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| | Monday, 13 January, 2003, 09:40 GMT Winter weather: Your experiences 
Click here to see your second set of photos Or click here to see your first set of photos Plunging temperatures have brought continued ice and snow to the UK which is still recovering from recent floods. Snow has fallen on London - a very rare sight in the city - and people in Kent, Essex and the West Country have woken up to a white countryside. This week has seen temperatures as low as minus 15C in the Scottish Highlands and a couple of degrees below freezing in most of England and Wales. However, the winter wonderland has brought no delight for many commuters as trains have been disrupted by the freezing weather. And the United States has experienced freak snowstorms which affected the north-eastern part of the country as well as wreaking havoc in the Mid-West. How are you finding this winter? Have you been affected by floods or snow? Send us your experiences. Do you have any seasonal digital photos that you would like to share? If you would like us to publish your view of winter, please send your pictures (in jpg form) to [email protected] This Talking Point has now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
Alex Wilcock, UK My 5 year old has just begged me to get his skis out so he can go and play with his friends as breaktime in kindergarden. Perfect weather to stay in with a "Good King Wenceslas" pizza: Deep pan, crisp and even... One of the disadvantages of working from home is that I can't use the excuse that the snow stopped me from going into work, and there's no-one around to have a snowball fight with either! Just as well that it hasn't snowed here in Derby yet, really.... The TV announcers over here were having a bit of fun with England's couple of inches of snow since we usually get four feet in Ontario. England has never been a country prepared for harsh weather; no snow tyres, no windshield wipers, no proper clothing. Even Tony Blair walked out to his car yesterday foolishly wearing only a short jacket. Some advice from a place that gets a lot of it: Drive slowly, go into neutral at intersections or if you feel the road is slippery underneath, and always carry a blanket and flares in the car as well as a candle and matches. If you were to slide into a ditch, these small items could save your life.
Mandy Smith, Scotland Seeing snow in Soho Square was one in a lifetime opportunity indeed! Winter in Britain is gonna be cold and windy anyway... why not add the extra bit of snow which at least makes everyone a little more cheerful than when it's just raining all the time? Come on - you're all secretly love the idea of an inch of snow causing chaos. It's a damn fine excuse not to go into work! Ah, 1987 we had real snow, proper drifts and everything (I was in the Cotswolds, some were about six feet). I was eight years old and loving it! The snowplough cleared all the roads on our estate and left a big mound at the end of my road, I dug it out and made an igloo, guarded by snowmen!
Lisa, UK Well once again the whole of the country seems to be getting snow etc, but here in sunny Chorley, Lancashire, not one flake, zip, nowt, nothing. How totally boring. Still never mind maybe I'll wake up in the morning to three feet of snow!! I really feel for those who suffer in the cold, older people for example or the homeless. My rented flat is pretty cold at the moment. I sleep wearing a hat and two jumpers beneath a sleeping bag and two duvets. Brrr. People should learn to turn negatives into positives. Instead of moaning or using the bad weather as an excuse, they should learn from it. I used it to learn how to control my car at speed in poor conditions. I learned not to rely on technology, as I quickly found out ABS brakes and Pirellis have limits. But it was good fun and put a smile on my face slipping and sliding around on snow.
Alex White, UK From where I am, it looks beautiful. It's not as if you have it all year round... so wrap up and enjoy nature. It hides many a sore sight, especially in London! I love the snow. I am in San Diego where it is boringly the same all the time, I am going to London end of January, keep some for me!
Helen B, England To date, it's been the mildest winter in Ottawa since we have moved here from England. Normally by now we would have had 30 to 40 inches of snow on the ground. Enjoy the snow back home while it lasts. The view from my office window across Hammersmith has transformed into a winter wonderland in a matter of hours - people are as cheerful as if it were 80 degrees of blazing sunshine outside! Who cares if the tubes and trains can't cope? Find a nice snowy spot and take it all in, it's better than cold and drizzly rain!
Claire, Essex, England Growing up in Durham, I remember having a good two weeks of snow, and lots of it, right up into my teens. Can anyone remember 1987? Durham got an extra 12 inches each night for about two weeks. Now it seems an inch is pushing things, even up there, and is enough to make the headlines. Winter? What winter? Here in northern British Columbia we're enjoying the effects of El Nino and haven't even seen any snow yet!! Usually by this time of year we have about three feet of snow and it's -20. But I should point out not all Canadians can deal with the snow - my neighbours in southern BC don't know what a snow tyre is either...!
Kevin Peterson, Massachusetts, USA Last weekend I was out in the Trossachs doing some hill walking. The day was perfectly crisp and calm following several days of snowfall, which allowed for some amazing views of Ben Venue reflected on the surface of one of the lochs. The great views didn't end there, as a few hours later I reached the top of the aforementioned mountain, and was treated to a superb 360 degree panorama of most of the Southern Highlands like something from an alpine postcard. The views stretched from Edinburgh way off to the south east to Glencoe in the north west, giving a day that I'll remember for years. I'm just so glad I'm here and not back at home at the moment, it's 28C and it's really hard, going to the beach every weekend... I expect the supermarkets have already run out of bread and milk... Life's a beach... Happy New Year everyone. I was in London in the winter of 1987 and there was about four inches of snow. I just could not understand London's problems with its weather. I noticed shopkeepers did not shovel the sidewalks and all the cabs seemed to have run down batteries. The first thing one should do is shovel the sidewalks so people can get around. I noticed everyone complaining about it but NO-ONE going out and shovelling it out of the way; it was the strangest attitude to me. In the northern US we watch the winter coming in and get the snowploughs ready before the storms hit; if we didn't, there would be positive chaos in every major northern US city.
