.
The country’s obsession with the weather continues with the news that last night was the coldest so far this winter with temperatures in the Highlands plummeting to minus 21 degrees. As usual, schools and businesses have been closed, flights cancelled, trains late, roads not all gritted, people and villages cut off by snow drifts and the whole place at a standstill.
It is said that this spell of cold weather is the worst since 1981, for that also affected much of Europe. This is certainly true for it was this month in that year I saw it at first hand.
I was standing by a ship being refitted in drydock in Bremerhaven where, at the time, it was said by the German weather agency that it had been the coldest winter since the war. There was no doubt of that in my mind because the ships bottom had to be heated by braziers set up in the base of the drydock so as to keep the ship’s plumbing warm; an unusual and awesome sight. Since there was limited heating on board, conditions were also pretty grim.
What impressed me, however, was the way in which the Germans just got on with life. All of the roads were gritted and even the cycle paths and pavements as well. Schools and businesses kept open, trains and buses ran regardless and only Frankfurt airport closed down for a while.
I wanted to get home that particular weekend and took a taxi from Frankfurt Airport to the railway station where I stood on a crowded train that took me to Dusseldorf. Here I caught a flight to my local airport and was back in the comfort of my home not long afterwards.
The apparent ease with the way northern and Scandinavian countries get on with life in poor weather conditions is well known and, over the years, I’ve witnessed this many times as well as in the Californian mountains and in Alaska. Of course, it has to be borne in mind that poor weather is an annual factor in northern climes. Yet, at the same time, we also have this same problem every year.
The experience in 1981 confirmed what my father had told me years before, which was that you can do pretty much anything if you put your mind to it. So, for example, I can’t remember my school closing because of bad weather for masters and pupils did what they had to do to get in. I expect working folk did the same. Indeed, on the few occasions that smog bought London’s transport system to a standstill, my father and I walked to and from work.
Many of the schools in my area closed yesterday and many parents were forced to stay at home to look after their children. The local radio reported that some folk couldn’t get to work and, maybe, there were good reasons for this in many cases. However, I do wonder whether we have bred a generation of people that simply can’t be bothered to get to work or school if a walk of more than a couple of hundred yards in poor weather is involved.
But please don’t trouble to send me your thoughts as I think I already know the answer!
.
The country’s obsession with the weather continues with the news that last night was the coldest so far this winter with temperatures in the Highlands plummeting to minus 21 degrees. As usual, schools and businesses have been closed, flights cancelled, trains late, roads not all gritted, people and villages cut off by snow drifts and the whole place at a standstill.
It is said that this spell of cold weather is the worst since 1981, for that also affected much of Europe. This is certainly true for it was this month in that year I saw it at first hand.
I was standing by a ship being refitted in drydock in Bremerhaven where, at the time, it was said by the German weather agency that it had been the coldest winter since the war. There was no doubt of that in my mind because the ships bottom had to be heated by braziers set up in the base of the drydock so as to keep the ship’s plumbing warm; an unusual and awesome sight. Since there was limited heating on board, conditions were also pretty grim.
What impressed me, however, was the way in which the Germans just got on with life. All of the roads were gritted and even the cycle paths and pavements as well. Schools and businesses kept open, trains and buses ran regardless and only Frankfurt airport closed down for a while.
I wanted to get home that particular weekend and took a taxi from Frankfurt Airport to the railway station where I stood on a crowded train that took me to Dusseldorf. Here I caught a flight to my local airport and was back in the comfort of my home not long afterwards.
The apparent ease with the way northern and Scandinavian countries get on with life in poor weather conditions is well known and, over the years, I’ve witnessed this many times as well as in the Californian mountains and in Alaska. Of course, it has to be borne in mind that poor weather is an annual factor in northern climes. Yet, at the same time, we also have this same problem every year.
The experience in 1981 confirmed what my father had told me years before, which was that you can do pretty much anything if you put your mind to it. So, for example, I can’t remember my school closing because of bad weather for masters and pupils did what they had to do to get in. I expect working folk did the same. Indeed, on the few occasions that smog bought London’s transport system to a standstill, my father and I walked to and from work.
Many of the schools in my area closed yesterday and many parents were forced to stay at home to look after their children. The local radio reported that some folk couldn’t get to work and, maybe, there were good reasons for this in many cases. However, I do wonder whether we have bred a generation of people that simply can’t be bothered to get to work or school if a walk of more than a couple of hundred yards in poor weather is involved.
But please don’t trouble to send me your thoughts as I think I already know the answer!
.
No comments:
Post a Comment