It snowed in London this week. This is actually a relatively uncommon event — while the city gets a fair amount of rain, it usually doesn’t get that cold in the winter.
There are still delays at the airports, and London City Airport, closed yesterday. Other cities have been affected too, with planes from London still arriving late or not at all. There are also still some serious delays on some Underground service and trains. If you’re not going to London, this story might just be an interesting diversion.
What snow in London illustrates, again, is the unpredictability of travel, and the problems that occur when places that don’t usually have serious weather have serious weather.
Travelers to Chicago, Denver and Minneapolis, for example, know that snow is a possibility. But so do the airports. While all of these airports can have problems in the winter, they can also usually cope well with most storms. If you are flying somewhere that usually has mild weather and it snows, or there is some other weather issue you may be stuck for a while.
And a few times a year, it does snow in places like Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas and London. Whether it’s due to climate change or just a bad run of luck, this also seems to be happening more often. While this doesn’t mean you should give up on travel completely, it does illustrate, again, how if it is absolutely critical you be somewhere, for a wedding, a cruise, whatever, it’s best to arrive at least a day before you need to be there.
And though traveling through cities with milder weather does increase your odds of avoiding delays in the winter. It doesn’t eliminate them. Business travelers know this and have learned to accept the risk that some trips just won’t happen. But if you have a once-in-a-lifetime event, or an expensive cruise or tour you are joining, take an extra day on the way out if you can. It could snow in London.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