J Helyar, Australia I suppose the feature of the UK is the wet climate we have. The moisture makes the cold unpleasant and if we do get snow it tends to be wet, slushy stuff rather than the dry powder they get elsewhere. This is probably why things tend to grind to a halt when we have a cold spell. It is a matter of quantity. If you get regular snow you are set up to deal with it. We don't. We get an inch of it packed hard onto the streets and on the railways which quickly forms black ice. Then two days later it's all gone. How could we possibly invest millions in specialist gear to solve such a little problem? Put another woolly on and walk, or stay at home. My girlfriend is in Minsk, Belarus just now. It's -28 there today! Colder than Moscow.
John Carey, Surrey UK There are a couple of simple reasons why we can't cope with freezing conditions as well as they can in America and Scandinavia. Firstly, the air here has a much higher moisture content, which creates difficulties with icing, and secondly, they get much more of it and are therefore better geared up to deal with it. It just reminds me of a cartoon my uncle used to have "Due to snow, England has been cancelled!" How true to life! My favourite story involves an explanation from the train companies. The points were frozen causing delays. The points normally have heaters to prevent this happening, but it was too cold, and they stopped working! Does this not defeat the objective? I disagree that we can't handle snow in Britain. I can't speak for Scotland, but while I lived in Northumberland, it was usual for things to freeze over for weeks at a time, and it did not bring things to a halt. It seems a London and South East phenomenon that people suddenly forget how to drive safely when there's snow and ice. Might I suggest that those shocked by the appearance of snow try venturing north of the Watford Gap services to learn how we cope up there?
Leila, UK It's not cold! It never gets properly cold in the UK - cold weather is something that happens in places like Minneapolis or Helsinki. The problem is when the temperature is around zero the snow binds together and is much harder to clear than the powder which falls when the temperature is many degrees colder. It has, however, been quite wet lately. Last weekend the River Thames where I live was at its highest level since 1947. Fortunately there was no serious flooding of property, since the floodplain locally has not been developed. As Billy Connolly once said "There's no such thing as bad weather, just wrong clothes." Get a grip Britain - its only a bit of snow.
Jonas, Sweden I live in the suburbs of Paris where we have had 4-5" of snow since Saturday. You would think that in a country where a winter trip to the Alps for a skiing holiday is quite common that the disruption would be minimal. Well no. There must be only one gritter lorry in the whole of the Paris region and to say that people here don't know how to drive in the snow is an understatement, not to mention the trains, planes, etc. Mind you the last time it snowed here was 1998 when 1" fell and caused even more chaos...
Paul Eggleton, UK This snow is terrible. This morning there was nearly an inch on my lawn. It was treacherous. Why doesn't Tony Blair do something about it? I cycled two miles from my home in Bedfordshire to my local train station at 6:30am this morning, as I do every morning. Some people suggested that as snow was falling and it was below freezing, this was crazy and that I should have tried to get a lift. People today have become such wusses! I was toasty warm in two jumpers, gloves and a hat. It's a shame my train couldn't have adapted to the cold weather in the way I did... I live on the Wirral, but I've been working in New Jersey for the last three months. I have seen more snow since I've been here than I have in the last five years at home. The difference in the way the countries cope is astonishing - even on Christmas Day, when a foot of snow fell where I am, the snowploughs and gritters were out and the roads were clear. However, I am never going to panic about driving in an inch of snow again! There's a simple solution - ban going to work when the weather is like this. It can't be very good for you leaving your house when it's cold and dark.
Michelle, UK, writing from Denmark Not sure the councils really know what they're doing around here... Yesterday the gritting lorry was being followed closely by the road sweeper! OK it's a bit fresh outside but nothing more than that... Join the club, we have -17 this morning and forecast blowing snow for this afternoon. Consider yourself lucky that you only have this temperature/weather once a while. I would like to contrast the results of half an inch of snow in London with 6 inches of snow in New York. Back in November I was in New York. It was very cold, but there was no snow. Overnight 6 inches of snow fell. The train to Greenwich CT from Grand Central left to the second of its departure time. There didn't seem to be any evidence of "treacherous" conditions there. Why do we have to exaggerate the effects of half an inch of snow? The car locks in New York and Greenwich didn't seem to be frozen up, why should they be here?
Helen, UK It's not cold, it's not even chilly. It distresses me, to say the least, that people in this country cannot cope with a small cold spell without going into hibernation. In my day, we were down the mines in all weathers and sweeping roads - up at the crack of dawn as well I'll have you know! Put a jacket and a hot on and get out there - that's what I say. Why is it that the Scandinavian countries can cope with much colder weather over longer periods and yet a small cold snap and we seem to flounder? It's not as if it should surprise us that the weather has these cold periods; it happens every year (hint: around winter - hence its name). | | Internet links:  The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Talking Point stories now: Links to more Talking Point stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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