weather adjustment as a society

[burntcopper]

Achieved hat that actually covers my ears and looks halfway decent. Which makes me ponder if this weather (cold winters with snow) continues, how long the UK will take to adjust and take it in stride so everyone just goes 'oh. snow.' without it disrupting transport or work. Problem being that mass (electric) transport/motorways in the UK didn't exist the last time we had regular heavy snow in winter across the country, they only came in *after* the weather started getting warmer, so weren't built to cope with it. Hence why we don't have many snowploughs, wheel chains, or bloody great snowshovels in every garage. My parents are the only people in our street to own a proper snowshovel, and that's because they lived in Oklahoma.

It's relatively easy for individuals to adjust to cosmetic stuff. Since last winter, people are stocking up on more practical clothing and learning what kind of footwear is good for walking on ice and snow. Similar for buying blankets and getting insulation, as well as getting road salt and snowshovels. What I'm pondering is infrastructure. It's all very well to moan about the local councils not having sufficient snowploughs like in Russia, but snow ploughs are seriously expensive, and simply not worth buying if deep snow isn't a regular event. And as for rail, the rail network isn't even built to cope with wet autumns that frost over, or hot summers. Which we've been able to rely on for the last few decades.

So has anyone done any forecasts on how long it would take for society to adjust?

In related news, taking Meg up on her offer of the sofa bed tonight as have theatre expedition tomorrow to Legally Blonde and I don't really want to risk the rail network. last time they had warning, it was screwed. Course, this means I will have to buy clothing and makeup and will probably find that the rail network coped fine... I wouldn't have given a flying fuck and just stayed home if it wasn't for the theatre factor.

Comments

[akadougal.livejournal.com]

This is interesting to me. We have snow shovel and I've been carrying the cold weather kit in the boot of the car since November - welly boots, blanket, corrugated cardboard, grit, shovel and de-icer and scraper mitt (it's pink). It's just a facet of life. On the other hand, this is the 19th day of snow for me. The main roads are clear for the buses but the side roads have been abandoned to ensure arteries are kept open. I'm now worried about powercuts and food shortages because this is exceptional.

[miniosiris.livejournal.com]

I have fingers, toes and everything else crossed that I can get into London by train tomorrow. I finish work at 13:45 but will probably not be able to get a train much before 16:00 because of other stuff I have to do. Hope this will be long enough to get in, to be honest it's the getting home afterwards that has me more worried!

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Well, since the rail infrastructure companies are so surprised by the winter they can't keep their website up, I'm not holding my breath.

The thing is you don't need to get expensive plow trucks - you can get removable plows to fit to any sort of truck, like garbage trucks for instance. Add training for the drivers, and you've got a much higher preparedness for not that much extra cost (well, compared to getting plow trucks and drivers for those).

I have a feeling preparedness and the experience needed to cope is something that'll come creeping south from Scotland.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Which makes me ponder if this weather (cold winters with snow) continues, how long the UK will take to adjust and take it in stride.

...which is an entirely possible side-effect of climate change; if the North Atlantic Conveyer switches off, we can look forward to winters appropriate to our latitude. Helloo New England...

(Though, of course, one bad winter doesn't indicate anything, as it's a single data point.)

Might be interesting to see a Frost Fair again, though.

I expect that we will suddenly start taking a lot more notice of the Scandinavian systems of dealing with winter.

My dad's got it tough - he lives on the west coast of Ireland in Connemara, where they're having the worst winter for decades; the pipes have all frozen solid and burst, they have no running water and are currently collecting meltwater for use for day-to-day needs.

[andromakie.livejournal.com]

Even here we never have enough snowplows and things, and Canada is supposed to have heavy snow. Once they called in the army!

There's a law here about people being responsible for clearing the pavements in front of their houses or establishments. And if people followed the law that would be awesome. But I have friends in the suburbs who have to wade for ages through knee-high snow because no one has bothered removing it. I'm in a heavily populated area and leave for work later than most, so it's usually not bad when I go. Except when it turns to ice because it's been left to partially melt and then refreeze.

Good luck on that infrastructure thing.

Blizzard!

[blairprovence.livejournal.com]

It's funny that you say your folks were better prepared because they'd lived in Oklahoma - we had a blizzard here the day before Christmas and just about everyone around here was completely UNprepared. I didn't even know about it until about two hours in and drove home in a white-out without anything in my car to help if I slid off of the road like half of the people I passed. I spent four days after that hiding in my house.

Whereas it probably didn't phase anyone in Minnesota.

I do think weather knowledge has cycles, though - I remember a lot more snow when I was little, but we haven't had very much for years, and then BLIZZARD!!!!

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Interesting, isn't it? Because what will it take to jolt us out of out climate change denial? (I mean the "things will happen [are happening] to YOU in YOUR country and YOUR town" denial.) And politically, for any big org (particularly a council) to say they're investing in infrastructure for changed climate because it's happening now, that's a big admission with political consequences.

[mrslant]

So unprepared is Britain for the annual onslaught of the same weather as this time last year that people are even convincing themselves that snow in January and storms in October are somehow new phenomena, no doubt to be attributed to Global Warming like everything else the weather does.

My parents could tell you about the winter of 1947, the floods of 1968 and the drought of 1976. The authorities were useless then and will no doubt continue to be useless indefinitely.