
few inches of snow, possibly enough to bring London traffic to a
grinding halt but on Shap where folks are used to bad weather I must
say that the amount of snow would not have kept my brothers and I
from driving to the pub.
I do not call a snow
storm severe unless there are at least six feet deep drifts on the
roads, when I lived up on the moors It was often possible to walk on
snow as high as the tops of the telegraph poles,whole farms would be
buried and it could take days top did them out. Four , five six
centimetres? Please!
Still the Met Office
persisted in giving us further warnings and many trusting souls
believed what they heard. Our local shop was heaving throughout the
day with people buying extra bread, candles and gas
cannisters......finally at about two thirty the snow began to fall.
I looked so pretty
swirling down among the trees and it was thick enough to obscure the
distant hills with a curtain of thick white flakes, it snowed really
hard.......for about half an hour, and that was it, barely a couple
of centimetres.....what a swizz!
These days schools
close and transport grinds to a halt for such paltry amounts of snow,
it it had been so when I was a child living On the moors we would
have done very little schooling to speak of during the winter months.
Feat of accident, injury and above all court cases and compensation
claims are the cause of this wussy behaviour.
One reporter in Cumbria
told us that the road he was standing on had been closed since last
night and expressed his amazement that there was still quite a flow
of traffic. I would lay odds that these intrepid souls were local
farmers and business people who cannot afford to wimp out at the
first sign of a snow flake. The beasts must be feed if at all
possible and milk collected,why in 1963 during one of Britain's worst
ever winters our local farmers took their milk churns to the main
road across the fields on sledges as the roads were closed for weeks.
I suppose it is a
matter of degree.
O f course I do not
advocate unnecessary travel in severe weather, especially as modern
cars are just not up to the task. The problem is that because the
weather forecasts are so often wrong, people begin to ignore the
advice to remain at home, avoid travel and stay safe, after all, who
can afford to lose work for no good reason. Then when there truly is
a severe fall of snow they are invariably caught out , often with
tragic consequences.
A few years ago there
were so many false alarms that Local Authorities ran out of grit and
salt for the roads due to the fact that they had been gritting every
night for weeks on the erroneous advice of the Met Office! When the
snow did come there was no grit let and chaos ensued.
Speaking as one well
used to coping in extreme winter weather my advice would be to be
sensibly prepared at all times during the winter months. Prepare your
vehicle for winter with anti freeze in the radiator an ensure that
the vehicle is sound before the bad weather arrives. Carry a shovel
,a couple of sacks, a warm blanket and a flask of some thing hot to
drink and a packet of biscuits every time you make a journey.
No matter how good your
car's heating system , never leave home with out a warm water proof
coat, waterproof boots ,gloves , hat and a scarf., then if you do
become stranded you will at least be warm and reasonably safe from
hypothermia.
Remember you cannot
walk to safety in office shoes or driving moccasins!
As for those poor
reporters hanging about half way up Shap Fell or in the Black
Mountains , you may be sure that the identical moment they pack up
their traps and head for home a great blizzard will sweep the
land.....I think I'll go and wax my sledge runners.
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