Don't blink you might miss it.
I'll tell you how mild it's been, there's been reports from around the
country, that squirrels have been seen selling their surplus nuts at car
boot sales. Hibernating animals are concerned that they'll be knackered come
spring/summer due to lack of sleep.

Anyhow over on TWO someone kindly posted this link to a fascinating British
Transport film clip over on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlC4Z4OOc-0

It's called "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill which is up in what used to be called
Westmoreland, filmed 1955. Blimey that looks cold in fact although only 52
years ago it could be another world, how things have changed.

"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
...
Don't blink you might miss it.
I'll tell you how mild it's been, there's been reports from around the
country, that squirrels have been seen selling their surplus nuts at car
boot sales. Hibernating animals are concerned that they'll be knackered
come spring/summer due to lack of sleep.


-----
LOL. Round here hedgehogs have been mutaing and have been spotted with
humps on their backs . (See post below)
Dave
P.S.
quote "Blimey that looks cold in fact although only 52 years ago it could
be another world, how things have changed. "
Only natural climatic variation of course? ;-)

Making the front page of BBC News now

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6318231.stm

On course to be the second Warmest January since records began

"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
.uk...

"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
...
Don't blink you might miss it.
I'll tell you how mild it's been, there's been reports from around the
country, that squirrels have been seen selling their surplus nuts at car
boot sales. Hibernating animals are concerned that they'll be knackered
come spring/summer due to lack of sleep.


-----
LOL. Round here hedgehogs have been mutaing and have been spotted with
humps on their backs . (See post below)
Dave
P.S.
quote "Blimey that looks cold in fact although only 52 years ago it could
be another world, how things have changed. "
Only natural climatic variation of course? ;-)


I take your point Dave. Apparently this is the officially warmest January
since 1916 it could be another world Dave :-{

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6318231.stm

Unofficially the 5th warmest in the last 350 years. Mind you those pilgrim
fathers loved burning fossil fuel when they settled in the New World. Those
Americans were greedy *******s from day one. Notice all the mildest
January's occurred after this period.

I
It's called "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill which is up in what used to be called
Westmoreland, filmed 1955. Blimey that looks cold in fact although only 52
years ago it could be another world, how things have changed.


Nice video Lawrence!
Probably the only snow drift I'm going to see this decade!
--
Graham

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:28:36 -0000, "Lawrence Jenkins"
wrote:

It's called "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill which is up in what used to be called
Westmoreland, filmed 1955. Blimey that looks cold in fact although only 52
years ago it could be another world, how things have changed.



You try and tell young people of today what it used to be like in
winter and they wouldn't believe you. (..to paraphrase Monty Python)

"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
...
Don't blink you might miss it.
I'll tell you how mild it's been, there's been reports from around the
country, that squirrels have been seen selling their surplus nuts at car
boot sales. Hibernating animals are concerned that they'll be knackered
come spring/summer due to lack of sleep.

Anyhow over on TWO someone kindly posted this link to a fascinating
British Transport film clip over on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlC4Z4OOc-0

It's called "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill which is up in what used to be
called Westmoreland, filmed 1955. Blimey that looks cold in fact although
only 52 years ago it could be another world, how things have changed.

I was just reading a book on the 1947 winter, and apparently some of the
snow drifts in railway cuttings were so deep and set so fast that they could
not even be cleared with a specially-designed jet engine blower, and had to
be blasted with dynamite!

Different world indeed.. don't think anyone who has lived through a really
severe winter like that would be an internet cold weather fan. In fact I
think many of those fans would soon tire of it after a few weeks of chaos,
especially if gas and electricity were cut off.

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:07:45 -0000, "MichaelJP" wrote:

Different world indeed.. don't think anyone who has lived through a really
severe winter like that would be an internet cold weather fan. In fact I
think many of those fans would soon tire of it after a few weeks of chaos,
especially if gas and electricity were cut off.

