The British media go mental whenever we have snow. Every news report is a montage of 'chaos' which involves some member of the public telling the reporter they couldn't get to the post office.
Krzystof Citrus and let's not forget the media's favourite line of all after a snow storm "and there is more on the way..." 9 times out of 10 there never is! No wonder the British public have turned into a bunch of bread and milk panic buyers! Ridiculous
It's not just the snow that causes disruption in the UK, it's a combination of snow and sheer volume of traffic. Even in summertime an accident on the motorway can cause a 30 mile tailback so it's not surprising a few inches of snow creates such havoc.
I live in Virginia, in the area where the English first colonized the US, and we deal with snow the same way.....*everything* grinds to a halt, and places close down, with just a few inches on the ground. They must've brought their attitude towards snow with them when they came over here in the 1600's.
Nice Vlog!!!👍Cold and wintry conditions in the 🇬🇧 UK as a result of a polar continental air mass!!! I think a snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky unbidden and seems like a thing of wonder!!! Nice sharing!!!💞
You describe it really well, it's still a novelty in the UK, we just don't see snow regularly. I smiled when you said that schools in Canada close when it's -40c. The coldest I've ever witnessed in the UK was -18c and people were writing their wills on toilet paper, it was Armageddon. Thankfully it only lasted for a few days and we pulled through ;-)
Our weather is pretty consistently clammy or cold. If it gets too hot, we complain. If it gets too cold, we complain. When it's exactly as we expect, we complain.
CUFC Mark Layton I KNOW. You guys hate your small temperature range, but any time it gets outside of it either way you complain! Haha. I’m from Ohio, we’re very used to the snow and -10° C temps (it was -22° C on New Years), but we’re also used to 34° C and sun in the summer.
Don Beck That's not really that far out from what we get on an average year. Bit cooler in summer and warmer in winter but close. Personally, I don't get the fuss in summer as I look forward to it. Not a cold weather person but i'm not gonna complain about a nice sunny day. Cold days are what couches and fires were made for.
The weather related problems happen with LARGE DEVIATIONS FROM AVERAGE. This is the same for any country in the world, not just the UK. Trying to say Canada manages so the UK should is just dumb, you can't compare preparedness for snow in a temperate maritime climate with a continental one with freezing cold winters as the norm.
In California it snows extensively in the mountains and it is no big deal..10 to 30 feet is normal. In the flatlands it snows infrequently and people freak out. I've seen cars abanoned! Wild stuff. I went to university in New England. My very first snowstorm was a 110 inch blizzard. In 1969, 70, and 71 I went to Winter Carnival in Quebec City. Yea, Canada is cold and it gets lotsa snow!
When I heard that my university would be closed for 3 days, I was like "Oh great! A chance to get my coursework in order!" It is now Tuesday. My coursework is not in order...
We're like squirrels over here. The first sign of snow and we're start burying food and prepare to hibernate. Another great video, although after all the effort we made to have that all that snow just to make you feel at home, and you never even said thanks, "eh?" 😊
You and I are in the same boat. I live in Texas in the south central US and we rarely get winter weather. When we do everything shuts down. To me it's just funny.
As mentioned, we just don't have the infrastructure or equipment to cope well because we don't have such weather that often (especially down south; Scotland is a little different, though). It's not the first Beast from the East we've had though! Thanks to the Gulf Stream the UK unusually warm in the winter given its latitude - London is farther north than Toronto - and when the Gulf Stream moves south, colder air from the north and east pushes in. And I'm someone who loves the snow! But I appreciate if you get it upto 6 months a year then it's a bit of a daily chore!
The reason the place shuts down is because it's simply not worth having the infrastructure in place to deal with what is a relatively rare occurrence. It makes more economic sense to do it the way we do. And having just typed that, you said it yourself. :-)
You pretty much hit the nail on the head we don’t invest in snow preparation as it’s not frequent enough. We also don’t have special tyres for our cars to make it safer to drive in snow. We do tend to get both very excited at snow and also annoyed depending on how our work deals with it as not all work places close and some expect you to try to get in, it’s a bit of a grey area!
Snow day man, enjoy it, it was a wonderful day off, I live next to a steep park (Brockley, SE Ldn) and there were loads of kids sliding down the hill - it was ace!!
I was living in Birmingham when we had about six inches of snow. A lot by our standards but I had an appointment at the local hospital. My consultant is Canadian. I figured, "She'll be there. This isn't snow for her, it's a light dusting." She was there. Although she did mention that the buses were awful (this being Birmingham, that's 'more awful than usual').
I'm British, and I've lived in arctic Sweden. It's all about technology. I have never driven on snow before, but when I drove in Sweden on the snow, I had winter tyres, plus the snow ploughing, and it was extremely simple. Then, when I came back to England, I got stuck trying to drive a normal car on our wet, greasy snow. It's amazing how miuch difference snow tyres make, plus when it is -10C or below, the snow behaves differently, it's more grippy. In the UK, the weather hovers around 0C.. which makes everything much more slippery. I even saw loads of crashes in Sweden when the temperatures hovered around 0C.
When it snows regularly you adapt to the conditions. As it doesn't snow that much in the UK we don't prepare for it. I loved having a day off during this snow. Me and my daughter went out playing in it.
Great video Alanna. You are right; we get so little snow here now that local government never prepares for it, hence everything shuts down. 30 or 40 years ago we used to get a dump of snow like this a couple of times a year and people used to just carry on.
Hell even 10 years ago and you'd see gritters out on all the roads once the temperature started to drop, but I think all the councils have just slashed the budgets to save money (and kinda justified I guess as its getting rarer and rarer to snow this much).
Another really interesting video, thank you😃😃😃 I moved to Europe from South Florida (living in Germany now), and I already consider winters here really cold weather!!!😂 We've had some snow this year where I live, but besides when I went hiking in the mountains, I don't think I've ever experienced knee-high snow in the city, like you described digging your car out of in Canada. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Beast from the East!!!❄️❄️❄️❄️
When a rare bit of snow falls on us we stop because we can't cope, just as when the warm Wednesday afternoon in July comes around that we call summer we all stop because its too hot. You'll get used to it, just chill out and enjoy the days off.
