Snow On The Ground Shuts Down London Town

People always ask us - 'does it snow in London?' And I always say, 'not really.'

The truth is snow does fall each winter, but it melts away in minutes or hours at most. There were some flurries yesterday, and I ran outside to take photos, thinking it would be my only chance to photograph snow in London for the year.

However, in the last 24 hours we've had the biggest snowfall in London in 18 years. More snow is on the way tonight. By Iowa standards, it wasn't that bad - maybe 5 or 6 inches. But, since London hasn't seen snow in a long time, it brought the entire city to a standstill.

All the buses were cancelled. Ten out of 11 tube routes were entirely or partially closed and suffering 'severe delays.' Ambulances were only responding to life-threatening calls, people were advised not to drive at all, and tons of shops were closed. By happy coincidence, one of the only tube lines without major problems was the one right by my house, so I made it to work pretty easily.

But probably only half my office showed up, and we were allowed to leave at three o'clock. Some people showed up hours late. Two people walked for 90 minutes to get in. Some of my office colleagues are not even bothering to go home tonight, but staying with people who live in town, or actually renting hotel rooms. And Grace's office simply called her up in the morning and said 'don't bother.'

The big fear now is that the slush on the road will freeze overnight and make the roads a skating rink. That would mean another day where the city stays home.

I, however, was thrilled because I brought my camera into work. I took a spin around town at lunch, and again after work. I probably looked a bit silly, with an umbrella in one hand and a camera in the other. I was holding the camera so it pointed to the sky, with the lens just under the skin of the umbrella. You see, I'm terrified of getting the new camera wet, because I had another camera once where water got in and made all the photos have three gray dots in the middle. I was careful though, and got some pictures. Click on the one below to take a look.

Snow in London