The United Kingdom is now full of snow. This is an unusual event for the United Kingdom and our lack of snow preparation is legendary. Major airports have been closed, right now before Christmas when families want to be reunited. Trains are going slowly, if at all and in some parts of the country car travel is almost impossible. This happens every time we have a major snow fall, but fortunately major snowfalls do not happen frequently.
People at airports in far colder places, where those airports have been kept running despite the snow, are suffering as a result of the UK’s inability to deal with snow at airports, because the planes cannot be turned around.
The traditional response is that the United Kingdom suffers so rarely from heavy snowfall that it is not worth in investment in massive snow clearing equipment at major airports. My view that that although we cannot lay the blame for this snow at the door of climate change, the likelihood is that we shall see more extreme weather events all over the world and should plan for them. In the United Kingdom this means more planning for snow, flooding, and heavy winds.
I expect that such planning must exist, supported by the appropriate investment, in such fields as our defence; I hope that the Royal Air force is not grounded by the snow while other air forces can function. The same hope applies to the rest of the armed forces, the police and the security services. Presumably it does and if it does is there any reason why the snow moving equipment which the RAF must have cannot be moved to places like Heathrow, when it is needed, or have I missed the point?
Filed under: climate change, weather Tagged: | snow clearing
The country has basically come to a standstill. It’s hard to believe how little it takes to cause such a state but I agree that this is the type of weather we might need to get used to.