This post is completely justified since crystals are a central topic at Reciprocal Space and I awoke this morning to a landscape covered with them:
Snow has the wonderful property of making the world look fresh and new. Even the disaster area known locally as ‘our back garden’ manages to look appealing under its cold white blanket.
The schools are closed so the kids are delighted and, as I type, champing at the bit to get outside. There’s only about 6 inches, which is nothing in Finnish, Torontoan or Bostonian terms, but round here life has ground to a halt. There are no trains into London. The weather even seems to have crashed the web-site of Southeastern Trains:
Looks like I’ll be working from home.
Beautiful. Dead jealous.
Quite a contrast from your current climate, eh?
The view from my office window, just now:
It’s -4.4 outside, which isn’t really that cold (a thick jacket, had and gloves are necessary, of course). And the bus was on time this morning, naturally.
Actually, the roads are almost clear now – the snow has been around for a few days, so it’s been eroded away. The other thing that helps is that all the cars have winter tyres on them.
The snow is one of the reason I like Finland. Unfortunately, global warming is catching up, at least here in Helsinki.
@Richard: succinctly put. And it gives you something to look forward to.
@Bob: You took the bus!? I once met a Finnish business man on the train who used to cross-country ski to work in Helsinki in the winters.
Mind you, even for a Finn I think he was exceptional: at 65 (he looked 50) he could still run a marathon in under 4 hours.
I think it’s very amusing that National Rail can’t manage to use the internet to update its customers about services. Even if the web staff are stuck at home, they can surely do something remotely. This is precisely what the internet should be best at: instantaneous communication.
Perhaps the National Rail site was just too busy and crashed? I’ve found this site to be very useful (good old BBC!):”http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/. All Southeastern trains into London from the wilds of Kent are cancelled – so I’ve been forced to work from the comfort and warmth of home today. Such a shame….
I’m envious!
This endless string of sunny days with temperatures in the 60s and 70s F is boring. It’s really dry and dusty and cedar pollen-y. Plus, I resent having to wear sunscreen in the winter, unless I’m cross-country skiing.
At least you still have Internet access from home. Our phone lines are still under that tree there from our recent winter storm named Klaus.
How European extratropical storms like Klaus might change in a world undergoing global warming is highly uncertain. A number of studies cited in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report showed significant increases in the intensity and number of extratropical cyclones in recent years. However, the report notes that “as with tropical cyclones, detection of long-term changes in cyclones is hampered by incomplete and changing observing systems”. Thus, we cannot tell at present if recent observed changes in extratropical storms are an indication of climate change.
Enjoy the time you didn’t spend commuting! My inlaws called from Paris and they are also pleased with their little snow (but are retired, so…)
@Jenny – I think Dorothy’s right in that the web-traffic overwhelmed the server. It’s up again now, if only to announce that the are no trains into Victoria!
I have just returned from driving my brother and his family to Brixton so they could get the tube (they need to get beck to Leeds today). We had to dig the car out! I haven’t done that since we lived in Boston – and a garden spade doesn’t quite hack it.
@Kristi – be careful what you wish for!
@Heather – the kids are certainly reveling in it. Now that the house is quiet, maybe I can get on with some work. Don’t seem to be able to bash our review articles quite as quickly as the talented Dr Rohn
nice photo, stephen. I walked around Shepherd’s Bush last night to take pictures of the snow. Chaos had already begun to engulf the city – buses sliding off the road, cars colliding, wheels spinning. Back home I noticed that I had set the white balance completely wrong and ended up with a symphony in red. I must remember to always take raw images at night.
Bad luck! There is such a thing as too much technology – my picture was snapped with my phone…
The Canadian/Torontonian and Bostonian here is laughing. Welcome to my world– everyday for way too many months of the year.
Glad you can laugh Corie! I was smiling too (inwardly) even while I was digging, as the experience brought back memories of shovelling through considerably deeper and heavier piles of snow in Boston (dumped over our car by the passing snow-plough). Part of my enjoyment this morning derived from the relief that it cannot possibly last…!
Six inches of snow? That’s just enough to make the driving fun.