Yes we prefer it here thanks. Good luck to you, living next to Russia, with your snow for half the year. We're really impressed over here by how tough you are. Not.
Me, too. My first lesson was after dark, in January, with snow and ice on the ground, on a hill, with cars parked on either side. In hindsight, I don't know what my instructor was thinking. (He said the first thing he was going to do was teach me to brake.) I didn't hit any cars but I did clip a snow bank on the side of the road a bit later on during the lesson (on a flat road).
I went to school in the 1970s and 1980s. We had snow most winters, and freezing fog. Nothing, ever stopped, or closed. We went to school, drove and buses travel. It's only since the 1990's nanny state, that everything grinds to a halt.
Adventures and Naps ... We get the same snow but our flat caps and yorkshire tea keeps us warm.. plus.. we've tougher than the southerners.. they say -5 is cold, we say its Tshirt weather.. lol.
It's true! As a southerner I can confirm that we are fragile creatures. Even a slight chill in the air requires us to take to our beds for at least a week lol
Aww, you guys are sweet :) Try handling -40C then get back to me lol England's weather is so much better than Canada!!(although I do miss the sun sometimes.. a topic for another video perhaps)
We British love talking about the weather and an event like this is manna from heaven. That said, our press goes overboard with it- we are a northern-hemisphere nation and it occasionally gets cold and snows... I'm old enough to remember some winters which were MUCH worse than this li'l cold snap- 1981/2, 1978/9, 1962/3, when we had a LOT of snow and a long period of frosts. Nowadays, this country really WOULD freak out if we got one such as those. There's places in the high Pennine area (east of Carlisle) which are still cut off with 12 ft drifts and I do sympathise with them.
In 1981 my mates and I were snowed into a remote country pub in Wales for 3 days. There was no beer left by the time the snow plough got through, we all had a great time though.
My Canadian and Scandinavian friends all have the same attitude as you towards how we deal with the snow :) The thing is we get this say 5 days every 2 years unless you are in a hilly/mountainous region or Scotland so we have stop for a day or 2 and then everything gets back to normal. I think they find it is not cost effective to have the resources in place to deal with it unlike the aforementioned countries. Also we do not prepare for it as well no snow tyres (snow chains) nothing in our cars etc so it is simply easier to wait it out :)
Actually, other parts of Europe also experience chaos when there's heavy snow too. The difference is, they just sort of quietly put up with it, and then carry on, whereas in the UK we have it as front page news and seem to relish in telling the rest of the world how helpless and useless we are. I speak regularly to a contact in Norway, and he has told me that when there is heavy snow in Oslo there is chaos there too. But they don't broadcast that to the entire northern hemisphere.
Just thought I'd add a comment to balance that foreign flag out and remind Simon what our national flag looks like ;) "You can't claim us, we live here" "Do you have a flag...?" "No" "Well, if you don't have a flag, then you can't have a country. Those are the rules... that I just made up!” (Eddie Izzard, staunch remainer) FLAGS ARE IMPORTANT...!!!
Simon Moore oh look a person with an EU flag as an avi and a relentlessly negative, defeatist attitude about Britain. Quelle surprise! Never seen that combination before - he said dishonestly.
It's a week later for me. My Supermarket only had bread and butter delivered today. There is still no salad veg, no cakes, and very little fruit, and we only had two days of snow. In 1963 it lasted for three weeks, the milk, coal and pop came by horse and cart, which we didn't see for a month.
According to NHK Japan has some of the highest snowfall. In the past they used to all stay indoors for the winter but now they have lots of snow ploughs and organised snow clearing systems.
I know it is funny how US English deal with the snow. But you have to remember we get maybe two weeks of snow once every two years so we're not used to it. But it is funny I can see that 😄
When I was school age we had to go to school in the snow, people went to work in the snow and generally we got on with it, frozen pipes permitting. These days, with much less snow, loads of gritting, 4x4 vehicles and of course 24 hour news and social media, a light dusting has become a major incident and everyone feels pride in just walking to the front gate.
Don't forget snow is so rare in (most of) the U.K., that very few people fit winter tyres, so an inch or two of snow is often all it takes before drivers not used to driving in snow become stuck. It only takes one car to block a road, then everyone else abandons theirs too..
Here in Belgium usually our roads maintenance service and towns buy modular trucks (for example Unimog) with a removable snowplow and sand/salt dispenser. When they are not needed as such they perform other duties.
I think it's very gracious of you to say this is how we deal with it. I thought it was more like pulling the duvet a little tighter and staying in bed/at home until it gets warmer! That's what I do anyway. Nice to hear what someone who deals with real winters thinks of English snowfall. We are all softies. 😀
We call the "sand and snow people" "road gritters". Some roads of Britain have a yellow plastic road grit tub on them that are placed there when snow is expected so that you can help yourself and grid near your house.
We havent had this much snow in kent in years When i was a kid we used to get alot worse and it was ever year and when that happened the whole country shut down Ive ridden a motorbike on a road which was covered in ice just glad i didnt have far to go on that road @5 mph with feet down
As a Canadian, I always hate it when it snows. For me, snow always seems to go along with cold days and freezing nights, especially in Saskatchewan, so for me, winter is like a long hibernation unless I have to go to work or grocery shopping.
Still can't get any bread, everyone just went crazy here in south wales.....they are still panic buying bread yet all the snow has melted and the sun is shining!
It is funny my aunty in wininpeg laughs when we say about having so called bad snow i remember when i first went to canada i was amazed by how the roads are cleared over night and people are so geared up to deal with it but i suppose if we had more hear we would adapt and prepare for it
Talking about the weather is like an opening bid in bridge. It's used to engage someone in polite conversation, from the interaction the conversation may continue or politely not; it's a nice way of "striking up a conversation" with a stranger which is sadly not something that happens too much these days.
A lot of people forget, that in the UK, your employer has a duty of care over you, from the moment you leave your home, to the moment you return to it. (This is why they have to make sure you can get home safely) The day of care is the reason why we shut down. You can not as an employer demand people come in. Because if they have an accident for what ever reason the employer is liable. I don’t know what the duty of care is like in Canada.
