Snow Day

The following are pictures of London from February 2nd to 3rd. For average Canadians, this could be a picture of a normal day from December to (sometimes as late as) March. But for London, England, theses scenes represent the apocalypse.





It started Sunday night when it started snowing and, two hours later, was still on the ground. This already distinguished it from other snowing episodes I’ve lived through here. It was still snowing at 1am when I went to check out the Super Bowl half time show. The British kids and some other Europeans who’d never seen snow before were having a jolly old time looking out the window, throwing snowballs and making snowmen. Being Canadian, I went to bed unimpressed at the few centimeters on the ground.

Eight hours later, when my alarm went off, I heard the city had shut down: the highways (or motorways) were a parking lot, buses weren’t running, the Tube (subway) was closed save for one limited line. Airports were closed, flights were delayed, schools were closed (including mine) and they were encouraging people to stay at home and make no unnecessary travel.


Still in bed and a bit groggy I texted my friends to cancel our plans to go to the library that morning. As I did I absently wondered at how much snow had fallen to make London (population 7.5 million) come to a complete standstill like this. There was barely 10cm outside! Ten lousy centimetres of snow brought London, a great city that had withstood bombings from Nazis in WWII and angry rebellious Protestants during the 80s and 90s to a grinding halt.

I read later that up to 20 cm fell that day. But the problem isn’t snow it’s infrastructure.

“We're not in Russia here," said Guy Pitt, a Transport for London spokesman. "We don't have an infrastructure built for constant snow."

He’s absolutely right. London doesn’t have snow-plows or salt to deal with the snow. So they let it be, accumulate, freeze and turn into ice. All the while people are trapped in their homes. And they have to wait for it to melt. School was cancelled Monday and Tuesday as the city slowly recovered from it’s “onslaught” of 20cm of snow. We didn't care. I had an extra day to do work and some people went tobogganing on nearby Primrose Hill.

But, as a Torontonian, who is the perpetual butt of every "wow-it's-snowing-why-don’t-you-call-in-the-army?” joke, I was mortified to find myself in another city that can’t hack the elements.

Images: Flickr