Duped By the Weatherman

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There are two words that are guaranteed to make any teacher in the UK excitedly poke their head up from their piles of marking: Snow Day.

The weather here is predominantly dull for about nine months of the year. We are susceptible to lots of rain, flooding and occasional storms, but heavy snow is rare in the Midlands, usually appearing for a few days, or at the very most, a week. You’d think that it would make little difference to people’s daily lives, but the beauty of living in the UK during sudden snow storms and blizzards is that we are totally unequipped to deal with them, and so the country comes to a complete standstill. Roads become innacessible, schools and businesses close and thousands of people get the day off work, much to the annoyance of the parents of our students – many who see us as being glorified babysitters. My school has an efficient heirarchical system in which phone calls are made when closures happen to ensure that staff are notified that they can put their jammies back on and go back to bed. My friend and I have a ritual when we get ‘the call’ – one of us will send the other simple text message: ‘Pub. 11.00am. Lunch’ and we have done this on every snow day we have had for the last ten years.

Therefore, you can imagine the excitement that appeared when the weather report predicted the sudden arrival of six inches of snow. The report happened on Sunday, with the weatherman eagerly explaining that the snowfall was expected at 7.00pm on Tuesday night and was supposed to  continue until Wednesday evening, and consequently for the last few days I have heard many discussions about potential plans for the day and ‘snow dances’ that need to be done in advance.

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Tuesday arrived and I was constantly looking up at the sky. There were clouds, it was certainly cold enough… It was looking good! At 6.00pm it happened – I looked out of the window and big flakes of snow were falling and the car already had a nice little snowy blanket on the roof. I did my happy dance around the living room (to which The Bloke rolled his eyes) and then carried on with the rest of my evening.

This morning I awoke and excitedly jumped up like a little child on Christmas Day to look outside…

Nothing. Zilch. Nowt. Not a speck of snow anywhere. Instead, it was dark and raining heavily.

Gutted. Screw you Mr Weatherman

What about you guys? Have you been let down by the weather?

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93 thoughts on “Duped By the Weatherman”

  1. …it seems like it hardly ever rains in Florida anymore…not like it used to…torrential downpours every day at around four. Local version of climate change…or conspiracy theory–they are just messing with the local weather for the convenience of the tourists and snowbirds LOL

  2. As much as I love the sunshine that is Socal….sometimes I wake up thinking…..Not another day of this damn sunshine! Ridiculous I know!

  3. As much as I love the sunshine that is Socal….sometimes I wake up thinking…..Not another day of this damn sunshine! Ridiculous I know!

  4. Oh yes! I’m currently in Wrexham and we were also expecting a day off work… Woke up and not even a light dusting… So unfair of them to get our hopes up like that! They definitely over predict snow just to cover their backs I feel when it does snow and cause chaos! 11am pub dates will have to wait for another day!

    • It’s crap isn’t it! I would much rather have had no report at all than one that took it away from me! Oh well, a double pub day is being saved for later to make up for it!

  5. Living in the South (North Carolina in my case), we are often made the butt of jokes by our northern neighbors when we get snow and are unprepared for it. But I agree with you! For those of us in the South, we love how unprepared we are for snow days because for us they are holidays. Just a few inches and we get to stay home, sip hot chocolate and gaze with wide wonder and excitement at the rare gift of snowflakes! I personally love the quiet that comes with the snow. We take the jokes with a good nature because we would not have it any other way!

    Hope you get your snow holidays soon!

  6. I live in North Yorkshire and we’ve had no snow. I just want to walk my dog in snow [she loves it] and build a snowman. I have a fabulous furry trapper hat that needs to be covered in snow. LOL!
    I hope you get your snow day soon.

  7. Since I live in the north central U.S.–in Minnesota–lack of snow is never a problem. But it has to be an actual blizzard and/or life-threateningly low wind chill temps before school (or anything else) closes. I have personally witnessed people bicycling to work in the snow, into the wind. As a newcomer to this region, I have gotten the idea that Minnesotans take snowstorms as a personal challenge.

    • I have some friends in Minnesota – completely off topic but I love the way they pronounce the letter ‘O.’ Didn’t a stadium roof collapse a few years ago under the weight of the snow there?

  8. Carol the weather girl on BBC tells lies! Were I the consummate bore I would have kept a diary of her ‘errors’ although I did – I think – post a skit on my blog about once!