It's a really different mindset over there about how it snowed too much to go into work. I can't think of any day where my work place closed because of the snow. No matter how cold it is, in Saskatchewan, life goes on and buses always run even if it's 30 or 40 below.
Another great video with a sound mind. Too many say, 'well they can handle it in Norway and Sweden', yes, because they get it a lot more than we do. Up here in Cumbria we still have a few areas where they are isolated. The RAF has been drafted in with a Chinook to drop food, fuel and resources to those outlaying areas. Snow shutdown costs the U.K. £1billion pound a day but as you say, it would cost a vast amount of money for appliances/vehicles, maintenance, storage and infrastructure for something that would shut down the U.K. for around a week a year. We go into emergency mode to make sure people are safe and have sufficient to last them and essential services can get through then plan the clear up.
I hope your friend got home ok, she's a total hero for taking you, that's for sure! No one has winter tires on their vehicles here and the tire companies, don't have them in stock. So cars get stuck easily, especially if the driver, as you mentioned, has no experience of slippery conditions. 6 or 7 years back we had more snow than The Beast or the Mini Beast gave us, but at least it was during the correct part of the year! I went (6 miles on snowy roads) to work back then but didn't go tobogganing. I was off work during The beast anyway, but went in during the Mini. There really ought to be a village somewhere in Surrey or Sussex called Bogganing. That would be so useful. But I was a school kid during the heaviest snows of the '60s. Wide open land might have had 2ft deep, but country roads were totally blocked, as high as the hedges!!!!!!!! I went tobogganing near Guildford! The history of British weather. www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/uk/winter/winter-history
I'm a Canadian in Surrey and I'm happy we didn't get it that bad. It was pretty horrible to deal with though... like sidewalks aren't shovelled and everything is icy. The panic buying was hilarious though -- the supermarket shelves were bare of most essentials.
The problem with drivers in the UK is they have summer tyres on all year round where countries that have a proper winter nearly all have winter tyres on either by law or by using common sense...
What you need to do is get the Marmite out of the cupboard,,Put a teaspoon full in a Mug...A bit of pepper & a dash of brown sauce....Top up with boiling water.....Stir well & Enjoy.....
We do get very dramatic about the weather. I love how "the Beast from the East" is just "November" to a Canadian 😂 Thing thing is, the government always know these storms are coming, so it would be great it they start making plans to deal with them instead of running updates on the news every 10 minutes 😂
I remember walking the 3 miles to work at 6 a.m. that day ... and yes` I took photo`s because I love snow .... it took me 45 minutes to get to work` when I normally get there in 35 minutes ... so it was not too bad. It was the second worst snowfall that I had ever seen in the UK .... The worst and heaviest snow I ever saw was in Inverness in Scotland` when we had to dig our way out of a train, that was great fun and I loved it. Snow brings out our " inner Child " and most people truly love snow in the UK because it is so rare that we see any ... but about 80% of people hate the cold and the ice .. because our cold is very different to anybody elses cold ... which I find odd. My manager is Polish and where she was born the weather in winter never get`s above -26 ... everyday ... and yet she says it is colder in England when it only drops to -5 ? ... which just seems crazy to me. I think the only thing Nobody likes in the UK is our Freezing Fog ... and it is a real killer ... I have never met anyone who likes it ... it takes your breath away and chills you to the bone ... thankfully we do not see too much of it ... unless you are crossing the Pennines in Winter. Then your car starts sliding and the visability becomes zero in a few seconds ... just like a scene from a spooky movie.
Great video! The reason everything closes in the UK when it snows is because we have no real preparations in place for the rare occasion that it does! No winter tyres, not enough snowplows etc. Much easier to just "chill" for a few days until it passes :)
I suspect very few UK drivers have winter tires or experience unlike Canadians living in the snow belt and that's a recipe for chaos. When I lived in the UK as a kid, there was a snow storm in 1978 and everything ground to a halt. Our village was cut off but there really wasn't that much snow there but other areas had crazy snow drifts.
Hello Ms Canuck ! Greetings from BC . Look forward to your vids . Stumbled across them when I was looking for travel info for the UK for my daughter . You have such a nice , natural , informative and funny way of telling us about your topics . BTW , every time I blink it seems you have another two or three hundred subscribers !! So much for just doing it for family and friends ! Very impressive . Cheers .
I know this late but quick tip: to eliminate the reflection put the camera lens right up to the glass. Apologies if this has already been pointed out but I've only just found this channel (whilst off work sick) and am catching up.
Basically we don't have the resources to deal with the snow when it gets heavy as it rare, so only major roads will be cleared of snow, plus most cars in the UK will be using summer tyres which are pretty useless in the snow while in Canada most people will probably be using winter tyres I can imagine.
You can have four seasons in one hour here in the UK , but mostly it's wet and grey all year apart from the one day of summer and that can be in any of the 12 months of thee year
Good Video ! I think we are unlucky this time as it was the "wrong kind of snow" ..lol You look like you live in the heart of Kent which is around 20 minutes from the very edge of South London where many "indigenous" South-East Londoners now live. I am just 1/2 mile from London's edge and it has been fantastic since 1983 when I moved from South-East London just 2 miles from Central London. Living right on the edge gives me the best of both worlds and I will always live in this house now...
Absolute crap, come up north. I am in the lake district and we crack on as normal with plenty of snow. Southern shandies can not cope with a sprinkling of snow.
During the "Beast From the East", one place got -41,8 degrees in Norway. Now this summer, southern Norway has had 30+ degrees through May, June and July. Strange year it is.
Like you Alanna, I grew up with snow. Living in northern New Hampshire, we got out first snow after Thanksgiving late November and it covered the ground up to 2 meters until late March. In California, we get snow in the mountains several times each winter above 1000 meters but it melts quickly. Above 2000 meters the snow starts in late November and covers the ground until sometimes late April. Above 3000 meters the snow remain on the ground until late May or early June. Most Californians live ing the flatlands with no snow. When these people drive to the mountains in winter their driving skills are just hilarious. People just freak and can't drive in snow. My city has had two very light dustings of snow in 37 years and it melted as it hit the ground.
