You know what really makes me laugh?

Ah, now that wouldn’t be reinventing ACP17 would it???

None of them have died yet doing something stupid.

does being brain dead not count?

The Beast from the East … it’s a bit cold and we’ve had and going to get some snow, who’d have thought it especially in the winter. It’s not that bad as no schools have closed and we have one near to us that closes after a hard frost and it’s still open.
There seem to be people in the met office wanting to big themselves up. In the past we’d have a forecast of snow, cold winds and frost, but there seems to be a lover of hyperbole in the met office spiel writers.

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a case of damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

they are forecasting snow and offering a warning so we’re ready for a “thick frost” to “heavy snow” no one is certain what yet…
if they don’t tell us they get a slating for not offering fair warning and the chance for plans to be put in place (gritting the roads etc)

All that used to happen before if heavy snow etc was forecast, roads would be gritted and so on.
We don’t need the theatrics that seem to have appeared in weather forecasting.

What weather forecasting seems to have become is an almost apocalyptic nightmare scenario every time something is going to happen. When they forecast something and you watch it unfold, it’s nothing like you’d have imagined. We only name storms for insurance company purposes, which is probably why some overpaid individual decided to give our current cold snap a name.

The way they were banging on about this, I was expecting a sizeable amount of snow by which I mean at least a foot of the stuff, not a powdery covering.

Do you know what makes me laugh?

Daily Mail/Daily Express readers slagging anyone else down for hyperbolic language…

The Beast From the East was so named because of its all too real effects across Russia, Poland, the Baltic, Germany etc… it subsequently paused over the North Sea where it both dropped lots of its snow and warmed up a bit, meaning that it wasn’t as bad as modelled, though it was well within the published margin of likelihoods within that modelling.

The practice of naming weather events is a well established and academically proven way of getting people to pay more attention to the forecast, weather warnings, and actually heeding them - it’s proven in many countries, including in the UK, to reduce travel distribution and cold weather injuries.

But, you know, experts

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Don’t read either of those publications.

No, naming is so insurance companies can keep track of claims. My wife worked in insurance when she left school and told me this years ago about the Yanks and we eventually caught up 3 or 4 years ago. There is no denying it serves the media in stirring up a story, to fill some column inches and e-pages and for experts to be dragged out to be all Private Fraser.

You listen to weather forecasts and it’s like the world is going to end. When all they need to say in this instance is, it’s going to snow and be cold. But they are really pumping themselves up with wholly inappropriate language. But I suppose now weather forecasters are now ZZZZZ list celebs.

No it’s just a big hype. Scare people and make something out of nothing.

It’s just a bit of cold weather, you southerners just kick off about a slight increase in wind and think its the end of the world.

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for some it is…an not just in the south

Darwinism.

Bloody southners. More countries deal with worse. It’s no big deal. Just crack on eh.

It was -10 up my way a couple of months ago and no one batted an eyelid. No BBC toffs whining and making a fuss.
The next week it hit -4 in England, and everyone lost their granola. It was the end of the world. How ever could people cope.

Having been to NI they need the money and anyway the money was for the devolved adminstration to spend for the benifit of the people.

Do they know what a wheel is?

Uhh yeah. But still it’s money for votes.

So is most government spending

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Not just spending, lack of spending like on defence will appeal to Corbynites and the tofu and lentil munching sandal wearers.

Look back at the winter conditions, Jan-Feb 1963… Twenty foot drifts in places & coldest winter since the early 1800’s!!

Och just a wee bitty blowy ken.

I remember the '63 winter. Clearing snow with shovels /spades around home. Ice on the inside of windows. No central heating, just one coal fore and two electric heaters for whole house. Things were difficult but people got about and RAF dropped hay / feed to farm animals as well as bread / milk etc to cut off communities .
Many people nowadays seem very ill prepared and hit the social media to complain when thier cafe latte gets cold!!!

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Luxury! We had 2 paraffin stove heaters. Same for the one coal fire. Two miles to school. Pulling shopping on a sledge. Even baking bread at home - something clearly not possible for the generation of today! :wink: