The only thing to talk about today is the funny white stuff that appears to be falling out of the sky. According to the news reports schools in the midlands are closed and even a Christmas market was closed due to snow. I ask you just how ridiculous is this country getting. Police have apparently been called to the Business Class lounge at Heathrow because some flights have been cancelled. Once again the level of snow that would be regarded as nothing in an awful lot of countries brings vast parts of ours to a standstill. Clearly it is not worth our councils investing many millions of pounds in dedicated snow clearing machines that would only get used on a few occasions each year but surely the ability to put a plough and some chains onto some existing bin lorries or the like is not beyond the realms of possibility? Or is it, maybe I'm missing an important point but I dont think so.
I was reminded today of a phenomenon that I first encountered in Chatel, a small skiing village on the Porte du Soleil ski area of France. There is always something called the 'Snowline' a height at which above it falls snow and below it is rain. When you looked out the window of the Chalet at breakfast up the mountainside there was a very clear, exactly horizontal line where the trees were completely white above it and completely green below it, quite an amazing sight the first time. This is a video outside the window of my office today:
and this is a picture outside a house in Purley which is probably about 400 feet lower than Caterham on the Hill where the video was taken.
Meaning that somewhere between Caterham on the Hill and Purley is the snowline and I suspect its just as you start going down the hill, I am just about to go and find out.