London: How COLD Is It?
 

See the temp yesterday in London got down to 19 F - and today's e-mail Time Out London Readers' Poll asks the following Q:

Londoners' POLL

How cold are you?

A Colder than a bronze lion in Trafalgar Square

B Colder than a human statue on the South Bank

C Colder than the Northern Line on a Monday morning

OR Fodor's Readers answers

D?

Colder than what?

I'm colder than a brass monkey's balls.

19 F translates to how many (or how little) °C?

just over 7C, but today has been milder than recent days. And no snow this morning either!

19F? That's typical for a Chicago winter. Why I don't live in Arizona I'll never know.

Colder than a witches tit.

And since my boiler is broken and we have no heat or hot water....BRRRRR!

Colder than a witches tit.>

Colder than a witch's tit in a brass brassiere face down in the snow in January

pretty soon the Thames may freeze over like in days long ago?

I will be in London February 9 & 10. I do expect you locals to manage a bit of sun for we tourist. Thank you.

So cold that you start drink pints of English beer to warm up!

19 degrees Farenheit is MINUS 7 degrees Celsius.

-7°C

Colder than the dear departed Mr. Farenheit.

Hardly. This being London, it has warmed up a bit today. Besides, I cycle to work, so I keep quite warm most of the time.

In the meantime, here are some nice pictures:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/gallery...ture=341416524

Colder than the Royal Family after Princess Di's death?

Thanks Patrick, for the link to the beautiful photos.

"How COLD Is It?"

It isn't.

The coldest it's been anywhere in Britain so far this winter was round here, early yesterday morning, at -14 C. Which, by NY or Chicago standards, is practically summer. Even by the standards of our winters in the 1970s and 1980s, pretty balmy.

The three day old lambs were staggering round the fields, happy as Larry. The humans - who all had the feck to put an extra couple of cardigans on - were mostly just about as happy. Even the meeja - never as chuffed as when they've got something to moan about - couldn't get much beyond pretty photies. Couldn't find a single little old lady dying of hyperthermia, or a hospital closed because its heating wasn't working.

The only ones whining were people too young to remember real winters. Though one or two of the global warming mob must be thinking it possible they may be mistaken.

The only ones whining were people too young to remember real winters>

So pipes are not bursting in poorer folk's residences?

when a similar cold cold snap hit my in-laws area in France a few years back many pipes were not prepared for that much chill.

How cold is it?

Colder enough that Flannerpooch was let into his Master's house at night - leaving the proverbial dog house.

So cold 'it was a three-dog night'

The Thames can't freeze over anymore. It's down to the great grandad of the bloke that's currently bringing us Celebrity Big Brother.

Translation pleeze?

why cannot the water in the Thames get cold enough to freeze? Too much flow but how is the flow different than in the old pictures of an iced over Thames centuries ago?

You call that cold?

Amateurs.

(I remember in London this past weekend, everyone complaining about the cold and the tv networks were all freaking out about it. That and Doctor Who, of course)

The Thames used to be much wider, shallower and slower.

Gradually London has encroached into it's territory - for instance The Strand actually means the beach and The Savoy used to have it's own pier.

All these encroachments have made the thames deeper and faster so less able to freeze.

The biggest encroachment was the building of the great sewer which runs under the Albert Embankment. This was built by Joseph Bazalgette. His great grandson is Peter Bazalgette who owns Endemol who are the TV company that produce big brother.

So Great Grandad pumped shite out of our homes....

It was of course a great deal colder in the days of the Frost Fairs on the Thames.

England was emerging from the Little Ice Age just about as Dickens was writing Christmas Carol. And as Christina Rossetti ('In the Bleak Midwinter') was growing up.

Her definition of bleak was a great deal bleaker than ours.

The flannerpooch thinks this weather's wonderful, BTW, and a great deal nicer than those warmer wet, windy days when the temp's a few degrees above zero.