/Canuck
Just enough to make the driving fun
It’s not at all my idea of amusement (especially with traction restricted to the two front wheels). Bear in mind that the south-east of England doesn’t quite have the wide-open expanses of Canada. We’re packed in like sardines! Before I headed off earlier today I watched another car literally snaking its way up our street which, as usual, was lined on both sides with parked cars. Amazingly, he struck none of them.
be careful what you wish for!
Right now I wish for any sort of precipitation: snow, freezing rain, frog-strangling torrents, etc. I have a sinus headache the size of the Permian Basin, thanks to all the mountain cedar pollen. The brush fire danger is worrisome as well.
I lived in western Maryland for a year, before my boss moved the lab to Texas. I had a 4WD vehicle (a Jeep Wrangler) at the time, and somehow I got on a list to drive people to doctor’s appointments and whatnot, during snowy periods. None of the poor souls ever suspected they were being transported during wintery driving conditions by a South Texan. In fact, one of them suggested that I buy the snowplow attachment for my Jeep, and earn extra money clearing sidestreets.
OK – enough said. I’ll put some snow in a jiffy bag and post it to you…
“the wide-open expanses of Canada”
I’m not seeing much wide-open expanses in downtown Toronto either. This is what they do with snow on most streets:
(This was in December. The scooped up piles are still there, and are now solid ice.)
For pedestrians, this means the sidewalks are about half as narrow in winter as they are in summer. This is what it looks like without shoveling, but thankfully Canadians do generally shovel the sidewalks in front of their house.
(The sidewalk on my street, after “Snowmageddon”)
As a cyclist, the mountains of snow mean I don’t ride my bike half of the year, because the bike lanes are covered in snow, and it’s too scary to be in the car lane when it’s snowy and there is no space closer to the curb.
But the mountains of snow at the side of the road are not all of the snow that’s shoveled up. Huge amounts of it are transported out of the city by trucks. There is a big pile of it near the end of the subway line (where it runs outside so you can see the snow pile) and that’s usually there until well into April, maybe even May, when all of the other snow has already melted.
Recently, friends from Ottawa told me there was a problem there when the snow dumps were full and there was no space to dump the snow that was trucked out of the city.
That’s snow.
(But I think it’s so endearing when people from Holland or England excitedly show pictures of their backyard in snow. My parents also always do this. And it’s always the backyard, because it’s obviously impossible to go anywhere else and take photos there )
I just missed the bus this evening, so I walked home. It was only about -5.
@Eva – But I think it’s so endearing when people from Holland or England excitedly show pictures of their backyard in snow
I think you’ll find this sort of posting was a Dutch innovation…
Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) From Flickr
…and a very good one is was too.
@Bob – glad to hear you’re home safe and sound (behind what I suppose is triple glazing, if my experience of Finland is anything to go by).
Was that his backyard, though?
That does remind me, I need to bug my mother for photos of our “backyard” from where we lived when I was 0-5 years old. We lived on a houseboat in a canal – not the city type of canal, but one out in the fields. In winter, people would skate past our boat, and we could step out the window and put on skates while sitting on the ledge, and skate off.
By the way, there is something very interesting about old Dutch paintings of snow and ice landscapes. The period in which many of them were painted coincided with the most recent small ice age. There are papers about it, comparing weather records with times of painting.
It’s confusing, because the paintings seem to support global warming (there’s never that much ice and snow at those locations now) but are actually illustrations of an unusual(ly long) cold spell.
(Notice how I skillfully steered the conversation to science! It wasn’t even on purpose… No, I mean, wait – it was on purpose. That makes me look less like a geek.)
Sublime skill – you are a Dutch
MasterMistress.I can’t help thinking that a house-boat must have been a perilous place for a toddler. It would have shredded my parental nerves for sure.
bq. But the mountains of snow at the side of the road are not all of the snow that’s shoveled up. Huge amounts of it are transported out of the city by trucks.
They do that in Helsinki too, except they dump it at sea. Whenever I see a truck with a large pile of snow in it, I have this urge to race after it shouting “Stop! Stop thief! Give us our snow back!”. It amuses me at least, and were I to do it, it might amuse others. Albeit for different reasons.
Hmmm. Some thoughts are best left rattling around inside your head.
