Climatic chutes and ladders in Third World Britain
February 03, 2003 ~ 8:45 p.m.
The weather here in England has been quite interesting for the past month. It�s been chutes and ladders, in fact. During the Christmas holiday week, daytime highs hovered between 52-57�F and I was wearing t-shirts for the half-mile walk to our favorite pub. Then temps dive-bombed into the low 30s and between January 6 and 8, anywhere from three to five inches fell on Greater London, more in the west and north of England. An Arctic spell had us in its grip for nearly two weeks, but then, on the 22nd, temps jumped back up into the 50s and on the 27th, London recorded an extremely unusual high of 61�F. Then, sure enough, temps went back into the 40s, then the 30s, and on the 30th, more snow fell. Not as much as last time, but enough to cripple services yet again.
I realize that I am beginning to sound like the BBC�s Bill Giles, but I recall all that from my own memory, not one of his monthly wrap-ups; and the weather is always worth a conversation here. If there is a downpour, heavy autumn leaf fall, or even a dusting of snow, train service gets disrupted. This naturally leads, of course, to increased gridlock on London�s streets.
But wait, brothers and sisters�it gets better. Oops, I meant worse. In Yorkshire, roads remained unsanded and unsalted despite five days� warning that inclement winter weather was on the way. Even a police car skidded out of control and overturned into a roadside ditch! In Essex, cars on the M11 (a major highway) remained trapped in their cars for eighteen hours. The traffic jamb that kept them trapped�those that didn�t give up in frustration and start walking home in a maddened state of delusion�was caused by less than two inches of snow. That�s right, I said two inches.
When I saw coverage on the news of the M11 horror, I was reminded of Route 128 during the Blizzard of �78. There were cars lined up in a state of abandon from Dedham to Woburn and beyond. Of course, three feet of snow piling up over the course of mere hours would have that effect, catching even winter-hardened Northeasterners off guard. But I could only shake my head at the ludicrousness of the Blizzard of �78 type scenes on the M11. I may have laughed too. But not in humor.
I realize that I am at the mercy of a Third World Britain as The Sun so often deftly puts it.
Cartoon from �Haldane�s view,� copyright � The Sunday Express, February 2, 2003
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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