'blizzards' Overwhelm 'the Independent'

[acbrixton]

From the newspaper that prides itself upon its coverage of environmental matters a typically poorly written article on page 6 today.

The article is illustrated by a photograph captioned "The beach at Walberswick, Suffolk, in blizzard conditions yesterday..."

The photograph shows no such thing: a man clearly visible some distance away walks near the edge of the sea. The visibility appears reasonably good. There is a light dusting on the foreshore and only a little more on the distant (but clearly visible) sand dunes. There is no evidence of heavy let alone drifting snow. This was certainly not evidence of a 'blizzard'.

The strap-line goes onto say "Siberian winds expected to bring the heaviest snowfalls in five years". Elsewhere in the shoddy article we are told:

1. that the snowfalls "could be the heaviest since January 2003"; or

2."February 1991 when 2ft fell"

Surely it was perfectly clear long before the article was written that the snowfall was going to exceed the Greater London snowfalls of 2003 which were about 2". Indeed we are told that yesterday evening snow drifts caused delays to travellers to and from Victoria railway station.

Furthemore the easterly winds appear to me to be of western Russian origin and not "Siberian".

Finally there is the rather strange use of facts to remind us of the snowfalls of 2003 and the separate prediction that this will be the coldest winter "since 1995":

1. January 2003 is described as the time "when motorists were trapped on the M11". This is strange as the problem on the M11 was not caused by 'heavy' snow but the compaction and freezing of about 1" of snow into sheet ice exacerbated by the fact that gritters were unable to grit the M11 as traffic was stationary;

2. The winter of 1995/6 is described as having recorded a temperature of -27.2c in Scotland. This gives the impression that we might face temperatures approaching or comparable to that winter; again there is, of course, no basis provided for this implicit suggestion.

Goodness knows what the 'Express' makes of this severe spell!

regards

ACB

[Guest]

From the newspaper that prides itself upon its coverage of environmental matters a typically poorly written article on page 6 today.

The article is illustrated by a photograph captioned "The beach at Walberswick, Suffolk, in blizzard conditions yesterday..."

The photograph shows no such thing: a man clearly visible some distance away walks near the edge of the sea. The visibility appears reasonably good. There is a light dusting on the foreshore and only a little more on the distant (but clearly visible) sand dunes. There is no evidence of heavy let alone drifting snow. This was certainly not evidence of a 'blizzard'.

The strap-line goes onto say "Siberian winds expected to bring the heaviest snowfalls in five years". Elsewhere in the shoddy article we are told:

1. that the snowfalls "could be the heaviest since January 2003"; or

2."February 1991 when 2ft fell"

Surely it was perfectly clear long before the article was written that the snowfall was going to exceed the Greater London snowfalls of 2003 which were about 2". Indeed we are told that yesterday evening snow drifts caused delays to travellers to and from Victoria railway station.

Furthemore the easterly winds appear to me to be of western Russian origin and not "Siberian".

Finally there is the rather strange use of facts to remind us of the snowfalls of 2003 and the separate prediction that this will be the coldest winter "since 1995":

1. January 2003 is described as the time "when motorists were trapped on the M11". This is strange as the problem on the M11 was not caused by 'heavy' snow but the compaction and freezing of about 1" of snow into sheet ice exacerbated by the fact that gritters were unable to grit the M11 as traffic was stationary;

2. The winter of 1995/6 is described as having recorded a temperature of -27.2c in Scotland. This gives the impression that we might face temperatures approaching or comparable to that winter; again there is, of course, no basis provided for this implicit suggestion.

Goodness knows what the 'Express' makes of this severe spell!

regards

ACB

They know nuffink!!

[Stratos Ferric]

From the newspaper that prides itself upon its coverage of environmental matters a typically poorly written article on page 6 today.

The article is illustrated by a photograph captioned "The beach at Walberswick, Suffolk, in blizzard conditions yesterday..."

The photograph shows no such thing: a man clearly visible some distance away walks near the edge of the sea. The visibility appears reasonably good. ...

Goodness knows what the 'Express' makes of this severe spell!

regards

ACB

Andrew,

It would appear that much of the country has taken its lead from "The Indy". Today's snow in these parts would hardly have raised an eyebrow in the late 70s and 80s; it would certainly not have been the stuff of closure to half the schools in the metro district, nor would it have rendered the journey to work as problematic as seemed to be the case for many today.

BLizzards aren't what they used to be, 'clearly' in the case of The Independent!

By the way, I assume that S London came close to getting the seemingly implausible quantity of snow mooted last night.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Stratos Ferric

[Thundery wintry showers]

There does seem to be a strange inability to cope in the South-East relative to other regions, though perhaps it can be explained to some degree by the population density. The 2-3cm that accumulated in Exeter doesn't seem to have caused too much disruption, despite the same amount usually freezing London to a standstill. To be fair to Londoners, they can be excused for struggling to cope today as totals have indeed been remarkably high over much of the London area.

The media love to sensationalise, and the Independent's article is just yet another example of this. It is certainly a notable snow event by recent standards- in some places the most significant "easterly" snow event since February 1991- but it nonetheless pales by comparison with some of the snow events of the 1978-87 period, esp. the remarkable winter of 1979.

[acbrixton]

Andrew,

By the way, I assume that S London came close to getting the seemingly implausible quantity of snow mooted last night.

Well SF I recorded 8"/20+cm this afternoon which equals February 1991. I have to admit that this far exceeded my expectation on Sunday of 3-4" tops [we are, of course, familiar with the concept of the 'Abingdon' but perhaps there is a place for an SI for expectations that are agreeably exceeded? Then again such an SI would be used only very sparingly...].

I read of NW reports of snowfall in excess of 12" from Croydon which I think is a little doubtful (granted that Croydon, especially on its southern outskirts benefits from altitude; also it seems to have been near the area of heaviest snowfall: even so...). Rather more dubious were the repeated and voiciferous claims of 19" of snow from the outer suburban arctic hell hole of Raynes Park.

Kind regards

Andrew

[Stratos Ferric]

...Rather more dubious were the repeated and voiciferous claims of 19" of snow from the outer suburban arctic hell hole of Raynes Park.

Kind regards

Andrew

I suppose you can forgive someone living in a location where it virtually never snows. Here in NW Yorks I'm surrounded by people who seem to engage in a bizarre auction. One person, who shall go nameless, lives no more than four miles from my girlfriend, but might as well be half way up a Canadian Pacific Mountain compared to her location which seems to be the Gobi Desert. Maybe there's one of those Start Trek spacetimecontiuum thingys between the two of them. Or maybe the Kentimetre strikes again.

Units of over delivery...we may have to go for Brixtons you know, and why not?