Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/02/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yeah, I know that Brits are wimps when it comes to snow. Let's just put this in context: when Frank talks of "rare" events he means rare. I was brought up in London. The only major dump that I saw was the winter of 1962/3 when we had a number of weeks with twelve inches or so of snow lying - and it snowed frequently during. The sea froze and stayed that way for several weeks. It also covered most of the UK which is unusual. There may have been one or two comparable falls in the intervening 45 years in southern England, but nothing compares. This is a lot of snow (for us) in one night - and then the following day. So what is the RoI on investing in US-style snow-clearing machinery for the UK? Nil. That's why investment levels are adequate for ther odd frosty night, but little else. That doesn't mean that we don't get cold weather (over the last few years we have had regular periods in the winter with night temperatures in the -5 to -10C region where I live now) sometimes. HOwever this is a temperate country on the edge of the Gulf STream and we don't get your weather - of any extreme. Yet. Peter Frank Dernie wrote: > Due to budget cuts things which are expensive and rarely used are no > longer on the agenda. Even on the Pennines, where admittedly winters > have been getting milder until recently, cuts mean there is no way to > clear roads of snow any more. Public transport likewise, it is cheaper > to have disruption 2 or 3 days a year than invest in expensive machinery -- =========================================================== Dr Peter Dzwig