A Wisconsin Poem

[Drummond]

Well that's one thing about living up nort' here in Wisconsin, we are totally prepared for winter, we're used to it, even huge snow falls and bitter cold weather. We're a pretty hardy bunch. Keeps out the riff raff too. There's no way we're going to have tent cities and bums living on the streets up here, it's too cold for that. You're outside when it gets cold around here, you DIE. So bitter cold does have it's unintended benefits.

Obviously yours is always a colder climate in winter than my part of the world is.

As comparatively small as the British Isles is compared to continental America, we have 'extremes' of weather from one end of it to the other. Scotland is pretty much guaranteed snow in winter ... in other parts, it's less likely. Wales (where I am) tends to have a 50-50 chance of heavy snowfall sometime in winter. London (where I was originally from) more usually escapes it altogether .. though hasn't done, this time.

Any appreciable snowfall ... everything seizes up. Local councils grit the roads, though they always argue that further snowfall after the initial gritting makes their efforts useless. So, in conditions such as we've had over the past 24 hours or so, people here just accept that conditions will get bad, and 'wait them out'.

This, I know, is the opposite to Canada's attitude. However heavy the snowfall, they cope ! Trains keep running in far worse conditions than ours. It's become apparent for decades that our coping abilities are pathetic compared to theirs.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...W-hits-UK.html

Workers have been warned to leave early tonight as thousands are stuck in blizzard-hit motorways - while the threat of dangerous black ice forming on the roads looms and the severe weather shows no signs of ending.

At least 2,000 schools across the country serving 800,000-plus children were shut after 'doomsday' snow caused chaos with some areas getting up to ten inches overnight on the coldest night in the UK for seven years.

Rail commuters living in South East London and Kent were told to 'travel earlier or later to avoid the busiest trains' after Southeastern implemented its 'winter weather timetable', resulting in fewer services during rush hour.

Weather warnings have been issued running into tomorrow, with another 4in (10cm) of snow possible in northern Scotland and 1.6in (4cm) over the Yorkshire Moors. An ice warning is also in place for Scotland on Monday.

The M3 in Hampshire was badly hit today, with motorists forced to abandon their cars as they became stuck in the blizzards - just hours after Bodmin Moor in Cornwall suffered most from the overnight 'snowbomb'.

But commuters posted photos of empty roads and station platforms as it appears many chose to work from home or take the day off - with the sarcastic hashtag #Snowmageddon trending with ironic images of fake carnage.

There's a great deal to study from that link (note the reference to 'doomsday snow') ..

As for 'tent cities and bums' more generally .. of course, conditions like yours would see ours killed off in great numbers. We do have them in the streets, and there's an area in London, just below Waterloo Bridge (on the south side of the Thames) known as 'tent city', where we have a well-established gathering of homeless living outside. Conditions like these prompt advice for them to seek homeless charity help.