Though if you do decide to go for it, make sure there’s someone on hand to record the scene…!
“thankfully Canadians do generally shovel the sidewalks in front of their house”.
Ha!
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Not here in soft Vancouver…
Every time it’s snowed in the last couple of years, we’ve shovelled our own pavement, plus that of both neighbours. We were away for the big dump over Xmas, and did either neighbour shovel ours?
Noooooooo.
It snowed again yesterday. I’m becoming quite blase about cycling through slush.
My garden looks similarly beautiful.
I hope you all went out with magnifying glasses to look at the structure of a snowflake.
I worked from home, thanks to the wonders of technology, which seem not to extend to a decent insulation/heating combo for this house. I could have got a boat up the river, but just stayed in. I’ve worked for way later than if I had been at work. But I’ve had fun switching between work, social chat and hot mugs of tea.
“Not here in soft Vancouver…”
Well, yes, but that’s basically the UK, climate wise. Utter chaos and confusion when it snows.
I know! And it’s incredibly sweet!
Hm, seems like a little snow gets everybody in a commenting frenzy.
Ah well, here’s my token shot from the other day:
I’m about to leave for work. I may be some time…
Captain Oates reporting for duty sir. What? You don’t seem very pleased to see me…
Anyway, it took 2 hours, but I made it. The first bit, the walk to the station, was actually rather pleasant; relatively little traffic and the air wasn’t too chilly.
The train journey was a different story – we played vertical sardines all the way to Victoria. I was forced to hold my my book so close to my face that I had to take off my glasses to read. Old age – sigh.
Oh, and where are my manners?
@Cath – well I think you’re a saint, even if your neighbours are too obtuse to see it.
@Scott – valiant effort to steer back to science but I was hoping you’d have a micrograph of a snow crystal to post…
@Eva – I visited Vancouver once (in the summer) and it felt to me like a cleaner, tidier version of a US city…
@Richard G. – the word ‘sweet’ is hereby banned from this blog, unless uttered by a little girl.
@Richard W. – even under all the snow I can see that’s a flash car. Yours?
That’s a girl car.
It’s very… sweet.
The paragraph below appeared in an Associated Press online news article, entitled “Blizzard of anger follows London snowstorm”:
Some suggested that British workers had set a poor example for the nation’s children. Young Britons may become adults who think that “when things get difficult you should just stay at home and have fun,” said Margaret Morrissey, of the parenting lobby group Parents Outloud.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. 😉
Allow me to translate: “some suggested” is journo-speak for “Well, one person I met down the pub said this; no idea if they’re qualified to comment but can’t be bothered to research properly; aw, stick it in anyway, sounds good!”
So it’s lies, all lies…!
On the other hand, what’s so wrong with wanting to have fun?
I bet that someone slipped, fell, and twisted their ankle – so they were just miffed because they couldn’t join in the fun.
what’s so wrong with wanting to have fun?
Nothing! It’s just that here in San Antonio, apart from the exceedingly rare ice storm or minimal dusting of snow, the only thing to give us an excuse not to commute to work is torrential rain. We are very flash flood-prone, and a good downpour will result in water moving through the streets like … well, like Crisco through a Plott hound.
Therefore, anyone stupid enough to drive around barricades and through flood waters, in an attempt to get to work, is setting a very poor example for children.
Crisco? Through a what?
Anyway, don’t you get issued with a horse when you enter Texas?
Stephen – not my car, no. Ask Grant about my car. He’ll go on and on about how useless it is.
Richard G. – speaking of “girl cars”, I can tell you that my wife would like one of those, preferably in hot pink. I, however, wouldn’t be seen in it, unless it were a more sensible colour and had the 3.2L VR6 engine and dual-clutch transmission in it.
But I digress.
Crisco is shortening made from vegetable oil; it’s useful for making pie crusts and biscuits (US definition), especially if you have vegan dinner guests.
A Plott hound is a hunting dog, originally bred in North Carolina, and often used for hog-huntin’.
And that, my friend, is your
redneckSouthern US culture lesson for the day. There will be a quiz tomorrow.@Kristi – many thanks but there was nothing in the Wikipedia entry about the speed of Cisco through the aforementioned beast. Are we to presume laxative properties?
