Yorkshire Blizzard

There is snow in Yorkshire.

And Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, Wessex, East Anglia and, well, everywhere. Its the biggest snow storm for 5 years. Trains delayed or cancelled, thousands of schools closed and airports shut. How much snow could cause such mayhem? Two feet? A foot? No. That would be silly. Try two inches.

I've spent the day trying to figure out how such a minimal amount of snow could bring the nation to a standstill. The answer must be in one, or a combination, of the following factors:

1. The English drive in the snow as if it was a clear spring day. No defensive driving or pumping the brakes for this lot. Full speed ahead and damn the snow tires.

2. The road salters appear to drop salt in a foot-wide line down the middle of the road. Excellent if you are driving a one-wheeled car in the middle of the road but ineffective otherwise.

3. Despite any number of passes, the snow plows fail to remove all but the tiniest amount of snow. This is likely due to the fact that English roads are not flat but rather have a convex shape making it virtually impossible to remove any snow via plow. Even the Plow King would be screwed.

All this is preamble to the declaration that I'm staying home from work tomorrow. I'm Canadian, dammit, and I've seen enough snow to last a lifetime.