Where I live (South Wales) snow is pretty rare. Last year we didn't get any. In the north of the country snow is more common but it's really only in Scotland that they can expect it all the time and are prepared for it. In the south - where London is - serious snowfall is unusual. Some of the news services have said this is the worst for eighteen years, and to put that in perspective we're talking about less than a foot of snow in London. Also, snow doesn't stick around in Britain. We can get blizards one day and in a few days it's all gone: the blessing of living on the Gulf Stream.

There's two things, really. First, snow is rare enough that folks get excited about it - like me wanting to watch Amber play. Then there's the economic thing: we get heavy snow so rarely that it's cheaper to let the country come to a standstill for a couple of days than it would be to prepare for it properly. So when it does get really bad (about once a decade), Brits tend to panic a wee bit.

The last serious snowfall where I live was about five years ago (maybe four), and that one really did lock us indoors for a while. But it was gone two days later.