Brrr! Battling the current cold snap, I’ve been turning up every radiator, digging out winter jumpers, and have made eradicating drafts from my home a personal mission.
I am not alone. Much of the UK has been reacting in shock to the first prolonged spell of wintery conditions to have struck country wide. Airports have closed runways, trains have been cancelled and schools have declared snow days, drawing mixed emotions from children and their parents.
Meanwhile, people from chillier parts of the world look on the fuss we’re making with bafflement, if not, scorn.
Residents of Norway and Finland, or US states such as Minnesota, which regularly experience several feet of snow for much of the year, scoff at our transport systems’ inability to cope with a few inches of the stuff.
But perhaps they should be more sympathetic. In fact, it is the very mildness of the usual British climate that means we cope so badly during those few weeks a year when the thermometer heads south.
Snow really is a rarity for us
squareLIFESTYLEI'm an American and this is my first British winter - you lot are incredibly odd
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As an island, our weather is dominated by the moderating influence of the vast Atlantic ocean. Water is slower to heat up or cool down than land, and so Britain’s summers are cooler and our winters less icy than many other places at the same latitude, said Alex Burkill, a senior meteorologist at The Met Office.
“That ocean all around us keeps our temperatures less extreme.”
For most parts of the country, snow is a rarity – and getting rarer, thanks to climate change. We typically experience just 13 days a year with snow settled on the ground – which perhaps should excuse some of the excitement when it does happen. Canadians, by comparison get about 100 such days.
Blame our homes
Average British homes are not designed for temperatures much below zero. They are usually built from brick, a worse insulator than timber, the choice for most homes in countries such as Norway and Canada.
And many homes are still woefully under-insulated, said Bean Beanland, an energy transition specialist at the Heat Pump Association UK. Some have no insulation at all in their roof or loft, while many have just a 3cm layer, too thin to have much impact. Swedish homes typically have 30cm.
It’s therefore unsurprising that when we face a cold snap, Brits start whacking up their central heating and then complaining about their energy bills. I may be on the right lines with my hunt for drafts in my house.
British homes are not built for the snow (Photo: Molly Darlington/Getty)Roads and rail unprepared
Step outside the home and our transport infrastructure is similarly unprepared.
National Highways and councils try to keep motorways and major roads passable with snow ploughs and gritters, but it’s debatable how much they should spend to clear smaller roads for infrequent weather conditions. “You would have to have them sat around all year ready to rock and roll,” said Dr Rachel Fisher, a transport lecturer at Aston University.
Snow ploughs can also be used at the front of trains to clear the lines – but railways have more of a problem with frozen points, the junctions where trains move from one track to another. Points may have heating elements but these are prone to failing.
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It is tempting to think that National Rail should put its hand in its pocket to maintain the heaters, but the UK’s snowfall is predicted to decrease, while there will be rising challenges from flooding, caused by more rain – so the money might be better spent elsewhere.
“The amount of rainfall that we get now is more frequent and more extreme than it was previously, and so it’s taking more of a toll on our older infrastructure,” said Dr Fisher.
Ultimately, everything is a trade-off. “The real reason why we find colder, wintry weather harder to cope with than other countries is because in some places, it’s a guarantee that they’re going to get snow and sub-zero temperatures in the day. So they’ve learned to cope.
“Whereas for us, it wouldn’t be a worthwhile use of our resources to have snow ploughs everywhere,” said Burkill. “It’s more cost effective just to struggle.”
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