The south of England is far more prone to shutting down when snow falls than the north/Scotland. We had trains and planes shut down here in the north of Scotland but otherwise everything else (including work) remained open. We're far more used to it from the midlands/Yorkshire and upwards and things usually carry on as normal.
Love your Canadian take on things. My wife is from Wisconsin and laughs at the same quirks! Looks like you're more Kent country than coast so had the scenic snow. Pity the poor buggers up North. They got more of the beast!
Fun video this week. There's no doubt we're hopeless in the snow. Most people don't know how to drive in it and no one has winter tyres these days. I grew up in Scotland and we always had studded tyres or chains for winter weather. On a side note, I worked in Toronto for 3 months one year, October to January. We were all looking forward to experiencing a Canadian winter. Didn't. Snow. Once! What a let down.
Driving in snow is a matter of the tread on tyres. I learned to dive in Germany in snow with snow chains and I had no problems. Now living in the Philippines where the people have no concept of snow.
Snow is rare in South East England. About five years ago I retrieved an old wooden sledge from a skip (dumpster) and repaired it. I had to wait five years to have more than two flakes to sledge on. My children and I had a blast. Out for four days out of five; after work mind. No days off for the self employed. 1947 and 1963 have gone down in legend in this whether obsessed nation. We have a word for what you are calling snow rain and that is sleet. Not quite rain, not quite snow. Cold, wet, mushy, slushy and just horrible. Make your mind up Mother Nature! Which do you want? What just gonna rain on our sledging parade? I hope that this helps.
I saw minus 6 here in the Midlands and I thought that was proper cold but.......-30C ??? Canadian people are obviously made of stern stuff. Just wait till the summer and it gets up to 25C, we'll have warnings to stay indoors, warnings about pollen levels and more nonsense. Love the channel
Thank you so much! I guess it really depends on what you're used to.. In the winter Canada gets cold warnings where they tell you not to go outside because you can get frostbite (when it gets around -30C). But then in the summer we get heat warnings where they don't want you to go outside because you can get heatstroke (when it gets around 30C) A country of extremes! lol
25C, you mean room temperature? 😉I just got back from visiting relatives in Florida where it was in the 70s F (around 25C) and it feels like winter here in the American South at 40F (5C) by comparison. But I do remember real winter where I grew up in Minnesota and going about regular life below -20C. I think the lowest I ever saw on our outside thermometer mounted outside our kitchen window was probably around -35F (-32C) in the middle of the night in winter. Of course, it could still get to 40C (> 100F) in the summer.
@@AdventuresAndNaps Yes then all the forecasters have beaming smiled and tell us it;s sunshine all day and even add their own comments like 'gotta get outside today and enjoy this weather'. I am pretty mature now and have heard this nonsense all before. I just switch off the radio. Idiots!
What's really funny as an American who grew up in the Northeast is to be in the southern part of the U.S. when it snows. (which is hardly ever) Same thing. Everything shuts down & people panic.😀 lt's kind of funny & l l💖ved it as a kid cause me & my sister didn't have to go to school. As a kid, it's fun. When we moved to Upstate NY (2 hours from Canada) it became another story & was usually greeted with groans & rolled eyes. (& no, no matter how bad it is, they NEVER cancel school!)
Thanks for doing this video it is great to get a Canadian's perspective. The reason why we talk so much about the weather is that we could have all different types of weather in a week and we are never quite sure on what to wear; it is so unpredictable. As for the panic buying, I think it is part of British psyche; if think that shops won't be open for more than one day (or even hint of that threat) then everyone goes into squirrel mode & stocks up. You were lucky that your co-worker was there to take you home. You were lucky I had to get to work for Thursday & Friday; first time I saw snow coming down almost horizontally due to the high winds. Please remember you are in Britain & we can't cope with any type of snow.
The British media go mental whenever we have snow. Every news report is a montage of 'chaos' which involves some member of the public telling the reporter they couldn't get to the post office.
Krzystof Citrus and let's not forget the media's favourite line of all after a snow storm "and there is more on the way..." 9 times out of 10 there never is! No wonder the British public have turned into a bunch of bread and milk panic buyers! Ridiculous
Hahahaha
I wish we had more Canadians in the UK.
You guys are super cool.
Agreed
You're all so kind!
Adventures and Naps that's because your so down to earth and lovely
David Parkinson+ Exactly! :)
watchtheskies 💓
It's not just the snow that causes disruption in the UK, it's a combination of snow and sheer volume of traffic. Even in summertime an accident on the motorway can cause a 30 mile tailback so it's not surprising a few inches of snow creates such havoc.
I live in Virginia, in the area where the English first colonized the US, and we deal with snow the same way.....*everything* grinds to a halt, and places close down, with just a few inches on the ground. They must've brought their attitude towards snow with them when they came over here in the 1600's.
Snow rain? We call that "sleet". Great videos, love watching these.
That's the word! Couldn't think of it. Thanks for watching!
Nice Vlog!!!👍Cold and wintry conditions in the 🇬🇧 UK as a result of a polar continental air mass!!! I think a snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky unbidden and seems like a thing of wonder!!!
Nice sharing!!!💞
3:25. The English 'like' to talk about the weather ...haaaaaaaa the UNDERSTATEMENT of the bloody Century.
You describe it really well, it's still a novelty in the UK, we just don't see snow regularly. I smiled when you said that schools in Canada close when it's -40c. The coldest I've ever witnessed in the UK was -18c and people were writing their wills on toilet paper, it was Armageddon. Thankfully it only lasted for a few days and we pulled through ;-)
Our weather is pretty consistently clammy or cold. If it gets too hot, we complain. If it gets too cold, we complain. When it's exactly as we expect, we complain.
CUFC Mark Layton I KNOW. You guys hate your small temperature range, but any time it gets outside of it either way you complain! Haha. I’m from Ohio, we’re very used to the snow and -10° C temps (it was -22° C on New Years), but we’re also used to 34° C and sun in the summer.
Don Beck
That's not really that far out from what we get on an average year. Bit cooler in summer and warmer in winter but close. Personally, I don't get the fuss in summer as I look forward to it. Not a cold weather person but i'm not gonna complain about a nice sunny day. Cold days are what couches and fires were made for.