My recollection of 1947 is that we just got on with it but that's the
perception of a nine year old. Our only source of heating was a coal
fire and I do remember that the second thing my mother did every morning
was to light it. The first thing was to prepare my father's breakfast
and to see him off to work. Gas and electricity weren't affected in our
area (NW Surrey) so weren't a problem but the coal shortage probably
was. Bear in mind that this was only eighteen months after the end of
the war and that for many it was just something else to be endured.
Also, we weren't dependant on a high tech infrastructure for survival
because there wasn't one. I suspect that if a winter like '47 were to
happen now the 'system' would collapse quite quickly and that many
wouldn't be able to cope. Cue a television series?

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.

Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather

"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:07:45 -0000, "MichaelJP" wrote:

Different world indeed.. don't think anyone who has lived through a really
severe winter like that would be an internet cold weather fan. In fact I
think many of those fans would soon tire of it after a few weeks of chaos,
especially if gas and electricity were cut off.

My recollection of 1947 is that we just got on with it but that's the
perception of a nine year old. Our only source of heating was a coal
fire and I do remember that the second thing my mother did every morning
was to light it. The first thing was to prepare my father's breakfast
and to see him off to work. Gas and electricity weren't affected in our
area (NW Surrey) so weren't a problem but the coal shortage probably
was. Bear in mind that this was only eighteen months after the end of
the war and that for many it was just something else to be endured.
Also, we weren't dependant on a high tech infrastructure for survival
because there wasn't one. I suspect that if a winter like '47 were to
happen now the 'system' would collapse quite quickly and that many
wouldn't be able to cope. Cue a television series?

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in
Argyll, Scotland.

Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.gt-britain.co.uk/weather

My dad was 11 at the time and remembers being on the bus home from school
(near Bridgend, S. Wales) and the driver being unwilling to descend an
ice-bound hill. They all got off the bus and had to walk 4 miles home on
country roads without an adult through a raging blizzard. Can you imagine
the fuss now!

I think the whole just-in-time delivery system for supermarkets would be our
Achilles heel. Look at the panic buying after only a few days of the petrol
dispute and you could see how it would develop. It doesn't even have to be
an actual shortage, only the idea of one that would cause chaos.

The interesting thing to see would be whether there would be a "Blitz
spirit" or has community and society lost all those local links that bound
people together.

MichaelJP wrote:


"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message
...
Don't blink you might miss it.
I'll tell you how mild it's been, there's been reports from around the
country, that squirrels have been seen selling their surplus nuts at car
boot sales. Hibernating animals are concerned that they'll be knackered
come spring/summer due to lack of sleep.

Anyhow over on TWO someone kindly posted this link to a fascinating
British Transport film clip over on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlC4Z4OOc-0

It's called "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill which is up in what used to be
called Westmoreland, filmed 1955. Blimey that looks cold in fact although
only 52 years ago it could be another world, how things have changed.

I was just reading a book on the 1947 winter, and apparently some of the
snow drifts in railway cuttings were so deep and set so fast that they
could not even be cleared with a specially-designed jet engine blower, and
had to be blasted with dynamite!

Different world indeed.. don't think anyone who has lived through a really
severe winter like that would be an internet cold weather fan. In fact I
think many of those fans would soon tire of it after a few weeks of chaos,
especially if gas and electricity were cut off.

Wrong! My first memory that I can date is of the 1947 winter. I was a little
young at the time, being born at the end of June 1944, but I remember my
father having to throw an old shoe on the fire as we were running out of
coal. However, that winter probably triggered my interest in the weather.
Many years ago, it was found that there were peaks of applicants wanting to
join the Met Office amongst people who'd experienced a severe winter when
they were young.

As you'd have realised I also experienced the 1962-3 winter, that being my
first winter at work. It didn't dim my fascination with severe winters.

Given the choice between a severe winter or prolonged heatwave in summer,
I'd take the severe winter. At least you can put more clothes on to keep
warm but in hot weather, once you've stripped off, there's little more you
can do. I've slept in a bedroom which had snow on the inside window-ledge
for three days (1961-2) and failed to sleep in various heatwaves. I know
which I preferred.

--
Graham P Davis
Bracknell, Berks., UK
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