Thursday, February 08, 2007

We want snow!

That's the marketing slogan of Japan Rail for their winter skiing package holidays. Last year there wasn't a problem, but it seems particularly apt this year. Sapporo has just opened its snow festival and the ice sculptures are all melting. It usually looks like this.

A few weeks we happened across a temporary outdoor skating rink in Yokohama. I'm not sure what the motivation was, but it was a warm day and the skaters were splashing through puddles.

Meanwhile, in the UK, we have:
Heavy snow causes travel problems

Travellers are battling transport problems after heavy snowfalls across large swathes of England and Wales.

The deepest snow recorded so far fell in Worcester, where 10cm (4in) is lying and overnight temperatures plummeted to -4C (25F). Elsewhere, 5cm (2in) has fallen in Benson in Oxfordshire and 4cm (1.5in) in west Wales, south-west London and Wiltshire.
4cm of snow and the south of England shuts down :-)

5 comments:

William M. Connolley said...

We have snow here, and its still snowing, but to my surprise work and school are both open. England is a bit more resilient than you might think. OTOH I'm due to rail to Bristol tomorrow, so lets hope...

Anonymous said...

Rail seems fine as far as I could tell. Trains from the SW to Sheffield were no later than usual this morning (they come through the Cotswolds).

See: http://tinyurl.com/3aw9sm

The main travel problems I've seen mentioned have been road congestion caused by jack-knifed lorries, or other accidents.

10cm is the largest officially recorded figure, but it will be deeper than that in places (eg I've seen recordings of 13cm in Watford).

Anonymous said...

Global Warming Protest in Oxford Today

http://climateprediction.net/board/viewtopic.php?p=58018&highlight=#58018

crandles

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