Entertainment For Lively Minds
New weather forecasting phrase
Posted by Simon Hoyle on 6 January 2010 - 9:00am.
As heard on Look East and Radio Suffolk:-
"expecting accumulation".
In other words, "it's going to settle".
Or has it been previously used on weather reports about snow and I've just missed it ?
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Did they speak of
'Drifts of up to 40 centimetres' as I kept hearing yesterday?
I'm sorry, but knee high is not a 'drift'. I try not to do the grumpy old man bit, but the reaction of the national media to perfectly normal winter weather when it happens to affect the south of England really get on my nips.
A drift?
Surely knee-high snow can be a drift if the overall level of snowfall is somewhat less than knee-high and the wind has blown it knee-high in places?
Isn't that pretty much the definition of a drift?
"2 inches of snow, drifting to 6 inches in places" :-)
Well, yes
The OED has 'An accumulation of snow, sand, etc; driven together by the wind', but I maintain that in order to be newsworthy a 'drift' should at least make you wonder whether to put on boots instead of shows when you leave the house.
I do think "drift"
should be reserved for anything that would have at least caused King Wenceslas a moments pause in his charitable duties.
And do we know how he liked his pizza?
Deep pan, crisp and even. Arf.
I guess the original quote;.
"drifts of up to 40 centimetres" was trying to big up the snow (as it were) and felt that "a 10 centimetre fall of snow" was a bit unspectacular.
I have to agree that the term "snow drift" does really imply something that would stop a Land-Rover in it's tracks.
Knowing the Olympic level of sarcasm around here ...
... I'm surprised that I haven't received a good shoeing over that 'putting on shows' typo. You're slipping, boys and girls, and not on the snow either.
Although one of the new cliches
of the weather is assorted Northerners etc complaining about the London-centric coverage of the conditions! ;) What people forget is that in London particularly we don't really have interesting weather most of the time it's sort of warmish 13-17 degrees greyish occasionally bright not very windy and it hardly ever rains. So something out of the ordinary is "news" in places where sheep regularly blow past the window and whole reservoirs fill up overnight these things rightly go unnoticed.
I live in Essex!
Though I am Scottish by birth.
Anyway, I take your point that it's exceptional for London - so save it for the London news. 'Snow in winter' doesn't merit a mention, let alone a headline, on coverage which is meant to be national.
Snap
I'm bored of hearing about a cold 'snap'. Ubiquitous cliche already.
(sings) "I got the power!! But I'm a little chilly..."
(coat)
It's a snow apocolypse! A Snowolypse! Don't panic!
We're all going to die! Or tomorrow.
I will remember that there London as it was before the great snow shower of 2010. A thriving, vibrant, swinging village that knew nothing of it's fate on that erm..., fateful day. Here's a dead good blog about the place that shall, from this moment on, be known as Snowdon.
http://thelondonnobodysings.blogspot.com/
ApocalypSnow!
Boom tish.
Or maybe not.
"Weather Bomb"
This was used with a straight face by weather people on NZ telly a while ago to describe a big storm.
The Russians and Canadians...
must all think we're a bunch of pansies.
But they think
Putin and Nickleback are a good idea so why should worry what they think!
Go West
I think we can probably blame our transatlantic cousins for that one. If it's set to get very bad they upgrade it to "expecting significant accumulation".
Calm down, dear. It's only snow.
An oldie but goodie from The Grauniad last year:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/05/northerner-snow
Coming up later this week on ITV4, probably...
Britain's Worst Ever Seasonal Weather.
More Britain's Worst Ever Seasonal Weather.
More Britain's Worst Ever Seasonal Weather 2.
The Best Of Britain's Worst Ever Seasonal Weather.
The Best of Britain's Worst Ever Seasonal Weather 2.
and so on.
Just heard the T word again on the news
Why do driving conditions have to be treacherous? Why can't they be dangerous, or perilous? Why is it in broadcasting that everyone doggedly sticks to the same adjectives (actually, verbs too: "tributes are pouring in today, etc")?