WINTER COMES TO ENGLAND, LONDON AUTHORITIES FREEZE UP

@Deckland,

Well, we were speaking here about Climate Change since more than 15 years ago.

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Like a lot of things its not what you perceive that makes the difference.

It can snow all it likes. However, the difference between having all the snow melt and then disappear and having the snow NOT MELT and end up becoming a glacier is enormous. The problem with climate change is that the places that used to keep the snow in the 'deep-freeze' aren't doing that any more.

For the contrasting view people, it is going to be a very hot February in Australia.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Quote:

A blanket of snow, up to 31cm deep in some areas, covered much of the country in what the Met Office said was the deepest snowfall in the UK since February 1991. And the weather is set to get worse, with forecasters predicting that parts of the North-east and the Pennines could have up to 40cm of snow by today.

31 cm? 40 cm? What would they do if they got a heavy fall of snow? With 31 cm, they've just barely got a start on a decent snow fall.

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@Setanta,

If this snowfall happened in Glasgow, it wouldn't be on the national news. But this was London.

Without any appreciable snowfall in the Thames Valley for about 20 years, the authorities are not geared up to deal with it.
In Prague, Budapest, Moscow, Stockholm and I daresay in parts of the colonies, snow in winter is a given and they have machinery and arrangements to deal with it.
Mayor Boris thinks, and he may be right, that it would not make economic sense to equip London like Toronto. This may change. But God only knows why they couldn't even arrange a working Underground rail service, even a partial one.

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I didn't understand that part about the subway, either. Of course, it could just be that residents panicked, and the system was suddenly subjected to a greater traffic than their program is designed to handle.

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@McTag,

Quote:

. . . that it would not make economic sense to equip London like Toronto.

About 10 years ago, the Mayor of Toronto called for the army to help them when about five feet of snow fell in a few days time. The city and her mayor were a laughing stock for that, and the rest of Canada has never let them forget. You can't be macho in Canada and complain about a few feet of snow.

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@Setanta,

Hey HIM

WE'RE LOVIN' THE SNOW!!!!!!!! Razz

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Good . . . now go out there, lie down on your back, and swing your arms and legs back and forth . . . and you will have created a "snow angel."

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As the busses did not run and cars were stuck on the roads in mile long lines
the buss drivers could hardly get to work nor could the drivers of the trains.
Many cars in London probably don´t even have winter tires. I have seen lots of cars without wintertires when the first snow arrives where I live in Sweden.
City people who have not seen snow for 18 years don´t invest in heavy boots for walking around in London so they probably hardly could walk for hours to get to work.
Show some sympathy for the folks over here.

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A heavy, wet snow has just begun to fall here. The English will get none of my sympathy . . . i'll be too preoccupied out there with shovelling the snow.

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@Setanta,

I saw some English shovelling in tv-videos, well, if they think these "methods" and "tools" work ....

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Snow actually requires a lot of knowledge and experience. There are so many different conditions to deal with. The snow i just described, heavy and wet, didn't last very long. Thirty minutes later, when i went outside to clean off the car, the snow had changed to a dry powder, and then stopped. So, the footing was very treacherous, but cleaning off the car was a snap.

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@saab,

I'm wondering that you see cars without snow tires in Sweden. Since ages our Swedish relatives keep telling us that everyone changes them ...

Well, as a matter of fact, you have to do it here, too, and many do it too late. (However, in the case of an accident, you not only get fined but the insurance will not pay all and everything.)

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The AMish have 5 different words for snow.(I wonder how many the Innuit have?)

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@Walter Hinteler,

Some people put them on too late - beginning of November instead of in October. Guess just like in Germany

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@saab,

Sure (and I'm one of those who gets rid of them too early: in March).

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@farmerman,

There was long a claim that the Inuit have 20 different words, or 16 different words, or 40 different words for snow--depending upon which pundit you read. However, i have since read that it is myth, that they have no special vocabulary for snow. That makes sense. Conditions in arctic regions remain stable over centuries. In the zone where arctic air masses meet subtropical air masses, you're going to get a variety of conditions, which lead to a variety of types of snow. In the arctic, you're gonna get cold and dry . . . period.

