It’s that time of year again. The time that the Express newspaper headlines go mental. The time when snow is forecast, and out come the weather warnings. My eldest daughter is three and a half, and despite us having seen our fair share of extreme weather warnings, she is yet to have seen a single blanket of snow in her entire life. The way us Brits react when snow is forecast is somewhat amusing in comparison to other countries, who just seem to get on with it far better than we do. As someone who can’t stand the snow – here’s my take on the 5 things we all do when the snow is forecast.

Moan

Yes bringing up the front when snow is forecast is the obvious one. We moan. We moan about hating snow.  Moan about the disruption to traffic. We moan about the fact that all the trains will be cancelled when the first snow flake falls, and moan about the fact that our journey to work will take at least forty minutes longer even if there is a millimetre of snow on the ground, because everyone drives just that little bit slower – just in case.

Keep Checking the Forecast

I have already checked the forecast about four times this evening, just to check if it is getting any worse. Despite knowing from the good old Michael Fish days that Britain’s ability to forecast snow is about as reliable as a chocolate teapot, we still feel the need to keep a close eye on it and update our family regularly on any changes… just in case.

Panic Buy

There’s no better incentive to get people in the supermarket bulk buying tins of beans and bottle water than when snow is forecast and a Severe Weather Warning is in place. Will we survive without our cars? How will we cope if we have to wear wellies to get our loaf of bread?! Better stock up the freezer whilst we’re at it.., just in case!

Secretly Hope for A Snow Day

When I was a kid, there was nothing more exciting than listening to the school closures being announced on the radio, waiting to see if your school was one of the lucky ones. If it’s going to snow and be freezing, then better that it snow a LOT so that we don’t have to go to work. Better keep checking on Facebook and put the radio on, just in case.

Moan when it doesn’t materialise

Finally, when snow is forecast, we wake up in the morning, and burst back the curtains expecting to see a blanket of white… what do we have? A somewhat more icing sugar effect. Enough to make driving annoying, but not enough to enable us to go back to bed, or build a bloody snowman. We then have to explain to our over excited children that no, Olaf will not be making an appearance today, and that yes, they DO still have to go to school. Bloody snow. Better keep an eye on the weather forecast again though, you know, just in case.