  10. It’s like a Spring Day here in the mountains on the Oregon Coast. Our kid goats should be born any day, the bucks are bumping heads vying for main buck, and the chickens are about to begin laying eggs. I think the sunshine has tricked everyone into giddiness. My feet are freezing on the hardwood floors and the fire is going in the kitchen…..it’s still winter. p.s.The Weather people are part of a government conspiracy: they dictate our moods before we realize it…..lllol.

  11. Despite the COLD weather here in the Northeast U.S., there hasn’t been much snow in Maine. A lot of ice, but no significant snowfall (or at least none that wasn’t shoveled/plowed quickly) or closings that I can remember. No dancing here.

  13. It snowed enough in Colorado to mess up the roads but not to lead to closures. Attendance at school today was poor because of it. Of course we were all hoping for a snow day when we heard the forecast…
    Good thing I just had my car washed. 😡

    • Whenever I see Colorado I just think of South Park – there always seems to be a ton of snow in that 😉 The UK would have just shut down if the roads were a mess – you’d think that things would be organised better after so many days of chaos caused over the last few years because of it, but it hasn’t!

  14. Haha! We’ve been waiting for two weeks for our snow! I think the South East is under a special umbrella. Obviously someone has really miffed off the rain gods because everywhere else had a touch and we had zilch. Gutted to say the least!

  16. That sucks. 11am lunch sounds so much better than work. We all should vote for only having to work in between 10°C and 25°C. Except of pub owners – of course.

  17. Hmm not sure about teachers wishing for snow days!!! Guess you could always put an extra training day in the calendar just after a half term for example.

  18. Ha ha the exact thing happened to my friend up north. It snowed the night before so she assumed it would be a snow day and woke up later than usual to find nothing… nada. She then had to get herself and her 3 kids to school within half an hour. You can’t trust anyone these days not even the weatherman… tut tut

  19. For a minute there I was confused – I thought I’d written a blog post without realising it! I too am a Midlands girl (East Mids) who was totally set for a snow day. I fell asleep to the rhythmic falling on huge fluffy flakes and woke up to a total letdown. Not enough for a snow day – just enough for inconvenience. Bloody English weather – can’t even be bad when it’s supposed to.

  20. That sounds like the weather my valley has been having the last two winters when we usually have so much snow that my mother (who is from Eastern Texas) was always calling and asking if school was cancelled even as the snow plows and children were both heading out into the several feet of snow to start the day. (They never cancelled school here even when more than half of our teachers were unable to get out of their driveways because of several feet of snow.)

    Now, we have a few flakes and then rain and rain and more rain. And smog.

  21. Don’t talk to me about the weather. Every day this week it’s taken at least 2 hours to make a half hour journey. Aberdeen has been like one big car park and I feel like I’ve spent my entire week in a car. Looks pretty though 🙂

  23. I’m constantly let down by the weather because we get too much snow. It snows so frequently where I live that everyone is prepared and we don’t get a break from anything unless a couple feet of snow fall in the hours before morning.

  24. Growing up in Seattle it was pretty much the same deal. Plenty of rain but every few years we would get a few inches of snow and the whole city would shut down. Loved it

  25. So nice to meet you here – thanks to Turquoise Compass. When I lived in the SF bay area, I was NEVER disappointed by the weather. But I happen to love days of sunshine and 70 degree weather from April through October. Then November-March, we get fabulous rainstorms that keep everyone inside..for 1 day, and then the sun shines gorgeously again. Now, I’m in New England, where currently it’s snowing up a white storm that YOU would love. Everyone is tucked inside in front of fireplaces with hot chocolate. It’s nice, but would be nicer if tomorrow, it turned to 70 and sunny. 🙂

  27. Oh man, if I had a nickel for every time I was duped by the weatherman, I’d be able to travel for a thousand years… somewhere, where they accept nickels…

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  30. When did we last have real snow in London? A couple of years ago and then nada for years before that it seems. Hope you get to pub it soon. I wonder how many parents follow you and haven’t dared respond for fear of chewing their mouse at what it means for them if their work doesn’t shut? Mine are grown so I’m sanguine at your escape – given how boldly horrid the little darlings can be up you need the occasional a Duvet Day for sanity’s sake.

  31. I’m sure I’m not the only one from my part of the world that would gladly lend you 20 or 30cm of the stuff. We’re expecting another half meter today….

  32. On Saturday morning we had snow at 1.30am so me and the Bloke went out for a walk around the block – as you do – and the street were so quiet and everything was covered in this beautiful blanket of white. Then in the morning it was pretty much gone.

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