The Snow! The Snow!

I’ve said before that I dislike snow. I’ve had some bad experiences with the stuff and regard it as a damn nuisance. What prettiness value it boasts lasts for a few hours or a day at most; by that time I’ve grown used to it, become bored with it and I want the fields back to a proper green. But this is northern Europe, right? And it’s winter. So we get some snow now and then. Like everybody else, I put up with it.

It started snowing here about an hour ago, and it was predicted well in advance by the forecasters. It wasn’t just predicted, though; they’ve been going on and on about it. And the news media have picked it up, so the internet news channels are well decorated with pictures of massive snowdrifts and abandoned cars.

Hey everybody, it’s going to snow! In February!

It used to be that snow made the news bulletins when it came down as a serious blizzard, depositing snowdrifts everywhere, causing gridlock in the towns and cities, and making even some of the major roads impassable. We get something like that on average about once every twenty years. What they’re predicting today is a modest fall amounting to as much as four inches in some places. It’s on the edge of a weather front that is passing over quite quickly, so it’s likely to snow through the afternoon and into the evening, and then clear to dry and slightly warmer conditions for the next few days.

If that’s how it works out, it’s pretty average for a British winter. So why are the media so intent on frightening everybody half to death?

Of course, if they’ve got it wrong and it turns out to be more serious, that will be different. But that isn’t the point, is it?