Red Cross Blogs

Snow hits UK. People cold.

By Mark Cox
November 25, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Guess what? I’m typing this from a sun-lounger in Antigua with the radiant sun blazing down and an iced drink beside me.

Don’t be daft. I’m on Red Cross wages – I can hardly afford the fare to Acton, never mind Antigua – and the only thing iced round here is my toes. Like most of you, I’m shivering and sniffling as the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years hits the UK.

Already, the snow is six inches deep in some areas, with Scotland and north-east England bearing the brunt of the awful weather. In parts of Scotland, the temperature could struggle to get above zero degrees – which, to be fair, sounds pretty much like business as usual.

(I speak as one who lived in Glasgow for more than a decade and spent many a summer afternoon sun-bathing in the local park, bottle of sun lotion in one hand and handy blanket / cagoule combo in the other.)

This particular cold spell is expected to last for almost a fortnight, so here’s my little list of top tips:

Don’t be afraid of looking daft by adopting the multi-layered clothing approach. Lumbering to work this morning in seven layers, I might have looked like a womble but – unlike the fashionista beside me in a v-neck jumper and plimsolls – at least I wasn’t turning blue.

Check on your elderly neighbours. Older people are especially vulnerable to the cold and a bout of severe weather can cause real problems. Be a good egg and call round to make sure everything’s okay.

Watch where you’re walking. Expect to see more people wearing plaster casts in the next few weeks, because one sad certainty of this cold snap is that there’ll be lots of falls and broken bones in the next fortnight. Check out our first aid advice on fractures so that, if you do see someone have a bad fall, you’ll know what to do.

Stay in and stuff your face. How often does it happen that you can honestly say, hand on heart, that probably the safest, most sensible thing you could do this week is turn the phone off, stick the telly on, crank up the heating and eat crisps until you are actually sweating cheese and onion? Enjoy the opportunity while it lasts.

PS. It’s not all doom and gloom. Far from feeling the chill, bosses of British DIY stores are reported to be positively glowing after seeing a 1,600 per cent surge in rock salt sales. See? Every cloud…

---

Comments (2) »

---

Tags: Emergencies, emergency response, First aid, first aid tips, severe weather

The Red Cross values comments both complimentary and critical. However, we will not tolerate the following: aggressive or personal criticism of the blogger, breach of copyright, obscene, defamatory, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or likewise objectionable comments.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 25th, 2010 at 2:31 pm and is filed under First aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

---