Thank you for not laughing at us too much. We do our best : ))
The weather related problems happen with LARGE DEVIATIONS FROM AVERAGE. This is the same for any country in the world, not just the UK. Trying to say Canada manages so the UK should is just dumb, you can't compare preparedness for snow in a temperate maritime climate with a continental one with freezing cold winters as the norm.
Listening to this young lady I can tell she was raised right. Good job mom & dad, you did a great job of parenting!
In California it snows extensively in the mountains and it is no big deal..10 to 30 feet is normal. In the flatlands it snows infrequently and people freak out. I've seen cars abanoned! Wild stuff. I went to university in New England. My very first snowstorm was a 110 inch blizzard. In 1969, 70, and 71 I went to Winter Carnival in Quebec City. Yea, Canada is cold and it gets lotsa snow!
All the soup cups at my Sainsbury's Local were gone on the second day.
Damn that sounds like an apocalypse diary entry.
Thanks for efforts you make in comparison distinctive between two nations I am sitting here and enjoy it. thanks a lot.
When I heard that my university would be closed for 3 days, I was like "Oh great! A chance to get my coursework in order!"
It is now Tuesday. My coursework is not in order...
That's the spirit! have fun while you're young.
We're like squirrels over here. The first sign of snow and we're start burying food and prepare to hibernate.
Another great video, although after all the effort we made to have that all that snow just to make you feel at home, and you never even said thanks, "eh?" 😊
It reminds me of when I lived in Virginia. We got 11" one time which closed down everything. It took several days to plow it.
You and I are in the same boat. I live in Texas in the south central US and we rarely get winter weather. When we do everything shuts down. To me it's just funny.
Andrew Stevens And I live in the Northern US and when we get a whole foot of snow, like nothing shuts down! Haha
As mentioned, we just don't have the infrastructure or equipment to cope well because we don't have such weather that often (especially down south; Scotland is a little different, though). It's not the first Beast from the East we've had though! Thanks to the Gulf Stream the UK unusually warm in the winter given its latitude - London is farther north than Toronto - and when the Gulf Stream moves south, colder air from the north and east pushes in. And I'm someone who loves the snow! But I appreciate if you get it upto 6 months a year then it's a bit of a daily chore!
The reason the place shuts down is because it's simply not worth having the infrastructure in place to deal with what is a relatively rare occurrence. It makes more economic sense to do it the way we do.
And having just typed that, you said it yourself. :-)
I found the UK/Canada comparisons interesting and informative. Thank you. :-)
I'm so glad, thank you!!
You pretty much hit the nail on the head we don’t invest in snow preparation as it’s not frequent enough. We also don’t have special tyres for our cars to make it safer to drive in snow. We do tend to get both very excited at snow and also annoyed depending on how our work deals with it as not all work places close and some expect you to try to get in, it’s a bit of a grey area!
Snow day man, enjoy it, it was a wonderful day off, I live next to a steep park (Brockley, SE Ldn) and there were loads of kids sliding down the hill - it was ace!!
I was living in Birmingham when we had about six inches of snow. A lot by our standards but I had an appointment at the local hospital. My consultant is Canadian. I figured, "She'll be there. This isn't snow for her, it's a light dusting." She was there. Although she did mention that the buses were awful (this being Birmingham, that's 'more awful than usual').
I'm British, and I've lived in arctic Sweden. It's all about technology. I have never driven on snow before, but when I drove in Sweden on the snow, I had winter tyres, plus the snow ploughing, and it was extremely simple. Then, when I came back to England, I got stuck trying to drive a normal car on our wet, greasy snow. It's amazing how miuch difference snow tyres make, plus when it is -10C or below, the snow behaves differently, it's more grippy. In the UK, the weather hovers around 0C.. which makes everything much more slippery. I even saw loads of crashes in Sweden when the temperatures hovered around 0C.
I appreciate that you took the time to talk about the weather!
When it snows regularly you adapt to the conditions. As it doesn't snow that much in the UK we don't prepare for it. I loved having a day off during this snow. Me and my daughter went out playing in it.
Please Please, Do England when the temperature reaches 30 degrees C for that one day a year...
roblex63 she did a video the other year when it was a really hot day, that was funny too 😂
We love it. Our summers in Kent are often over 30c.
Is that Kent in Australia ?
Great video Alanna. You are right; we get so little snow here now that local government never prepares for it, hence everything shuts down. 30 or 40 years ago we used to get a dump of snow like this a couple of times a year and people used to just carry on.
Hell even 10 years ago and you'd see gritters out on all the roads once the temperature started to drop, but I think all the councils have just slashed the budgets to save money (and kinda justified I guess as its getting rarer and rarer to snow this much).
Gus9763. Sounds about right. Left wing council?
Joey might also be an element of the dreaded Health & Safety people, who don't allow anyone to do anything.
You got it..the money lost because of the weather is dwarfed by the amount they save by not preparing.
I've been in 1m of snow at -37C and it was another day at work. I guess it is all about perspective.
Another really interesting video, thank you😃😃😃 I moved to Europe from South Florida (living in Germany now), and I already consider winters here really cold weather!!!😂 We've had some snow this year where I live, but besides when I went hiking in the mountains, I don't think I've ever experienced knee-high snow in the city, like you described digging your car out of in Canada. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Beast from the East!!!❄️❄️❄️❄️
Wow, Florida to Germany, that's quite a change!! I hope you're enjoying your new home :) Thanks for watching!
When a rare bit of snow falls on us we stop because we can't cope, just as when the warm Wednesday afternoon in July comes around that we call summer we all stop because its too hot. You'll get used to it, just chill out and enjoy the days off.
The British called it The Beast From The East, the Finnish called it Wednesday. XD
The media called it that. The public just called it snow.
The British call it summertime, the Finnish call it freak weather.
Some people live in a different part of the world and have experiences different from you.Just letting you know.
British media called it "the beast from the east" - everyone else it was snow...
Yes we prefer it here thanks. Good luck to you, living next to Russia, with your snow for half the year. We're really impressed over here by how tough you are.
Not.
