Durham and UK Still Covered in Snow and Ice

It’s been three days since the last post and Durham is still covered in snow and ice. I recently saw this amazing photo (below) from the NASA Terra satellite. It shows the entire UK completely covered in the white stuff. This is incredibly unusual and, as I said in the earlier post, it has caused major problems with transportation, schools and work across the country.

For a few days it was incredibly difficult to get the car out of our car park (parking lot). A couple weeks’ accumulation with no snow plowing just made a soupy mess of slush overlying hard-packed ice. We complained to the college a couple times and, despite very minimal resources or preparedness for this type of problem, they responded quite well. It took a couple days, but on Thursday 3 men arrived with shovels and salt; together with 4 or 5 residents, we spent a few hours shoveling out most of the car park. Crisis averted. For a short while.

Now, I’m looking out the window at a curtain of white. The snow continues to fall, burying our car and accumulating on the parking lot again. I’ve already heard the tell-tale whine of engines as people are stuck either in our car park or the adjacent road. Unlike them, I plan on staying in all weekend; I can try to shovel out on Monday morning.

Amidst this snowy season, I’ve learned some interesting things and noticed stark differences between the UK and USA. Perhaps most obvious is the (almost) complete lack of snow plows. With the one exception of the small tractor that plows the hospital’s parking lot next to our building, I have yet to see a single plow in a parking lot or road. In fact, it doesn’t look to me like any road or car park has seen a single blade all winter. I asked someone about snow plow services: aren’t there some businesses or people who offer plowing as a pay-for service? My answer is usually a blank stare. Apparently, this has never occurred to anyone. If I had a truck with a plow, I could have made a small fortune in just the past few days! Or not… you see, apparently the threat of litigation is almost completely opposite to the USA here. I have been told by almost everybody that you cannot (or should not) shovel, salt, or otherwise try to clean a pavement on your own or somebody else’s property. If you do so, and somebody were to fall and get hurt, then you are legally liable for damages (i.e. you can be sued). If, on the other hand, you completely ignore the massive sheet of sidewalk ice and 1-ton precariously-hanging-by-a-thread icicle hovering over it, and someone falls (breaking a leg, for example) and has the icicle crash down upon them (no example needed here, I think), you are free and clear, because it must have been an “act of God.” From my experience, this is very backwards from laws in the States, where the business, landowner or other responsible party is expected to keep their place safe. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I guess it’s a delayed culture shock.

Anyways, I’ll leave you with this awesome photo. If you look carefully, you will notice that Ireland (somewhat shrouded by clouds on the left-hand side of the photo) is rather green in comparison to the UK. Weird. And unfair!

NASA Terra satellite photo of the UK covered in snow, 7 January 2010.

Photo from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/8447023.stm.

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