Snow

I awoke this morning to find that it had snowed overnight. I shouldn't have been surprised as the weather forecasters have been predicting this for the last few days. However, over the last couple of weeks there have been definite signs of spring - daffodils appearing, lambs in the fields and slightly warmer temperatures -   so it does seem like a dramatic turnaround.

The view from my kitchen this morning.

There is something quite magical about snow and the fact that we get a relatively small amount of snow in the UK each year means we tend to overreact as soon as the flakes start to fall. People will stay home from work, the trains will stop running, roads will be impassable, schools will be closed and those who venture out will do so in order to start panic buying. Sales of sledges will increase dramatically and snowmen will appear in many gardens. 

People who live in countries that get a lot of snow every year watch the British response to it with wry amusement, whilst those who live in countries who never get snow cannot comprehend what it is like. In March 2009, after an unusually long period of cold weather where the snow had lain on the ground for many weeks, I went to work in South Sudan. I still had the photos I had taken of the snow on my digital camera and I showed them to some of my South Sudanese colleagues. It was clear that they could not imagine what this very different weather must be like - it was totally outside their sphere of reference, as to them it is 'cold' when the temperature drops to around 25C.

Today in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, it is 37C (and the forecast is that it will be over 40C by the end of the week), whereas in Carlisle it is currently -1C. As much as I enjoy the snow I have no doubt about which of those temperatures I prefer...