I also learned to drive in winter & at night... Makes us fearless !!!
Me, too. My first lesson was after dark, in January, with snow and ice on the ground, on a hill, with cars parked on either side. In hindsight, I don't know what my instructor was thinking. (He said the first thing he was going to do was teach me to brake.) I didn't hit any cars but I did clip a snow bank on the side of the road a bit later on during the lesson (on a flat road).
I went to school in the 1970s and 1980s. We had snow most winters, and freezing fog. Nothing, ever stopped, or closed. We went to school, drove and buses travel. It's only since the 1990's nanny state, that everything grinds to a halt.
Down south shuts down. Us Yorkshire folk put a thin jacket on and crack on.. ;)
Aww you guys should shut down, too. It's wonderful!! lol How much snow do you guys get most winters?
Do all the whippets cope okay? ;)
Adventures and Naps ... We get the same snow but our flat caps and yorkshire tea keeps us warm.. plus.. we've tougher than the southerners.. they say -5 is cold, we say its Tshirt weather.. lol.
It's true! As a southerner I can confirm that we are fragile creatures. Even a slight chill in the air requires us to take to our beds for at least a week lol
Aww, you guys are sweet :) Try handling -40C then get back to me lol England's weather is so much better than Canada!!(although I do miss the sun sometimes.. a topic for another video perhaps)
We British love talking about the weather and an event like this is manna from heaven. That said, our press goes overboard with it- we are a northern-hemisphere nation and it occasionally gets cold and snows...
I'm old enough to remember some winters which were MUCH worse than this li'l cold snap- 1981/2, 1978/9, 1962/3, when we had a LOT of snow and a long period of frosts. Nowadays, this country really WOULD freak out if we got one such as those.
There's places in the high Pennine area (east of Carlisle) which are still cut off with 12 ft drifts and I do sympathise with them.
In 1981 my mates and I were snowed into a remote country pub in Wales for 3 days. There was no beer left by the time the snow plough got through, we all had a great time though.
My Canadian and Scandinavian friends all have the same attitude as you towards how we deal with the snow :)
The thing is we get this say 5 days every 2 years unless you are in a hilly/mountainous region or Scotland so we have stop for a day or 2 and then everything gets back to normal. I think they find it is not cost effective to have the resources in place to deal with it unlike the aforementioned countries. Also we do not prepare for it as well no snow tyres (snow chains) nothing in our cars etc so it is simply easier to wait it out :)
I'd much rather wait it out :)
Actually, other parts of Europe also experience chaos when there's heavy snow too. The difference is, they just sort of quietly put up with it, and then carry on, whereas in the UK we have it as front page news and seem to relish in telling the rest of the world how helpless and useless we are. I speak regularly to a contact in Norway, and he has told me that when there is heavy snow in Oslo there is chaos there too. But they don't broadcast that to the entire northern hemisphere.
Just thought I'd add a comment to balance that foreign flag out and remind Simon what our national flag looks like ;)
"You can't claim us, we live here"
"Do you have a flag...?"
"No"
"Well, if you don't have a flag, then you can't have a country. Those are the rules... that I just made up!”
(Eddie Izzard, staunch remainer)
FLAGS ARE IMPORTANT...!!!
Simon Moore oh look a person with an EU flag as an avi and a relentlessly negative, defeatist attitude about Britain. Quelle surprise!
Never seen that combination before - he said dishonestly.
It's a week later for me. My Supermarket only had bread and butter delivered today. There is still no salad veg, no cakes, and very little fruit, and we only had two days of snow.
In 1963 it lasted for three weeks, the milk, coal and pop came by horse and cart, which we didn't see for a month.
According to NHK Japan has some of the highest snowfall. In the past they used to all stay indoors for the winter but now they have lots of snow ploughs and organised snow clearing systems.
I know it is funny how US English deal with the snow. But you have to remember we get maybe two weeks of snow once every two years so we're not used to it. But it is funny I can see that 😄
When I was school age we had to go to school in the snow, people went to work in the snow and generally we got on with it, frozen pipes permitting. These days, with much less snow, loads of gritting, 4x4 vehicles and of course 24 hour news and social media, a light dusting has become a major incident and everyone feels pride in just walking to the front gate.
Give it a few months and we'll have the heatwave warnings, for two whole days!!
Don't forget snow is so rare in (most of) the U.K., that very few people fit winter tyres, so an inch or two of snow is often all it takes before drivers not used to driving in snow become stuck. It only takes one car to block a road, then everyone else abandons theirs too..
U.K. - Snow Storm. Canada - Light Dusting of Snow
Depends on where you come from. Some places had several feet of snow, some places had barely anything.
Here in Belgium usually our roads maintenance service and towns buy modular trucks (for example Unimog) with a removable snowplow and sand/salt dispenser. When they are not needed as such they perform other duties.
I think it's very gracious of you to say this is how we deal with it. I thought it was more like pulling the duvet a little tighter and staying in bed/at home until it gets warmer! That's what I do anyway. Nice to hear what someone who deals with real winters thinks of English snowfall. We are all softies. 😀
We go nuts when it snows because it doesn't happen that often and it's exiting ☺.
I used to love snow days living in England. Nobody goes to work. You take sled down the road to the pub and eat meat pies and ale.
We call the "sand and snow people" "road gritters". Some roads of Britain have a yellow plastic road grit tub on them that are placed there when snow is expected so that you can help yourself and grid near your house.
Always exaggerate and freak out about the snow, it compels your managers to give you a day off XD
We havent had this much snow in kent in years
When i was a kid we used to get alot worse and it was ever year and when that happened the whole country shut down
Ive ridden a motorbike on a road which was covered in ice just glad i didnt have far to go on that road @5 mph with feet down
As a Canadian, I always hate it when it snows. For me, snow always seems to go along with cold days and freezing nights, especially in Saskatchewan, so for me, winter is like a long hibernation unless I have to go to work or grocery shopping.
Still can't get any bread, everyone just went crazy here in south wales.....they are still panic buying bread yet all the snow has melted and the sun is shining!
