I think they say something similar every year, I don't take any notice anymore. I remember a lot of snow late 70's where we had a lot nothing to speak of since though.
Really? R4 just had some warmist on, she said it was the hottest year ever, as they had predicted.
You can't see the temperature actually rising, she explained, but it's in the underlying trends, bleh, bleh, bleh. ;-)
I remember the winter of 1963. We could not play football at school for months because the pitches were like uneven rutted concrete. I also remember the stench of the grass when the thaw finally set in. On the plus side, the normal cross country run course was unusable so we had to stick to the flat roads around the school.
How come Britain is never ever ready for the weather it gets year on year? Drought and they run out of water, rain and flood defenses fail, one inch of snow and "sub zero" temperatures and the country grinds to a halt? I remember watching World News on TV an few years ago at the terrible weather they were having in the UK -LOL! minus 12C and from what looked like the photos around 3 inches of snow. Why is Britain never prepared?
I particularly remember the winter of 1963 having just returned from six months in the middle of the Pacific. Because of the cold war, no pun intended, we had to try and keep the runways open. Various measures were tried and then somebody suggested we attach a jet engine,mounted vertically, to a cradle and towing it behind a tractor. It worked very well, the snow quickly melted but the only problem being it also quickly refroze again. We ended up with the longest skating rink in the country. Happy day's.
Britain's monopoly of unpreparedness is a myth - most, if not all, countries suffer problems when unusually severe weather encountered. The ones who deal with heavy snowfalls for example are ones where it occurs for months on end and therefore the investment in curative resources is cost-effective. In England it would cost more than the cost of just putting up with it for a short while.
The Met office can't even get the weather right 48 hours in advance. Or if they do it's usually luck. I don't know why they bother, as an Island at the mercy of the Gulf Stream, and with a variety of topographical features creating micro climates, forecasting is damn near impossible.
According to the experts, again, 1947 & 1963 were the two worst winters since 1740, with 63 just taking top spot. 47 had more snow but wasn't as cold as 63 which had less snow but the coldest since the infamous 1740. Interesting article here.
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=famous-winters;sess=