With more adverse weather forecast up here in Scotland over the next few days, I pose the question: are we prepared?
Everyone who has experienced the snowfall this winter so far, they will know that the amount that lay, in such a short period of time was unseen – certainly in my lifetime (that I can remember). I did overhear a lady in the street saying that she hadn’t seen it ‘so bad since 1962′!
The snow lay at least 15cm deep in places (falling over a short period), causing mayhem for just about everyone who had to leave their home. People couldn’t make it to work, schools and further/higher education institutions were closed, and public transportation was brought to a stand-still – literally.
All of these closures and problems regarding transportation caused logistical nightmares for citizens. Children were stuck at school, parents were stuck at work, the elderly was housebound and people were forced to sleep in their motor vehicles overnight! The latter is quite bizarre, I know!
So the question is: how did all this happen and how prepared was the UK?
I suppose the simple answer is that it happened due to snowfall, and the UK wasn’t prepared. Lets delve into the issue further.
Cold and snowy winters seem to be an increasing occurrence over the last few years. Global warming? You’ve got to be kidding – it’s getting colder, I hear you say!
Last year, the UK had a cold and long winter which questioned the country’s readiness to deal with such an occurrence. Again, we had people stuck in cars on motorways due to snow, we had people home-bound due to snow and we had insufficient grit, which did not aid the matter!
Fortunately, this year the UK governments, and local councils, ordered larger reserves of grit in a measure to avoid the embarrassment of running out again. Fine and well – until the snow comes!
The snow arrives, and in abundance it does too. People get taken by complete surprise (council planners also), and we are in the same situation as the year before. One of mayhem.
People leave for work in the morning, see the snow falling at 10am, leave work at noon for home. They then get home to find that their street is completely untreated – so what do they do? You guessed, abandon their car – and others follow suit, thinking it is OK because Jim next door has. Put simply, these people aren’t helping themselves.
They are blocking gritters and snowploughs from clearing the snow. It simply causes greater frustration for them, and other road users in the long run: uncleared side-streets, but clear main streets really doesn’t help your average person get the car out of their street!
Airports in the UK come to a complete standstill when snow falls. It begs the question, why do places that get much more snowfall than us cope with only minor delays? Simple. Planning and equipment.
The UK simply isn’t planning effectively for this snowfall. We get the infamous weather warning from the MET office and the bombardment on National News of ‘SNOW’, but what help does this give us if we weren’t prepared in the first place.
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| Snow tyres |
People in places that expect major snowfall every year mitigate the problem by having the correct equipment. In some states in the USA and Canada, it is illigal to drive without snow chains, or indeed snow tyres. These things help cars get through snow, although at extra cost to the citizen.
Governments can also be more effective by purchasing equipment and supplies such as snowploughs, grit, and manpower to distribute the equipment and supplies. Again this comes at a cost.
There has been a figure in the region of £7bn bounced around to ‘winter proof’ the UK, which would entail purchasing all this equipment plus more. I believe this is a small price to pay, since the cost of each day of snow disruption is estimated to be in the region of £1bn+. We can see this such an investment would very quickly have paid itself off, even just this winter.
It begs the question as to why the government hasn’t pushed ahead and implemented this. The answer is that the weather in the UK during winter time is very unpredictable – imagine if the government bought all this equipment and no snow arrived for the next few years? They would be dead in the water! There is also the matter of maintaining the equipment, which will cost £billions per year also.
Here’s hoping to the next round of snow is handled better than the last! Happy sledging!
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