It is funny my aunty in wininpeg laughs when we say about having so called bad snow i remember when i first went to canada i was amazed by how the roads are cleared over night and people are so geared up to deal with it but i suppose if we had more hear we would adapt and prepare for it
I loved listening to you talking about your life in Canada and comparing it to the UK. More of this please.
Talking about the weather is like an opening bid in bridge. It's used to engage someone in polite conversation, from the interaction the conversation may continue or politely not; it's a nice way of "striking up a conversation" with a stranger which is sadly not something that happens too much these days.
A lot of people forget, that in the UK, your employer has a duty of care over you, from the moment you leave your home, to the moment you return to it. (This is why they have to make sure you can get home safely) The day of care is the reason why we shut down.
You can not as an employer demand people come in. Because if they have an accident for what ever reason the employer is liable.
I don’t know what the duty of care is like in Canada.
Snowflake's should learn to adapt to snow
In Eastern Europe we have similar thinking of snow & ice as you do. Respect it and it won't bite you.
It's a really different mindset over there about how it snowed too much to go into work. I can't think of any day where my work place closed because of the snow. No matter how cold it is, in Saskatchewan, life goes on and buses always run even if it's 30 or 40 below.
4 day weekend! What a time to be alive :)
Another great video with a sound mind. Too many say, 'well they can handle it in Norway and Sweden', yes, because they get it a lot more than we do.
Up here in Cumbria we still have a few areas where they are isolated. The RAF has been drafted in with a Chinook to drop food, fuel and resources to those outlaying areas.
Snow shutdown costs the U.K. £1billion pound a day but as you say, it would cost a vast amount of money for appliances/vehicles, maintenance, storage and infrastructure for something that would shut down the U.K. for around a week a year. We go into emergency mode to make sure people are safe and have sufficient to last them and essential services can get through then plan the clear up.
I hope your friend got home ok, she's a total hero for taking you, that's for sure!
No one has winter tires on their vehicles here and the tire companies, don't have them in stock. So cars get stuck easily, especially if the driver, as you mentioned, has no experience of slippery conditions.
6 or 7 years back we had more snow than The Beast or the Mini Beast gave us, but at least it was during the correct part of the year!
I went (6 miles on snowy roads) to work back then but didn't go tobogganing. I was off work during The beast anyway, but went in during the Mini.
There really ought to be a village somewhere in Surrey or Sussex called Bogganing. That would be so useful.
But I was a school kid during the heaviest snows of the '60s. Wide open land might have had 2ft deep, but country roads were totally blocked, as high as the hedges!!!!!!!! I went tobogganing near Guildford!
The history of British weather.
www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/uk/winter/winter-history
I'm a Canadian in Surrey and I'm happy we didn't get it that bad. It was pretty horrible to deal with though... like sidewalks aren't shovelled and everything is icy. The panic buying was hilarious though -- the supermarket shelves were bare of most essentials.
The problem with drivers in the UK is they have summer tyres on all year round where countries that have a proper winter nearly all have winter tyres on either by law or by using common sense...
What you need to do is get the Marmite out of the cupboard,,Put a teaspoon full in a Mug...A bit of pepper & a dash of brown sauce....Top up with boiling water.....Stir well & Enjoy.....
We do get very dramatic about the weather. I love how "the Beast from the East" is just "November" to a Canadian 😂 Thing thing is, the government always know these storms are coming, so it would be great it they start making plans to deal with them instead of running updates on the news every 10 minutes 😂
An absolute treat to watch. Cheers mate.
Having lived in Canada ( Alberta ) and the UK I find this rather nice .
I'm sure when I was young we had snowy winters on the regular. But these days this much snow is very rare.
I remember walking the 3 miles to work at 6 a.m. that day ... and yes` I took photo`s because I love snow .... it took me 45 minutes to get to work` when I normally get there in 35 minutes ... so it was not too bad. It was the second worst snowfall that I had ever seen in the UK .... The worst and heaviest snow I ever saw was in Inverness in Scotland` when we had to dig our way out of a train, that was great fun and I loved it. Snow brings out our " inner Child " and most people truly love snow in the UK because it is so rare that we see any ... but about 80% of people hate the cold and the ice .. because our cold is very different to anybody elses cold ... which I find odd. My manager is Polish and where she was born the weather in winter never get`s above -26 ... everyday ... and yet she says it is colder in England when it only drops to -5 ? ... which just seems crazy to me. I think the only thing Nobody likes in the UK is our Freezing Fog ... and it is a real killer ... I have never met anyone who likes it ... it takes your breath away and chills you to the bone ... thankfully we do not see too much of it ... unless you are crossing the Pennines in Winter. Then your car starts sliding and the visability becomes zero in a few seconds ... just like a scene from a spooky movie.
Great video! The reason everything closes in the UK when it snows is because we have no real preparations in place for the rare occasion that it does! No winter tyres, not enough snowplows etc. Much easier to just "chill" for a few days until it passes :)
I'd much rather chill than get to work, that's for sure!
Despite the temperate English climate, being obsessed with the weather is a quintessentially English pastime - you called THAT right!
I suspect very few UK drivers have winter tires or experience unlike Canadians living in the snow belt and that's a recipe for chaos. When I lived in the UK as a kid, there was a snow storm in 1978 and everything ground to a halt. Our village was cut off but there really wasn't that much snow there but other areas had crazy snow drifts.
Hello Ms Canuck ! Greetings from BC . Look forward to your vids . Stumbled across them when I was looking for travel info for the UK for my daughter . You have such a nice , natural , informative and funny way of telling us about your topics . BTW , every time I blink it seems you have another two or three hundred subscribers !! So much for just doing it for family and friends ! Very impressive . Cheers .
Appreciate it, thanks so much!!
So sweet, love your accent , being British and from Surrey a few counties across from Kent, Looking forward to your next Blog, Mart
I've gotten so self-conscious of my accent - everyone here sounds lovely and I sound so blah! Thanks, though!
To us its the reverse...you sound lovely, everyone else sounds blah! :D
I know this late but quick tip: to eliminate the reflection put the camera lens right up to the glass.
Apologies if this has already been pointed out but I've only just found this channel (whilst off work sick) and am catching up.