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From the "State of the Canadian Cryosphere" web site:

Quote:

Did you know that the Inuits have over 100 words for snow?

Well, if you answered yes, you're wrong! In fact, the "Inuits" have almost the same amount of words for snow as we do. It is a common misconception that they have either dozens or hundreds of words for snow.

You should know that the people living in the Canadian and Greenland arctic regions are called Inuit, and Yupic in Siberia and western Alaska. They speak different yet similar languages with many different dialects.

The confusion all began almost a century ago in 1911 with the introduction of Franz Boas' "The handbook of North American Indians". In it, he claims Inuits have four distinct root words for snow: aput "snow on the ground", gana "falling snow" piqsirpoq "drifting snow" and qimuqsuq "a snow drift". Since the English language only has one root word for snow - 'snow' - this became a great find in the field of lexicography. Then in 1940, a man named Benjamin Lee Whorf wrote an article misinterpreting Boas' work, describing that an Inuit would not have an all-inclusive word like snow, rather each type of snow would have it's own unique word.

And so the myth began.

This article was then reprinted many times and used as a reference by the populous. From this idea, the myth grew claiming Inuits had dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of words for snow.

But how many snow words do the Inuits really have? Well this question has no quick answer because it all depends on how you define 'word'. For example, the English word snow can be used as a root word to compose compounding words like: snowball, snowbank, snowblower, snowcapped, snowdrift, snowfall, snowflake, snowlike, snowpants, snows, snowshoe, snowstorm, snowy, and so on. This is also true in "Inuit" languages. Many words for snow come from the same root.

But if Inuits have four roots like Boas gave, then wouldn't they have four words whereas English only has one? Of course, this is certainly not the case. Take for instance the following unique root words describing snow: slush, blizzard, skift, and flurry. By this procedure, it appears that English also has several words for snow. In fact, English and "Inuit" have around the same amount of words for snow. So next time somebody tells you there are 100 Inuit words for snow, you can set them straight and let them know the truth.

If you decided to do some research of your own on the subject, you will find many websites that claim lists of Inuit words for snow. However many of the words are misused or even made up. Here are two examples taken from Geoffrey Pullum's 1991 work The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language:

Igluksaq - reported as snow for igloo making. Comes from the iglu (house) and ksaq (material for). Thus it really just means building materials for a house.

Saumavaq - reported as covered in snow. This word is a verb meaning "it has been covered", and doesn't not necessarily imply snow.

References

Martin, Laura. 1986 "Eskimo Words for Snow": A Case Study in the Genesis and Decay of an Anthropological Example. American Anthropologist 88(2):418-423

Pullum, Geoffery K. 1991 The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language, University of Chicago Press.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

It's worrying that my landline and mobile phone are not working properly, and that emergency services are severely limited and hospitals are cancelling operations due to the snow. But, what worries me most is that, if it gets any worse, I'll be stuck on this island.

Heh.

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@McTag,

Quote:

Without any appreciable snowfall in the Thames Valley for about 20 years, the authorities are not geared up to deal with it.
...
Mayor Boris thinks, and he may be right, that it would not make economic sense to equip London like Toronto.

A-yup. Snow removal equipment is freakin' expensive. Spending all that public money to be prepared for something that shuts everything down for 1 or 2 days every couple of decades makes no sense at all. Not everybody has to deal with the same conditions. Fer instance, in Wisconsin we get a lot of snow and ice, but we certainly don't have laws requiring changing tires for the winter, since most people don't have to climb or descend a grade for more than 20 vertical feet in the course of a year. And studded tires are illegal on cars here, because our roads deteriorate so quickly without them.

But we can pick up after a heavy snow -- and it costs us a lot of money to do it, too.

I'm glad London got a day off. Sorry about the hospitals, but shite happens.

1 Reply

WINTER COMES TO ENGLAND, LONDON AUTHORITIES FREEZE UP

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