A little snow and the UK comes to a standstill
Living in the UK means being subjected to such a wide variety of weather conditions that should a rare one hit, its citizens just aren’t able to cope. Such was the case when a severe snow storm moved across from Siberia late on Feb. 1, 2009. Britain came to a virtual standstill.
British people are great at coping with those middling weather conditions: warm and dry; light showers; moderate winds. But throw something a little more extreme at the country and most people struggle to cope. As do the technology networks and service infrastructure most of us rely on each and every day.
A severe snowstorm was forecast for the end of the weekend, and it duly arrived dead on time, dumping its load over the whole of the country. Especially hit was the South-east quadrant of the country, including the sprawling mass that London has now become. And according to BBC News, it caused chaos.
The entire bus network in London was suspended, leaving hundreds of thousands of people needing alternative ways of getting to work. Underground trains were severely delayed, while most overground trains in and out of the capital were canceled. The London Ambulance Service also switched to dealing with life-threatening calls only.
This chaos in the transport system meant many people turned to the Web to find out information on the delays and cancellations. This meant that many sites, including Transport for London, crashed under the weight of requests. Others, such as the National Rail Enquiries site were running much slower than normal.
Mobile phone networks also struggled to cope with the demands placed on their services. A combination of people ringing to say they were stuck on their way to or from work and sending picture messages of the snowman they had built in the garden brought massive traffic congestion. Broadband usage also jumped by 20 percent thanks to people working from home.
It amazes me how some countries can cope with heavy snowfall all winter while Britain has a few inches in the course of a day and stops almost completely dead. No worries though, as it’ll no doubt be back to the constant rain next week. Hooray.
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February 3rd, 2009
Idiot
February 3rd, 2009
Idiot
February 3rd, 2009
Worst for 18 years.
Two people dead because of it.
And you call it ‘a little snow’.
It’s not even funny. Idiot.
February 3rd, 2009
“UK comes to a Standstill”, less than subtle exaggeration, some parts of the UK have been getting bad weather like this every year without an issue- however the media like to blow things out of all proportion simply because London was hit this time, most people saw an excuse and stayed off work for the day and this actually helped, the only good that may come out of it is perhaps the plight of homeless and elderly will be addressed, but only if it’s politically expedient and the media pick up on it………..
February 7th, 2009
The coldest snap for 20 years shows no sign of letting up, with the freezing weather expected to last all weekend and into next week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7876195.stm
Most widespread & worst in 20yrs,
hardly “A little snow”
and from what I see around my way nobody’s at a “standstill” yet.