United Kingdom
The year end in the United Kingdom was marked by a cold spell of unprecedented severity, often matching literary depictions. Did the weather, the general mood and the happenings of the winter of 2010 flow out of the mouth of bards and authors’ quills many years ago?

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone. Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago. -- Christina G. Rossetti

The season seemed in perfect harmony with the popular carol song. December was the coldest since 1910, said the BBC weather centre. The temperatures recorded below zero for most part of the country, with a minus 18 C at Altnaharra, in northern Scotland. Locals near the North West coast of England were amazed by the sight of 20-feet long ice floes, a report said. In London, authorities decided to cancel the Christmas day swimming race at the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, as most part of the lake surface resembled a smooth stone.

The residents of a cliff edge at Scarborough, Yorkshire found portions of their buildings hanging in midair on a fine morning, caused by landslides. Scottish legends say that the Queen of Winter carries a hammer with her, to shape the hills and valleys. She had perhaps paid a visit to Scarborough to do some slight modification on the cliff’s design.

In Leicester, the snow played a more positive role. Police investigating drug-related activities in the city were puzzled by the sight of a house in Montrose Road, without a flake of snow on the roof. In a search, they found a small-scale cannabis plantation inside the building, with 300 plants worth thousands of pounds and the equipments used to grow them. Ironically, the industrial lights used to provide warmth to the plants melted away the snow from roof top making the officers’ task easier.

Every mile is two in winter -- George Herbert
If you quoted this to the hundreds of passengers stranded in airports, railways and roads on the run up to Christmas, they would have said, every mile was much more than two this particular winter. Euros tar suspended rail services to the continent for three consecutive days during the week before Christmas, causing long queues at St. Pancras International. Many had to queue outside the station, in the cold, for up to eight hours.

As many, many flights were cancelled and delayed, travellers had to camp in the airports for days. The worst hit was Heathrow, compared to that of a refugee camp.

A report from Northern Ireland said, some 300 people, trapped in a four-feet drift of snow blocking both ends of the road at Glenshane Pass, Londonderry, had been rescued from their vehicles, after many long tiresome hours.

Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they do when they stick together – Verna M Kelly
Snowflakes are fragile featherlike but the damage they cause can be immeasurable. The economy suffered a loss of 1.2 billion a day, due to wide spread travel disruption, the loss for Heathrow airport alone has been pegged at 40 million pounds.

About 36,000 people in Northern Ireland are unable to access water supplies as the pipe lines have burst in the heavy snowfall.

Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do - or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so --Stanley Crawford
Many may not agree with Stanley Crawford. On December 1, a freezing day, with heavy snowfall, thousands of students took to the streets to protest against a three-time increase of the tuition fee. Again on December 18, another grey day with temperatures below freezing, UK Uncut (a group of citizen volunteers protesting against rich tax evaders) held sit-down protests in major cities against the Arcadia Group, Boots, Vodafone and Barclays. The season also witnessed supporters of Julian Assange thronging the Westminster magistrate’s court, braving the bad weather.

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart -- Victor Hugo
The sights of school children celebrating the unexpected holidays did provide glimpses of the ‘spring in one’s heart’.

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant -- Anne Bradstreet
The National Trust, UK says that the return of the four ‘traditional’ seasons will favour British wildlife. A cold winter will enable wildlife to hibernate properly, and return to a warm spring and early summer of abundance for flowers and insects.

One kind word can warm three winter months. - Japanese Proverb
If a kind word can make such a strong difference, what will be the effect of a little kind gesture? The Royal Society for Protection of Birds has urged people to offer hungry birds a Christmas leftover dinner of unsalted meat, roast potatoes, bruised fruits, pastry, cheese, dried fruits, biscuits bits and stale cakes

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Reference- www.bbc.co.uk, Guardian, The Independent, Metro,www.rspb.org. uk Financial Times