It’s snowing in London!
In fact, it’s been snowing all day today (2 Feb — Candelmas!), and apparently most of last night.
I know that for those of you who live in chillier and snowier climes, this would be no big deal. And I enjoy the snow for the snow’s sake myself. The problem is that, although London is essentially as far north as Calgary, it has a much more moderate clime. (The reasons for this are somewhat debated, but the consensus puts it on the Gulf Stream.) Thus, like many cities far further south, London enjoys fairly warm winters and rarely gets this much snow. The BBC reports that this is the worst snow storm to hit this end of the UK for 18 years. And, like warmer clime cities, London doesn’t have the snow-removal infrastructure to handle it all.
Here are some pix of our yard, house, and street in the snow. It’s lovely, when you don’t have to go anywhere and have a nice warm house to crouch down inside…
The front of our house in the snow. Note the depth of snow on the front wall.
Back yard of our house in the snow. I love the snow on the branches.
The primary school behind our house. Needless to say, school's out today.
View down our street in the snow. Note that at noon, the snow has not yet been plowed.
What does this mean for us? Snow day! The city is essentially paralyzed, with even Heathrow experiencing partial closures. The city busses are out, which means that it would be excruciating for us to go into the city if we wanted to. And you know the weather’s bad when it shuts down the subway:
Snow paralyzes the London Tube lines
Fortunately, the Turkish grocery on the corner is open today, so we were able to pick up some staples. The owner seemed happy to have business today…
Did the subway actually shut down due to the snow itself, or because less demand was expected (since school was out and many businesses probably also closed)?
We’ve been having a cold snap out here in L.A. ourselves (today’s high: 57 F). You may extend your sympathies at any time. :)
It was actually the snow itself. It’s a little bit less strange than I made it sound, though. A number of the Tube lines have substantial above-ground sections outside of the city center. (For example, the Piccadilly line, which runs near our place and ends at Heathrow airport, is above ground for about 10 stops/30 minutes between Heathrow and the City.) So those sections got hammered and couldn’t get trains through. They did run some trains in the underground sections, but, of course, the closed bits made everything a terrible snarl…
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