Basically we don't have the resources to deal with the snow when it gets heavy as it rare, so only major roads will be cleared of snow, plus most cars in the UK will be using summer tyres which are pretty useless in the snow while in Canada most people will probably be using winter tyres I can imagine.
You can have four seasons in one hour here in the UK , but mostly it's wet and grey all year apart from the one day of summer and that can be in any of the 12 months of thee year
When I was younger my Dad always said, "best place for snow is on a Christmas card!" 😁
Good Video !
I think we are unlucky this time as it was the "wrong kind of snow" ..lol
You look like you live in the heart of Kent which is around 20 minutes from the very edge of South London where many "indigenous" South-East Londoners now live. I am just 1/2 mile from London's edge and it has been fantastic since 1983 when I moved from South-East London just 2 miles from Central London. Living right on the edge gives me the best of both worlds and I will always live in this house now...
Absolute crap, come up north. I am in the lake district and we crack on as normal with plenty of snow. Southern shandies can not cope with a sprinkling of snow.
That was a great vid, I kinda chuckled on and off all the way through it. :)
I live in Memphis in Tennessee in the USA, it never snows here.
During the "Beast From the East", one place got -41,8 degrees in Norway. Now this summer, southern Norway has had 30+ degrees through May, June and July. Strange year it is.
Us English use the weather as an excuse to for a day off work.... lol
Wish we did in Canada!
Adventures and Naps The only problem with that is it would break the Canadian economy 😆 especially if it snows for 6 months of the year lol
Bruce Wayne Day???
Like you Alanna, I grew up with snow. Living in northern New Hampshire, we got out first snow after Thanksgiving late November and it covered the ground up to 2 meters until late March. In California, we get snow in the mountains several times each winter above 1000 meters but it melts quickly. Above 2000 meters the snow starts in late November and covers the ground until sometimes late April. Above 3000 meters the snow remain on the ground until late May or early June. Most Californians live ing the flatlands with no snow. When these people drive to the mountains in winter their driving skills are just hilarious. People just freak and can't drive in snow. My city has had two very light dustings of snow in 37 years and it melted as it hit the ground.
The south of England is far more prone to shutting down when snow falls than the north/Scotland. We had trains and planes shut down here in the north of Scotland but otherwise everything else (including work) remained open. We're far more used to it from the midlands/Yorkshire and upwards and things usually carry on as normal.
Love your Canadian take on things. My wife is from Wisconsin and laughs at the same quirks! Looks like you're more Kent country than coast so had the scenic snow. Pity the poor buggers up North. They got more of the beast!
Fun video this week. There's no doubt we're hopeless in the snow. Most people don't know how to drive in it and no one has winter tyres these days. I grew up in Scotland and we always had studded tyres or chains for winter weather. On a side note, I worked in Toronto for 3 months one year, October to January. We were all looking forward to experiencing a Canadian winter. Didn't. Snow. Once! What a let down.
Driving in snow is a matter of the tread on tyres. I learned to dive in Germany in snow with snow chains and I had no problems. Now living in the Philippines where the people have no concept of snow.
I've got a bigger one than you! I was on a ship refitting in Chatham 1962/63 and that winter in Kent makes this one look like a snow flurry.
Up in the North where I live it's been 25 years since I have seen snow like this.
Snow is rare in South East England. About five years ago I retrieved an old wooden sledge from a skip (dumpster) and repaired it. I had to wait five years to have more than two flakes to sledge on. My children and I had a blast. Out for four days out of five; after work mind. No days off for the self employed. 1947 and 1963 have gone down in legend in this whether obsessed nation. We have a word for what you are calling snow rain and that is sleet. Not quite rain, not quite snow. Cold, wet, mushy, slushy and just horrible. Make your mind up Mother Nature! Which do you want? What just gonna rain on our sledging parade?
I hope that this helps.
Happens every time! 2 inches of snow and chaos!
I saw minus 6 here in the Midlands and I thought that was proper cold but.......-30C ??? Canadian people are obviously made of stern stuff. Just wait till the summer and it gets up to 25C, we'll have warnings to stay indoors, warnings about pollen levels and more nonsense. Love the channel
Thank you so much! I guess it really depends on what you're used to.. In the winter Canada gets cold warnings where they tell you not to go outside because you can get frostbite (when it gets around -30C). But then in the summer we get heat warnings where they don't want you to go outside because you can get heatstroke (when it gets around 30C) A country of extremes! lol
25C, you mean room temperature? 😉I just got back from visiting relatives in Florida where it was in the 70s F (around 25C) and it feels like winter here in the American South at 40F (5C) by comparison. But I do remember real winter where I grew up in Minnesota and going about regular life below -20C. I think the lowest I ever saw on our outside thermometer mounted outside our kitchen window was probably around -35F (-32C) in the middle of the night in winter. Of course, it could still get to 40C (> 100F) in the summer.
@@AdventuresAndNaps Yes then all the forecasters have beaming smiled and tell us it;s sunshine all day and even add their own comments like 'gotta get outside today and enjoy this weather'. I am pretty mature now and have heard this nonsense all before. I just switch off the radio. Idiots!
First sign of snow (if they’re open) head to the pub. There’s a slim chance of getting snowed in.
What's really funny as an American who grew up in the Northeast is to be in the southern part of the U.S. when it snows. (which is hardly ever) Same thing. Everything shuts down & people panic.😀 lt's kind of funny & l l💖ved it as a kid cause me & my sister didn't have to go to school. As a kid, it's fun. When we moved to Upstate NY (2 hours from Canada) it became another story & was usually greeted with groans & rolled eyes. (& no, no matter how bad it is, they NEVER cancel school!)
Thanks for doing this video it is great to get a Canadian's perspective. The reason why we talk so much about the weather is that we could have all different types of weather in a week and we are never quite sure on what to wear; it is so unpredictable. As for the panic buying, I think it is part of British psyche; if think that shops won't be open for more than one day (or even hint of that threat) then everyone goes into squirrel mode & stocks up. You were lucky that your co-worker was there to take you home. You were lucky I had to get to work for Thursday & Friday; first time I saw snow coming down almost horizontally due to the high winds. Please remember you are in Britain & we can't cope with any type of snow.