Snow rant

edited December 2010 in General Chat
Oh hey there, it's snowing where I am in the UK, which is normally cool but because the fall is so weak, it gets boring after a day! But what gets me most is how the news and media treat it like the outbreak of a nuclear war, as if it's the most serious thing of the century?

Firstly you get the TV news and papers saying buzz quotes like "DON'T TRAVEL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECCERSARY, KEEP ELDERLY INDOORS, WORST SNOW FALL SINCE 1843!!!!!!!!

When in reality it's no thicker than an inch, whilst meanwhile in places like Canada, people are almost snowed in but go about their daily lives. We get snow pretty much every year, and yet we Brits absolutely SUCK at staying on top of the situaton/preparing for it.

Anyone else generally get irritated by the stupidity of these news reports making it seem much worse than it is?

Comments

  • edited December 2010
    yeah, the news are like 'SNOW DON'T TOUCH IT STAY INDOORS'

    also i just have TONS OF ICE (thankfully i have aswome grip on my shoes)
  • edited December 2010
    We had snow around here about twice.
    Then it melted.
    Didn't even get above a centimetre really.
    (I also live in the UK. But in the south between Milton Keynes and London)
  • edited December 2010
    I have to laugh at the mainstream media sometimes because this sort of stuff is ridiculous. I also laugh when it becomes major news just because it hit London. Never mind the fact that places around where I live have been bad for the previous week and will remain so well into the start of next year (I live just a few miles from the North York Moors).
  • edited December 2010
    We had snow around here about twice.
    Then it melted.
    Didn't even get above a centimetre really.
    (I also live in the UK. But in the south between Milton Keynes and London)

    Admittedly, it is pretty cold, about -6c, but its common sense to wear something warm, the media treats the population like kids :(
  • edited December 2010
    Those don't travel unless absolutely necessary warnings aren't the presses opinions but passed on from authorities that issue them.

    I'm off work on a snow day. It's pretty diabolical round here. I'd to walk 6 miles in the snow yesterday just because traffic was completley up the left. I spent a few hours shovelling snow on our lane so I can get out tomorrow. I'm all about bringin home the dolla' :p
  • edited December 2010
    South of England is thin. Up here in the North, it's ankle deep.
  • edited December 2010
    yeah, the news are like 'SNOW DON'T TOUCH IT STAY INDOORS'

    also i just have TONS OF ICE (thankfully i have aswome grip on my shoes)

    Lol, I don't know why, but when you posted "Don't touch it!" I think of Shadow the Hedgehog from that Sonic 06 game.

    Sadly, it rarely snows where I live, in teh Texas, so yeah, it's rare here, it has happened though.
  • edited December 2010
    At least you get snow. :'(

    Actually I remember I got really excited when I went to visit Spain and it snowed while I was there, but then it started to get really annoying. The sidewalks were very slippery and it was hard to get around. Maybe it's a thing I wouldn't like to experience on a regular basis.
  • edited December 2010
    It's melting here now but it snowed for about two weeks before.
  • edited December 2010
    I have sun.
    So much sun.
    :(
  • edited December 2010
    Be happy, things could be worse, like for instance on Mercury (black circle).
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2010
    Makes it easy to tell the English from the antipodeans. At the first sign of snow, all the Aussies in my office will run up and press excited faces against the windows, while all the Brits start moaning about how nightmarish the trip home will be. :p
  • edited December 2010
    It's not the amount of snow, it's the government budget for clearing it that makes the difference.

    For example, I drove I-40 in the Southwestern U.S. through a snowstorm once. New Mexico was great. As soon as I hit Texas, the roads got much harder to drive, and there were tractor-trailers jack-knifed off the side of the road. Once I got to Oklahoma, things improved considerably.

    And that's also why half an inch in Georgia causes more problems than two feet in Maine.
  • edited December 2010
    Well, it'll undoubtedly be all gone by the 23rd.

    What bothers me is the fact the media focusses plainly on britain. Most of northern europe had issues with the snow, but they didn't get a passing mention.

    Plus the fact that it isn't news. If it's snowy outside, you'll probably notice it before turning on the tele, and don't need reminding every 5 minutes for weeks on end that it's cold. Down here in the south it's extra annoying, because we don't have much snow at all. Half a mm this morning. Yet we still get the snow reports!
  • edited December 2010
    The buses stopped for a day or so last time I was in Brighton and it snowed. The snow I liked... the ice I didn't. I was always slipping over trying to get to the bus stop cos I could see my bus coming.
  • edited December 2010
    I have sun.
    So much sun.
    :(

    I envy you
  • edited December 2010
    Origami wrote: »
    I envy you

    I will gladly swap.

    I love hearing on the news when other countries are going through a MASSIVE HEAT WAVE, only to find it's just an average day in Aussieland. I think there was one last year in Europe somewhere(narrowing it down much? Heh.) And it was a nice high 20's.

    I should move. (Except for the fact I live in the best country ever.:cool:)
  • edited December 2010
    (Except for the fact I live in the best country ever.:cool:)

    Damn straight.
  • edited December 2010
    I'm knee deep in snow. Complain to someone else XD
  • edited December 2010
    I will gladly swap.

    I love hearing on the news when other countries are going through a MASSIVE HEAT WAVE, only to find it's just an average day in Aussieland. I think there was one last year in Europe somewhere(narrowing it down much? Heh.) And it was a nice high 20's.

