Britain is Never Prepared for Winter, Why Not?
Published by Lord Banks on November 28, 2010 in Europe-
6
Liked it 
Subscribe to RSS
My views on the British climate and why we cannot deal with it.
Britain is never ever prepared for winter!
In Britain as a nation we are never prepared for winter? Britain is on the same Latitude as Russia! However for not one moment will I equate our winters to Russia’s. Since I was a young man I can remember hard winters when roads were closed and the country virtually ground to a halt because of the freezing temperatures and heavy snow fall.
In the 1990’s Britain’s weather pattern changed, our winters became warm in comparison to pre 1990’s winters. Snow around December and January became a thing of the past! We as a nation accepted a change in our climate. Personally I do not like cold weather as I suffer Arthritis which makes winter for me almost intolerable.
Last year 2009 was the harshest winter I can remember since the 1980’s. In Yorkshire my partner and me were trapped in the house for two days, due to the depth of cold and heavy snow. I have driven a car since the 1980’s and I was assuming our Ford would start even though it was so cold. One Tuesday morning I attempted to start our Ford and it refused point blank to start. The ambient temperature gauge read -13 degrees! The electrolyte (Acid and Water) froze! The car battery would not relay electrical current to the starter motor.
I called the emergency breakdown company to attend our car although I am a qualified Motor Engineer I due to health issues registered with a road side assistance company. The breakdown engineer turned up with 2 hours and he looked shattered, he had been working since day break jump starting cars that were too cold to start. The engineer had 12 break downs to attend after me! The ratio of Acid and water in our car batteries is wrong for winter time. The distilled water freezes.
Many countries who are used to harsh winters use a jelly type electrolyte that does not freeze as easily. Cars also he a heater which keeps the engine temp high enough to start on cold mornings. Scientists believe global warming is causing hard winters in north Europe? The winters we have now are no harsher than winters of 30 tears ago. We as a nation have accepted that winters will be mild and do not stock enough road salt to maintain our roads. Our trains freeze up and are not useable. Our airports cannot cope with the snow on their runways and have to close.
If weather scientists are to be believed we should be getting harsher and harsher winters in Britain in the foreseeable future. Cars will need to be modified for colder winters. The availability of road salt will need to double at least, if not treble. Airport runways will need to be heated along with the passenger jet aircraft else we will be cut off from the rest of the world in Britain in the winter!
Lord Banks
Funny LB my Celica would not start this morning! It was that cold and that car always fires up! Anyway the UK needs to grit the roads far more often and post more salt and grit bins on streets. Other than that, the UK government should give every household a salt grant allowance and allow people by law to go out and salt their pathway and part of road by their house. This would help keep the side roads clear and footpaths free of ice and snow. No doubt the purists would argue about the cost and potential “sue me” situations as it is against the law to clear a public pathway in the UK.
Wow! This is impressive. That is very harsh weather. I can\\\’t imagine driving with all that snow. And then shoveling all that snow in the morning probably takes hours and even days. It must be terrible to wake up in the morning and yes the cold temperature as well as humidity is terrible for the joints. my mom suffers from arthritis too. As far as the salt, I am assuming that it is becoming scarce with all that snow, but this will definitely be an expensive project. It seems that Britain is under a state of emergency.
DLB…we have had snow for just one week and already it is almost knee deep in the back yard and I have two-foot drifts on my front lawn along with a five-foot high pile of snow and we have only just started…I have plugged my car in a couple of times already, but think I could had got away without it…but better safe than sorry…my scoop shovel, snow shovel and snow scoop have been overworked already this week…the biggest problem with them is that they are not self-starters and refuse to work on their own!!! I liked this one…reminds me of the days when I was driving tow truck responding to winter emergencies…thanks, take care and stay safe and warm
If we had bad winters EVERY year we’d get used to them, but since we often have mild winters we seem to be reluctant to take precautions that might or might not turn out to be needed.
I’m not a cold weather person at all. The winter season has’nt got here yet and I’m ready for Spring now. I hope we don’t have a harsh winter this year. I’m not looking forward to spending days trapped at home alone.
great share
I have a similar take on winter in my local area. I currently live in West Virgina, USA and the winters aren’t overly horrible, but because this is such a mountainous region, just a little snow and ice makes the roads impassable. It seems that people don’t think about this until the snow falls then wonder why they cannot get out of their driveways, much less down the highway to work. I’m originally from Detroit and snow was nothing. You could get a foot of snow and though it would slow things down, the world kept on moving.
I enjoyed reading this, though now I could go for a hot cocoa.
Try living in Florida, we are never ready for freezing temps.