• Question: How likely do you think the 100 days of snow is?

    Asked by sophieekettle to Joel, Kristian, Tim, Venus, Zachary on 20 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Tim Hollowood

      Tim Hollowood answered on 20 Nov 2013:

      well very unlikely Sophie…but of course it depends on where you are and of how long.
      In our country it’s so unlikely that we can say with some confidence that we will never see it in our lifetime. But in the past the earth has gone through spells of being very cold…known as “snowball earth”. There’s no reason why this couldn’t happen again at some stage, so over many many 1000 of years it is possible for 100 days of snow to occur.

    • Photo: Kristian Harder

      Kristian Harder answered on 20 Nov 2013:

      Oh man, I hadn’t actually heard about this! So we are supposed to be heading for the worst winter in the UK since 1947? Well, two thoughts:
      – I need to finish insulating my roof
      – I need to finish building my new central heating system
      – I should try to get winter tyres
      (Oh, that’s *three* thoughts. Never mind. 🙂 )
      But technical details aside, I would *love* 100 days of snow. Before moving to the UK, I was living near Chicago for about four years, and there winters are *real* winters, with 100ish days of extremely cold temperatures (-10 to -20 degrees normally) and lotsalotsa snow most of the time. I think this is how winters should be. Of course they are used to it and can cope with it easily (lots of snow ploughs available, for example), whereas for regions with usually much milder winters, such as England, it might cause a lot more problems with traffic and so on. But if it keeps happening people will prepare for it, and we’ll all have more beautiful winters. 🙂
      Of course it should be part of the deal that you get the best summer *ever* afterwards. I hope that’s coming for 2014 then? 🙂

    • Photo: Zachary Williamson

      Zachary Williamson answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Hmmmmm. I’m not a meteorologist so my knowledge is limited, but I’d wager its statistically unlikely. It’s mostly just media hype newspapers like to push on a slow news day.

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