Snow clearing

The weather is rather beautiful today – at least if you are inside in the warm; clear skies & bright sunshine (once the freezing fog had lifted) with only the tops of the hills & shaded pavements left covered in snow or ice. The thaw which set in on Friday night has been pretty complete, though the temperatures really bite at night.

Poor Ireland, & now Scotland, are really suffering though.

There have been the usual complaints about Health & Safety being responsible for the reluctance of householders to take on the task of clearing snow from the pavement outside, but it is the lawyers & their litigious clients we have to fear. We could do with one really high profile attempt to extract damages from such a public-spirited citizen & a judge who will scathingly refuse the claim

This kind of snow has however made me more sympathetic to the view that we should perhaps NOT encourage amateur snow clearers to set to work on the pavements around their house.

Any snow clearing leaves an inevitable film of water on the surface from the melt of the surrounding snow & freezing turns this into treacherous black ice. The combination of drifting deep wet snow, partial thaw, then deep freeze makes this all the more likely to be the outcome. Organised gritting might be a better bet, but then what will that do to the drains.

At least the white stuff gives a constant visual reminder to take it steady, not rush around carelessly.

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