Is it just me or are these some ridiculously good photographs for such a throw away story?

I'd like to point out that we have a few elderly that might suffer but generally the Brits are pretty hardy our newspapers are just fearmongering.

We don't, for instance, build a house made of cardboard in an area known as Tornado Alley, then whinge when the farker is shredded on camera much to my amusement.
Or, I might add, an entire city on a massive tectonic fault line.

1: Nobody in the UK is soiling their pants at those temps

2: "Stiff upper lip" is an idiom that originated in America circa 1815

3: Submitter is a smeg-headed pedaller of absolute bollocks

Keep calm and carry on.

bhcompy: Err, is snow that rare in England? Reading Dickens makes me believe it's just winter.

Dickens actually invented the whole idea if a white Xmas in the UK. They've always been rare.

This article (new window) was linked off of Fark a couple of weeks back IIRC.

We probably get 7-10 days of snow a year, at most (YMMV for Northern parts of the country, but nothing north of london counts anyway ;-P ), and mostly it's just a light dusting that hangs around for a couple of hours or maybe a day. Actual proper snowfall is a rarity for most parts of the country. The media seems to think that the Apocalypse has come and starts going on about how the country is woefully prepared and why do local authorities not have fleets of snowplows on standby (hint, it's because it ain't worth it).

What happens with the actual populace is that is snows, everyone goes "yay! snow day", gets their sledges out (or goes and buys one) and goes out and has fun for a day or 3 until it all turns to grey mush. Oh, and anyone with a 4*4 thinks they are immune to having to drive carefully and finds themselves going backwards through a hedge. Also, BMW drivers seem to realise that it actually takes some skill to drive a RWD car in icy conditions and that traction control ain't gonna save your arse ever.

Of course, it's caused by global warming. And if it were unusually warm, that too would be caused by global warming.