@Richard – OMG! I just clicked on the photo you posted above and discovered your photostream. All I want to say is, if you and RPG want to discuss cars, please do it outside! 😉
Your assumption is correct, Stephen. I was trying to come up with an original alternative to “grease through a goose”, and “Crisco through a Plott Hound” is the first thing that came to mind.
Which perhaps says more about my mind than I would willingly admit.
In my (unfortunate) experience, a dog of any breed will grab and gobble a stick of Crisco that lands on the kitchen floor.
Kristi: if it’s any comfort, I had been around the right people long enough that your metaphor was perfectly clear to me.
We in the South of France actually cook with duck fat (and mighty tasty it is, too) – but it’s not good for the uses you mention. There’s a Crisco equivalent but I just make sure to not know any vegans and use butter (bad me) as an alternative. French exception and all that.
Dogs are pretty good at scarfing up dropped chocolate as well, in which case you are obliged to make it all come out the other way, hardly more fun.
Well, enjoy your no-longer-pristine, probably no-longer-existent snow, Stephen!
What’s wrong with talking about cars, Stephen? Can’t say ‘sweet’, can’t talk about cars…
Bah.
@Heather – it’s no longer pristine but it’s hanging on and incredibly the kids are about to have a 3rd day off school!
@Richard – maybe I was a bit harsh. Heres the deal – you can have one ‘sw**t’ per month and you can talk about cars, as long as you make it interesting…
Hmm, lucky dogs. Chocolate with a chaser of goose fat.
Come now, there are barely any photos of cars on my photostream.*
I note that Richard G. has retaliated with this post.
*the definition of “barely any” is open to some debate
It’s still there, but mostly in the form of smooth and very slippery ice now, which makes walking on the sidewalks particularly annoying. Regular London rain is supposed to be back on its normal schedule tomorrow, so we’ll see how that combines with the ice.
Oh well, we’ll always have the pretty pictures, at least.
@Richard – nice try but when you wrote ‘barely any’ , I think you meant to put ‘very many’!
@Cristian – passed the same spot this morning on my way to work. Still plenty of snow but not as much as yesterday and much more grey slush by the side of the road:
the ice age cometh…
Canada’s BC has been experiencing similar weather, it snowed for two weeks in Dec.
I think Cath mentioned that the same snow managed to linger from Xmas to January in Vancouver, the city where it usually just rains. So of course no one’s really ready for heavy snow, especially not the municipal government.
the ice age cometh…
But it goeth pretty quick – around here anyway. Raining tonight and more on the way.
There’s still tons of snow on the ground – up by my house, a few blocks from the highest point in Vancouver, anyway.
It’s going up to 6 degrees on the weekend here in Toronto – allegedly.
Fahrenheit?
“Fahrenheit?”
No. Canada uses Celsius, like normal countries do.
A funny story from a girl I used to work with: when she was in high school, they got a girl from somewhere in the US visiting them in summer. She had checked the weather report before she went, because she heard that Canada was cold. Seeing “30 degrees”, she packed sweaters and a coat, because apparently that’s really cold in Fahrenheit. And then she was picked up from the airport by people in shorts…
Sorry. I should have said 4.8 Réaumur.
Thanks – I’d never heard of that! And then saw from your link that there is also a Rankine scale (equivalent to Kelvin but in steps of °F, if you get my meaning), which I’d never heard of either. It’s been an education.
Check out this fab timelapse video of the London snow:-
London Snow Timelapse: 21,000 Photographs – remix from Graham Steel on Vimeo.
I’ve just blogged “the making of”.
Nice one Graham – fantastic images! If I am completely honest, the video is a wee bit long; I prefer more rapid cuts. Something along the lines of The Bourne Supremacy… 😉
If I am completely honest, the video is a wee bit long
I completely agree, Stephen. That’s the main reason why I added some music to make it a bit more interesting. The original version had no sound at all 🙁
Even with the music I found an unchanging 10 minute scene hard to take (in fact I kept jumping ahead).
I saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. It’s brilliantly edited, cuts through many time shifts without losing the narrative thread. However, for me it failed on a different level – somehow it was lacking in drama. And I love Danny Boyle’s work!