On Jan 5, 5:37 pm, mittens wrote:
On Jan 5, 12:18 pm, Pete L wrote:



On 5 Jan, 16:46, John Hall wrote:

In article
, writes:
Eric Heffer in todays Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m...d=WMCK1TXAYI3D...

"What's wrong with a few inches of snow?

snip

It seems that you weren't impressed enough to get his name right. The
article's author was Simon Heffer.
--
John Hall
"Honest criticism is hard to take,
particularly from a relative, a friend,
an acquaintance, or a stranger." Franklin P Jones

The Met Office is terrified of the 'why weren't we warned'
accusations. It now makes them experts at crying wolf. The net result
is that people pay little or no attention to any warnings. The
councils don't mind gritting the roads as they must have a huge
surplus of grit that has been unused for the last maybe ten winters.
Where I do get very annoyed is the result of this not getting caught
out attitude is that forecasts are always OTT. Rain is nearly always
heavy in places with local flooding. Snow is heavy with perhaps 1-3cm
in places. Fog is extremely dangerous and one should think twice
before venturing out. Winds can cause structural damage. I'm just
waiting for the warning of being struck by lightening in thundery
showers!

By the way - there used to be a stroppy left winger called Eric Heffer
- Simon is the exact opposite politically wise!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Over here in Canada and the northeast US, I've noticed that the TV
weather forecasters make a bigger deal out of cold snaps and storms
than I remember as a child. This probably parallels what is happening
in the UK. I guess that weather has become entertainment.

Over here the city governments are always bellyaching that they don't
have enough money budgeted for snowplowing and salting roads when they
know that we will get several 15cm+ snowfalls from November thru
April.

I'd imagine there were always moans in a tiered system such as local
government. In the good old days that wouldn't have made it into the
hallowed circus of television.

But theses days anything goes.