Getting rid of the white stuff almost as soon as it lands
SHEFFIELD, where I live these days, takes its name from the River Sheaf which flows through the heart of the city. Near the train station, which is built into the river embankment, is an old wooden gate, the purpose of which I have often wondered about.
A few months ago, I asked an urban historian who works at the council what it was for and he solved the mystery: snow gates.
In the days before grit, in a city particularly prone to heavy snowfall, the gates were opened to shovel drifts into the river and clear the streets.
Nowadays, sadly, there is no need. Like many places, we have experienced snow in Sheffield this week – a light dusting on Thursday evening and the early hours of yesterday morning – although certainly not enough to wrench open the snow gates. This weekend it is looking like cloud and drizzle for most.
Over a 30-year study, the Met Office recorded an average of 23.7 days of snowfall or sleet, each year in Britain. On average, across Britain snow settles on the ground for only 15.6 days a year, compared with 26.2 days in Scotland.
Still, we should not consign the prospect of truly heavy snow entirely to history. On Dec 2, 2010, for example, more than 50cm was dumped on parts of the country.
On the Isle of Lewis, the Met Office has reopened a new radar with the capacity to capture the size and shape of falling snowflakes. Once known as Beacon Hill, the weather radar, which is the most northerly in Britain, has been renamed in Gaelic – Drum ‘a Starraig, meaning “crow ridge”.
These snow gates of yesteryear and gritting trucks of today, make me realise how much effort we have always dedicated to getting rid of the white stuff, almost as soon as it lands.
Far better to stare closely at one of the crystals caught on a coat sleeve – and watch it dissolve into time.