    I should move. (Except for the fact I live in the best country ever.:cool:)

    Me too! Swap the heat for snow any day! Though it has been cooler lately. I think it's saving all the heat for Xmas...
  • edited December 2010
    Captain Jack and adventureaddict, in Victoria the sky's either black or grey and the SES are sending out warnings about storms and flash flooding.

    Also Melbourne is the best.
  • edited December 2010
    Geez, that doesn't sound good. Crazy weather.

    Melbourne is great, gotta get down there again soon.
  • edited December 2010
    GeorgeC wrote: »
    Anyone else generally get irritated by the stupidity of these news reports making it seem much worse than it is?

    Having witnessed 4 car crashes in the last week, just because some people are too stupid to put on winter tires or snow chains, id say its better the news does that than not.
  • edited December 2010
    Being I'm from the central valley of California where the weather goes from rainy and tule fog in the winter to bleeding 99 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, snow is super exciting. I've only seen it twice in my life too, so that just makes it more so. Given that it's been icy as hell this week in York though, I'm kind of becoming less enchanted with the whole thing.
  • edited December 2010
    Having witnessed 4 car crashes in the last week, just because some people are too stupid to put on winter tires or snow chains, id say its better the news does that than not.

    I've only been driving for just under a couple of years and this is the first time I've driven that much in snow, driving in snow isn't a problem at all, you just have to take care, it's just the idiots who take corners at 50mph or drive at 12mph down the road causing accidents are the people who should just stay at home.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited December 2010
    Guys, it's not the snow. I like snow. I'm a winter person. I don't even turn on the heater often at temperatures like that. The only problem is that the city buses in my town use even the slightest flock as an excuse to cancel entire buses without informing anyone. So I was waiting at the drafty, icy-cold bus stop this morning for 40 bloody minutes. 40 minutes!!! If that doesn't send me straight to a massive cold, I'm all set for the season.

    Second problem, my place of work is slightly out of town, up on a very steep hill amidst the greatest natural landscape along the river Rhine. That hill is more like an iceberg at the moment. Getting up there (and down again!!) day after day is a deathly adventure for a person and impossible for cars now, including those city vehicles dispensing salt.

    Where's the x-mas holidays when you need them, eh??

    How's that for a snow rant?
  • edited December 2010
    Guys, it's not the snow. I like snow. I'm a winter person. I don't even turn on the heater often at temperatures like that. The only problem is that the city busses in my town use even the slightest flock as an excuse to cancel entire busses without informing anyone. So I was waiting at the drafty, icy-cold bus stop this morning for 40 bloody minutes. 40 minutes!!! If that doesn't send me straight to a massive cold, I'm all set for the season.

    Second problem, my place of work is slightly out of town, up on a very steep hill amidst the greatest natural landscape along the river Rhine. That hill is more like an iceberg at the moment. Getting up there (and down again!!) day after day is a deathly adventure for a person and impossible for cars now, including those city vehicles dispensing salt.

    Where's the x-mas holidays when you need them, eh??

    How's that for a snow rant?

    I think you win this thread! It is a better rant than mine, thats for sure, I should count myself lucky for actually having a car, I hated the days of buses. I used to get two to work, and the timetable was set out so I'd always miss the second bus by three minutes when the first bus got to the station, no matter which bus I caught, so I sat around for 35 minutes by default anyway :(

    Bad times!
  • edited December 2010
    While we we're on buses, my bus ride home was horrible. I had one of them horrible mothers who conversly has a terrible child encounters on the bus. Half an hour of solid squealing and "SIT DOWN NOW!!"
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited December 2010
    When my 40-minutes-late-bus finally arrived, an entire kindergarten entered at the next stop. This_is_not_an_exaggeration.

    But I rather liked those kids, freezing or not, although the kid behind me kept kicking in my back. ;)
  • edited December 2010
    GeorgeC wrote: »
    I've only been driving for just under a couple of years and this is the first time I've driven that much in snow, driving in snow isn't a problem at all, you just have to take care, it's just the idiots who take corners at 50mph or drive at 12mph down the road causing accidents are the people who should just stay at home.

    Well ... make that 6...
    And its not so much the snow but the ice under the snow.

    SAM_0001.JPG
    (the grey car slid and hit the white mini van from the side)

    Edit: I know one thing after this week, when im getting a car its going to be a 4x4, and im never going to be lazy with the winter tires...
  • edited December 2010
    JedExodus wrote: »
    While we we're on buses, my bus ride home was horrible. I had one of them horrible mothers who conversly has a terrible child encounters on the bus. Half an hour of solid squealing and "SIT DOWN NOW!!"

    Oh god I used to hate that crap, I always used to get it, I was on a full bus once, and I had to get off to let people out it was that full, and at most stops a fat woman would come along in an obnoxious voice with "EXCUSE ME PLEASE!?!?!"
  • edited December 2010
    I've never seen snow fall :(
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited December 2010
    The experience is overrated. ;)
  • edited December 2010
    No it's not. Snow is wonderful, it a.o. completely changes the look of your landscape and beside of the traffic annoyances it causes, it adds so much fun. It's interesting how subjective snow experiences can be. The last two days we got something about 60-70 cm new snow. *throwing some snowballs*
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2010
    The experience is overrated. ;)

    Not true! It's beautiful and mesmerising and probably on a par with watching angels frolic with magic kittens.
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