The Snowpocalypse…

It’s amazing how quickly the whole European continent can shut down simply by mixing water with very, very cold temperatures. Unless you’ve been hibernating for the last two months, you may have noticed the snowpocalypse occurring across our green and pleasant lands. Up and down the country snow has been falling at an alarming rate, precipitating mass canned-food buying, panic, declarations and conspiracy theories heralding the arrival of a new ice-age, as well as the usual traffic mayhem and chaos that ultimately accompanies icy conditions. Once again Britain, and large parts of mainland Europe, has ground to an inevitable and frosty halt under the pure weight of Mother Nature’s cold bits.

Parts of the UK have of course suffered more than others. In Scotland one woman was stranded for 17 days after she left her remote home before Christmas to buy a turkey. High winds and snowfall have caused mayhem for thousands of others, parts of the country have been virtually sealed off for weeks and many more have been left without power or essential services.

Festive travellers and commuters have been hardest hit by treacherous conditions. Motorways and major roads have become ghost-lands, airports have closed runways and hundreds of flights have endured delays and cancellations. Millions have been forced to make alternative arrangement either by rail or by hire car to complete their journeys. Just before the Xmas holidays the Eurostar train broke down on its way from France, trapping hundreds of travellers for nearly an entire day. With so much chaos out there it’s amazing that anyone is making it from A- B.

This week the MET office provided more weather warnings, urging people to stay home and avoid all unnecessary travel. The latest cold front ‘daisy’ has continued to move across Europe dropping tonnes of snow across all of Northern Germany and France. In an effort to stem the tide and return the nations transport system to some kind of order, the UK government has been forced to import tonnes of salt and grit from Europe and America. Luckily enough for most people reports suggest that the cold weather front is due to dissipate within the next few days leaving us with slightly balmier weather, ergo rain…