Schnee!

[cosmolinguist]

I tried taking a picture and it didn't do justice, but I just glanced out the window next to my desk and saw proper snow. Flurries light and fluffy enough to swirl around as they fall, and they're actually accumulating on the ground (no surprise there, it's been so damn cold lately that we're lacking the usual saving grace of the ground being warm enough to melt the snow).

A sight I associate much more with Minnesota than Manchester, where the snow is usually wet and heavy. Very British reaction to it, though: the places it has snowed yesterday and today have elicited responses on social media along the lines of "snow? now?!" and I'm like ...is February not a normal time for snow in your culture? Does it really stop at Christmas here?

But then I guess Londoners had been talking last week about having their first No Coat Day of the year, so maybe they feel more cheated than I do: the closest I've gotten to that is once wearing my Big Coat and thinking it might be warm enough that I'd regret it. But then it turned out I only regretted it when I was walking to the bus stop in the sunshine: when I got there it was in shadow and windy and I was very happy to still be using the Big Coat.

Glad I don't have to go outside today. Well, I should, for the WI meeting. I am interested in the speaker from the Pankhurst Centre talking abut the suffragettes. But I don't have to go.

Though that's because of a strike, so I really hope anybody on the picket lines today is bundled up warm and being brought hot drinks.

Comments

[sfred]

I would say that snow before Christmas is unusual here, and it's more normal in January and February. I guess people think it's weird because there *was* snow before Christmas this year so it felt like it had happened and was done with.

[alithea]

Snow in February is entirely unremarkable here in Scotland. In fact, snow is unremarkable between November and April in my book, and we don't live in the Highlands (where I suspect that may be more of a case of October to May!). We have had a run of very mild winters over the past few years though - in Dundee this is the first 'proper' winter we've had since about 2012 I think (not that we get much snow here in the city - we have an estuary one side and hills the other).

[cosmolinguist]

November to April sounds about right to me as a Minnesotan, with October not being all that unusual for snow. But I honestly find it difficult to judge here even after living here such a long time; people always seem to react so (what seems t me as) weirdly to snow no matter what.

[alithea]

Yeah, I think it must be because we don't reliably get it *every* year in the UK in general - mountains in Scotland aside (and even up here the ski resort doesn't manage to open every year). Of course, the fact that the UK media is SE weighted and snow is pretty unusual down there may also play into perceptions.

[softfruit]

February is totally normal time for snow here! Though I've seen snow falling in England in June.

I think we've just had a few warmer winters in recent years which is making people expect it less, but mostly they are just being a bit crap.

[alithea]

Yeah. My record for Scotland is snow in late April but I remember my parents saying they had once driven up from Staffs to the Lake District, left in brilliant sunshine and mild weather and hit snow on Shap summit in June.

[softfruit]

I am now faintly wondering when my June snow was. I know it happened but it's one of those things that I have said so often that I cannot remember when I started saying it...

...at least there's a baseline of "when I moved to England" to work from :)

[alithea]

I have no idea on the year either I'm afraid - it was after 1999 when I left home but that doesn't narrow it down much! I suspect it was before my sister learnt to drive because they were picking her up, so possibly mid 2000s...

[softfruit]

Given Holly's comments below it seems likely we had a fucking cold day one June around 2004 :)

[alithea]

That date sounds very plausible

[cosmolinguist]

I'm sure it snowed in June when I visited Manchester before I lived here.

So, 2004 or 5? Does that sound plausible to you?

[softfruit]

Entirely. Anything between about 1992 and last Wednesday is a bit of a blur in my brain :D

[softfruit]

Additional theory: the Daily Express has told us MASSIVE SNOWFALL IMMINENT 6 FOOT PER DAY EVERYONE WILL DIE POSSIBLY EVEN PRINCESS DIANA so many times now that we no longer believe any weather forecast involving snow.

[rmc28]

Snow at all is unusual here :-)