The Great London Snowfall of 2003

    As part of this visit to Europe, Sally and I were suppoed to fly to Germany to check out a university where I was considering taking a job.  There are lots of cheap flights within Europe, and we had booked tickets on an airline that would have taken us both to Germany and back for a total of about $200 US.  However, the cheaper airlines fly out of Stansted Airport, which is on the other side of London from where Sally lives.  So, we got up early and rode the train, then the subway (er, "the tube"), then another train to the airport.  It took over three hours to get there (it should have been about an hour), and when we finally arrived, we found out that the airport had been closed and all the flights cancelled.

    Why?  Because the night before there had been "extreme weather" (direct quote from the airport announcement) in the form of a snowfall the likes of which the British had never seen and which completely crippled their infrastructure.  We tried to get a train to Paris and then to Germany, but not even the trains were running by that point.  (I eventually made the trip by myself a few days later).


"Extreme weather" in Canada:

    Remember the big snow storm in Toronto in 1999?  The one that dumped 87cm over a two week period?  The one that the army had to come and help clean up?  Well, here's what it looked like... I think we can all agree that this is "extreme weather".




Extreme weather in Great Britain:

    In England, the definition of "extreme weather" is a little different.  The Great London Snowfall of 2003, the one the newspapers there proclaimed as "London Snow Chaos", consisted of 5cm of snow (almost all of which had melted by the next morning).  I kid you not.

 "Snow chaos" in London!

 "Stop the trains!"



I even had to change the title of my seminar when I finally was able to give it...




Yes, I also gave the real talk...

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