When will the UK be prepared for snow?

So far, the winter of 2010 is looking like the worst winter in living memory in the UK, with arctic weather throughout the country, which is predicted to be the coldest winter in the UK since 1963, if not colder. November this year saw the earliest snowfall in winter for 17 years. Temperatures have been very low, as low as −21.2 °C in Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands, and snowfall has been 30-40 cm in Sussex, and 20 cm in Greater London.  In most of the rest of Europe, it is a similar story, with heavy snowfall in Northern France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Ireland for example, where there has also been a lot of disruption.  It is not only the places which normally get snow, for example Sweden, Norway, and Russia, that have had snow this winter, although Norway has had its coldest November on record, one place in Norway, Karasjok, had a temperature of −35 °C on the 27th November 2010. 

There has been snow every January/February in the UK for the last three years now, including the South East of England, and there has also been snow in December for the last two years.  The snow this year is predicted to last until at least 26th December.  It seems that every time there is snow in the UK, everything grinds to a halt.  Transport is disrupted severely, and so are sports fixtures among other things. When will this change? And what can be done for the UK to be better prepared, and prevent scenes of chaos such as those at Heathrow Airport and throughout the country?

Snow in London, January 2010

Author: The Vision Thing, London, UK
Licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Gritting is important in icy weather, so it is important to grit the roads and keep a good stock for winter. It seems as though there is a reliance on gritting in the UK. Given that the grit being used is a mixture of rock salt (which contains sodium chloride), sand, and anti-caking agents, gritting is not good for the environment as excess salt and especially the anti-caking are lethal to plants and animals in high concentrations. Roadside vegetation, slugs, amphibians, and migratory birds are all at risk from the grit. This can be mitigated by using different materials however, and airports that use gritting use different materials to avoid damaging the aircraft.

Gritting is also only useful when there is ice on the roads, rather than centimetres or metres of snow. So relying on gritting alone as being the solution is not advisable, and due to possible environmental impacts, gritting should probably be avoided unless unavoidable, and excessive gritting should be avoided. Of course, in the UK, the gritting could not keep up with demand, and according to the Independent, several councils were even reducing stocks of grit and relying on just-in-time deliveries, just to reduce costs.

Gritting is not the only solution, especially for thicker snow. If one goes to Siberia, there is an army of snow ploughs ready for action every year. Of course in a place like Siberia, snow is guaranteed every year.  The same is true of Northern Sweden, Norway and Canada as well as cities such as Chicago in the USA. Snow ploughs would have been really useful in the UK this winter. Another possibility is to have tractors, lorries, or even army vehicles which can be converted into snow ploughs when needed. 75% of the Highways Agency's vehicles can have snow ploughs fitted.

Another alternative is to use snow melter vehicles which melt the snow, and avoid the pollutants used in gritting, although snow melters do require a large amount of energy. And yet another solution for snow depths of 10 cm or less is snow sweepers. And as an alternative to gritting, de-icing can also be used, although this is normally used more at airports, and de-icing involves using propylene and ethylene glycol which are not exactly environmentally friendly either.

Could it be time to make winter tyres mandatory for the UK? In countries where there is snow every winter, such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, parts of France (such as Grenoble and Gap), and Germany, cold weather tyres are mandatory between December and March. Cold weather tyres have much better grip on snow and ice, and are designed to operate at temperatures of 7 °C or less. Winter tyres are not only useful in icy or snowy weather. They cannot be used outside of winter (in summer for example) otherwise they wear out very fast. One can still have winter tyres fitted in advance of a weather warning. Winter tyres would not necessarily need to be made mandatory every year (especially in areas which exceed 7 °C in winter, but accurate weather forecasts would be critical. Publicity for winter tyres would also help increase awareness.

In areas where there is a lot of snow in Europe, snow chains are mandatory and there are signs which tell the driver so. If there is very thick snow, snow chains would be helpful although one cannot travel at more than 50 km/h, and unless there is really thick snow, there is a risk the roads could be damaged if the snow is not thick enough (so the snow chain would need to be removed at the end of the thick snow). Nonetheless if snow is really bad, we need to be prepared, and knowing how to put on snow chains would help, as well as having snow chains ready. For snow chains, publicity is not a bad thing. And that is if one really needs to travel.

For mainline trains as well as the Underground, the trains could have been fitted with snow ploughs to get rid of snow from the tracks, been fitted with snow ploughs, and there is no reason why this couldn't have been incorporated into the design. This is especially important where there is a third rail to give power, such as the railways in the South East of England, and sections of the Underground which are actually not underground.

The most expensive option of all would be to use heated roads, and to have heated rails (especially the third rail in areas which use it). The cost to install heating to existing roads alone, however, would be a lot, especially if every single public road, including minor country roads were to be done. Considering that the UK has some 398 350 km of public roads, that will be a lot of roads which needs retrofitting. Even just doing the motorways alone would mean that 3 555 km of roads would need to have heating installed. In addition, presumably roads would only be heated during periods ice or snow, meaning extra energy is required during those periods. To make existing roads heated would involve digging up the road, and installing heat pipes (which I would not recommend) or heating elements. Smaller scale heating in urban areas is worth thinking about, even if this doesn't get used, this is done in Japan.

In summary, the UK needs to be prepared for snow at winter. This article suggests ways this can be achieved. This includes the following:

• Having enough grit for both icy and snowy weather (although gritting should not really be relied upon)
• Having grit spreading vehicles ready to spread the grit (as well as suitable alternatives to gritting)
• Having dedicated snow ploughs ready
• Having enough vehicles capable of having snow ploughs fitted on demand
• Any other suitable snow removal / moving equipment
• Winter tyre usage can be publicised and encouraged whenever there is a severe weather warning, or when temperatures are going to not exceed 7° C
• Mandatory winter tyres between December to March is something to consider (it does not need to be every year, just when there are severe weather warning)
• Snow chains can be publicised, and can used when snow is more than 10 cm high (but only when snow is very thick) for vehicles that do not have all wheel drive.
• Driving literature can be updated to include information on winter tyres and snow chains for winter months.
• Trains should also be capable of having snow ploughs fitted on them too when required
• Airports should also have snow ploughs and snow removing equipment ready too

And of course, common sense dictates that we need to keep our driveways and paths clear of snow and ice too.  Heated roads and railways would be nice to have, but could be expensive to retrofit. Other methods can be considered too, and so can technical advances that are also ecologically sound. Yes other countries struggled too (even Germany), but the UK has been notoriously unprepared every time there is snow, and this has happened every time to date in living memory. When will this change?