Geographical perspectives on the recent bad weather....

Image by Alan Parkinson

Or, how to add topicality by focussing on the current snowfalls and extreme weather...

This is obviously the story of the moment for many people (although it's important to remember that not everyone is having the snow - I seem to have had nothing else since the 16th of December) It's the longest cold snap for almost 30 years (since 1981) and will certainly be the most severe weather that students will have seen for their whole life... (although as a child of the 60's I can remember worse...)

Start by watching this film which shows how schoolboys coped with the snow in 1900 (with thanks to the Yorkshire Film Archive)

The Independent also compared this winter with past winters. There have certainly been some dramatic winters in the past.

Plenty of images on the #uksnow FLICKR POOL, which was started with the Feb 2009 snow but is now being added to with the current conditions.

OK, now think about the economic, social and environmental consequences of the extreme weather on a range of activities.

How extreme is the weather ?
Put in your current location and see how it compares to the locations of STAR WARS (with thanks to Ollie Bray for the reminder of the site)

Could have a suitable enquiry:

Were winters worse when Mr. Parkinson was a lad ?

A useful article in Thursday's Guardian written by Charlie English, who wrote "The Snow Tourist": a Brief History of Snow.

There were also record audiences for evening local news programmes apparently as people tuned in to find out the latest news for how they might be affected.

Of course, for many teachers there are no students to teach as schools were closed...

Update
An excellent Guardian Blog which has updates through the day on relevant stories, along with video clips...

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