I knew it was snowing, but boy, I didn't quite expect what greeted me this morning. The views out of my windows are truly stunning. It hasn't snowed like this in over a decade. Everything has come to a standstill in South East England. London has barely any trains running, no buses, the airports are either shut or on very limited service. The motorways... ah yes. They are either deserted because they're impassable (with regular road cars on normal tires... in Germany this wouldn't be an issue.) or gridlocked because they are open and everyone is trying to get... somewhere. I walked to work, like I usually do, and a 20 minute walk took 45 minutes, because I was forced to wade through knee-depth snow. Exhausting, but fun. Of course, I got there and found... no one else had made it in. I don't have a key, so after standing around in the snow, getting snowed on, helping people push their cars out of where they got stuck... I decided no one was going to show up, so I may as well go home. My other half called me to say he's likely going to spend the night on the sofa in the crew room at the BBC, because driving home in this would be too dangerous. (Damn straight. I wouldn't want him to, either.) He left the house at 5am this morning, but only made it out of the driveway at 6:15am, after digging out the car and making his way through the snow out onto the road. (We have a long drive, about 100 yards off the road.) He got into Shepherds Bush at 8am, despite no cars being on the roads. Still, it's very tranquil outside and on my way home, I was amazed how many people are out and about, stopping in the middle of the street to talk to complete strangers. I had a snowball fight with some kids who populated a big roundabout and pelted every car with snowballs as it inched it's way around. :) Stepping outside, you hear... nothing. No cars. No trains. No planes. Nothing. It's eerie and soul soothing at the same time.

I'll share with you the view out of my back window, about an hour ago. :)

It is beautiful isn't it? It's still snowing right now and the park just outside my window looks gorgeous from here!

It sure is beautiful! We had all of that a couple of weeks ago and I loved every moment of it. 

In England it's snowing, in France it's snowing, in Spain it's snowing, even in Marocco it;s snowing... And what do we get in Holland?... Some drizzling rain!!! It looks like the whole global warming is over except here.

Bopper.

Global warming refers to the average temperature of the entire earth, over a period of years.
Not just one day in the wintertime in one particular place.  As soon as it snows, people
forget all about how hot it was last summer.  Where I live it has been in the mid 70's.
Usually at this time of the year it is in the mid 60's.  So you folks in the cold are basically
donating your share of global warming to us folks where it is warmer than usual.

Hot summer? We had a cold summer (normally we don't) and now a cold winter. We actually had 3 cold summers in a row, all below average and we had 3 normal winters in a row and now a a cold one. Fluctuation in temperature over the years is very normal. I remember hot summers as a kid when literary the sparrows would drop dead from the roof (not kidding). I haven't seen them as hot as that in many years, even though we had some hot summer a few years back.

Global warming is another one of the scientist imaginary invention, just like the fairy-tale called evolution.

Please don't start another fight/debate/discussion about global warming. I was enjoying hearing about the peaceful scenes. Although I'm getting tired of ice and heavy coats, being out right after a new snow is always enjoyable, peaceful.

*Please don't start another fight/debate/discussion about global warming.

*I didn't meant to start a discussion, I was only kidding. But I'm just jealous, all the countries around have snow, and we only have dull, grey, moist weather at the moment. Not fun and a bit drepressing.

Enjoy your snow!

Bopper.

well the snow stopped and it's turned into ice, but i did build a snowman (whose head is now at 45degrees due to the melt)... think the last time we had this much snow was in the mid eighties..... sadly we still have to go to work....lol
oh and they are saying more so for the southeast of England on thursday....(more snowmen,lol)

Hehehe yeah, more snowmen. Hopefully this time NOT in the middle of our driveway... cough
I had to walk a slalom around 4 snowmen this morning lol.

It makes me sad that so many people in places like Moscow and Canada are making fun of England's snow woes, going "We have more than this and we don't grind to a halt."
Yeah.
We do.
And no.
You don't.

I'll pay attention to the taunts when they come from places like Alabama, Louisiana and the like, which would probably cope just as well (or not) as London and the South East did. :)
We don't get it every year, we don't have winter tires with spikes, we don't have massive snow plows to hand everywhere -- because it's been 18 years since there's been this much snow.
I grew up in Germany, spent most of my time in the Alps, skiing. I know snow. I've shoveled several meters of it off a cabin roof when I was a kid and we were snowed in for a week half way up a mountain.
If you've never encountered anything like this -- and most of the workforce simply hasn't -- then it's tricky to cope with it.
It just doesn't make sense to buy snowplows on the off-chance that we might get a foot of snow for a couple of days.
If they'd buy them now, and then we don't get anything like this again for 20 years... by the time they are needed, they'll have been sold or rusted away.
Comparing London to Moscow or Toronto in terms of weather doesn't make any sense.
So we had a day off and all played in the snow. :)
I think they're all just jealous because we got a day off work!

Hurray, we had our share of snow: 2.5mm (1/10 inch) , what you call a dutch treat. I almost broke my neck when I went walking the dogs, because it's slippery as hell.
It's not freezing tonight, so I'm afraid I still have to go to work tomorrow.
Anyway, I know at last how it looks like, perhaps we're getting more., winter isn't over yet.

Best regards,

Bopper.