Around ten o'clock on Friday 26th November 2010 it started to snow. I did not notice, but a friend who had intended to play golf the following morning did. On Saturday I headed over to Glasgow to visit the Apple Store and regretted not taking my camera as the whole country was covered in snow and looked fantastic.
This was the start of two weeks of snow and sub zero temperatures.
This cold snap has come earlier than usual, but more importantly it included a substantial amount of snow. Where I live there was over two feet of snow. When you get that kind of volume of snow it is not just a case of sweeping it to one side, the sheer volume of the stuff becomes a problem. Some people have cleared their driveways but created impassable mounds of snow on the pavement. Tractors have been used to clear car parks and create mounds of snow several metres high. A roundabout near me has several such mounds.
There have also been sustained periods of subzero temperatures. That means that the snow does not thaw, it just compacts down a bit more. We have had day time temperatures of minus 8, and when snow has thawed from the roof, it has frozen again into icicles or as soon as it hit the ground.
Scotland's infrastructure is not really designed for this sort of sustained weather. There have been icicles a metre long hanging off buildings everywhere, and the weight of ice has taken down countless gutters. Roofloads of snow and ice have slid down suddenly demolishing whatever lies beneath. A friend says a pile came off her tenement roof destroying some teak outdoors furniture. Non main roads have been hidden beneath snow and ice for weeks with no indication of where they were beyond any car tracks that were upon them. Even main roads have struggled to stay at all clear with the motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow being closed for a number of days. There was sustained heavy snow on the afternoon of Monday 6th December and Lothian Buses suspended all services in Edinburgh for four hours, and then only ran buses till 9 in the evening. The trains have been operating without a timetable for a fortnight, our service being completely cancelled on Friday 3rd, most of Wednesday 8th and all of Thursday 9th. We were even frozen out of the station shelter when the door froze shut. The Forth Road Bridge has been closed a number of times because of the snow and accidents.
At times the shops have run out of food, petrol stations are running out of petrol. The schools were shut for the first week, which was not actually as bad as the second week when they were open.
It has been a nightmare using public transport, I've even had to stay over in a chilly B&B one night as there was no way to get home.
Thankfully the daytime temperatures are now enough for the snow to start thawing and it feels like we are past the worst of it all. A few observations.
Sustained temperatures below zero are extremely exhausting to endure, you burn up a lot of energy very quickly, waiting for public transport is exhausting in cold temperatures. You just want to eat carbohydrates and not fruit!
When snow thaws and instantly freezes it is very dangerous, very heavy, unpredictable and not where you want it to be, such as poised above your head.
When you have over a foot of snow it is a whole different world, clearing your path is virtually impossible and the volumes of snow quickly become unmanageable.
Flat roofs are dangerous. Snow will steadily accumulate and can either collapse your roof, many farm animals have died this way, or suddenly slough off in an avalanche.
You don't want anything to be underneath an avalanche that comes off a roof. It could kill you.
Our trains and carriages were apparently designed for mediterannean climates and cannot cope with sustained periods of snow and ice. They can accumulate tons of ice underneath. Many essential items are on the underside of the train, such as brakes, and with a ton of ice, they can just stop working. Ideally you would want to thaw out the whole train, like you would defrost a fridge, but where or how could you do this to hundreds of trains?
Our train points are not designed for prolonged periods below zero, they freeze. They can put electric blankets over them as a bodge.
The modern super interconnected world does not really deliver useful information in an emergency situation.
On a more positive note, I am not aware of anyone in Scotland dying directly as a result of the recent cold snap, which is actually really surprising and a testament to peoples good sense.
The gas, electricity, phones all continued to work, the post got through sporadically though delivery services gave up for a week.
While some people have been selfish and inconsiderate, for example making sure their drive was snow free while stacking a mountain of snow onto the pavement making it totally impassable, most have been good humoured and helpful once you get speaking to them.
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