The Wrong Kind of Snow has struck again.  As this New Scientist article relates, on the 6th of February 1991, trains in South-Eastern England were brought to a halt.  When British Rail announced that this was caused by "the wrong kind of snow", people thought that this was simply the mother of all official excuses.  But it was true: fine, dry, powdery snow had indeed been sucked into the works of the electric trains, and caused them to fail.

Now the same thing has hit Eurostar.  This time the snow was in Northern France, and in Eurostar passengers relive their Channel Tunnel nightmare, you can read the experience of some among the four trainloads of passengers who were stuck for up to 16 hours in the Channel Tunnel, some on their way home from a visit to Euro Itchy&Scratchy.

Continental Europe, indeed, has had it much worse than Britain.  Temperatures of –20°C are being reached in Central Europe, and I have heard that –30° has been recorded in part of Germany, which would make it only 4° higher than Novosibirsk at present. 

It does seem that the Grinch is hard at work, trying to make it difficult for those who are travelling for Christmas, not only in Europe, but also on the eastern seabord of the USA.

However, this being Britain, I expect that we will be the first to hear the announcement

"Father Christmas regrets that presents will not be delivered this year.  This is because his sleigh is unable to travel due to the wrong kind of snow at the North Pole."