Snowy UK = closed

After last year's problems with the snow in England, you'd think they would have made some sort of contingency plan in case they had another hard winter. Apparently not. Heathrow invested £6m in snow-clearing equipment, yet this morning, with a fat 2 inches of snow on the ground, they've given up ploughing the runways and many of the planes are frozen into their gate parking areas. The airport director talked about giving up because there came a point where it didn't matter how much they ploughed, the snow kept piling up. I'm sorry but 2 inches isn't "piling up" - it's light snow.
Well that's why you keep ploughing. Clear the runway, land a few aircraft whilst clearing the other runway, then swap. Any American airport that experiences snow could teach you that. Here in Salt Lake City, last year, we had a foot of snow on the ground in the valley at one point and the airport was working as normal, albeit with some delays. It certainly wasn't shut. Similarly, our tram and train systems were all working normally - in the UK today it seems all the train services are shut down.
It boggles the mind how they can be constantly so un-prepared for situations like this. Yes, it's rare, but that's the nature of preparedness. Plan for the worst. Especially if you're part of critical infrastructure.

I'm reminded of Life In A Northern Town by Dream Academy:

"He said in winter 1963
We felt like the world would freeze"

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