It’s been blaedin’ cold in Dublin but other than in the mountains and a couple of flurries I haven’t seen much snow.
No idea what a “Customary inch” is, but the everyday U.S. inch is 2.54 cm.
From the OP’s link:
“Billy Payne”? “Dr. Angie Bone”?
C’mon, everybody’s being whooshed here.
It’s Sunny down my neck of the woods…
dropzone I think the proposed statistics you quoted are based on an increase in influenza and other such viruses rather than people freezing to death.
Naaah - just former candidates to the House of Commons from the Silly Party. The Royal Chief Meteorologist is Jethro Q. Walrustitty.
Weather in the British Isles is surprisingly variable by decade, rather than by year. Victorian coaches could be overwhelmed by snow, and as recently as the great winter 1962-63 ( during which my parents told me wild birds flew into greenhouses for warmth or froze on the trees ) there were snowdrifts up to 20 foot:
On 29–30 December 1962 a blizzard swept across the South West of England and Wales. Snow drifted to over 20 feet (6.1 m) deep in places, driven on by gale force easterly winds, blocking roads and railways. The snow stranded villagers and brought down powerlines.[2] The near-freezing temperatures meant that the snow cover lasted for over two months in some areas. Snow lay to 6 inches (15 cm) depth in Manchester city centre, 9 inches (23 cm) in Wythenshawe, and about 18 inches (45 cm) at Keele University in Staffordshire. By the end of the month, there were snow drifts 8 feet (2.4 m) deep in Kent and 15 feet (4.6 m) deep in the west.
Wikipedia
In another**famous winter**, 1947, there were snowdrifts of around 5 metres everywhere.
Of course, no man living is old enough to remember these past events, but the folk memory lives on, and we severely distrust our weather forecasters.
Oh sure, I understand that (and for that matter the same would happen in parts of the U.S. where snow is infrequent). But it does get cold in England on a fairly regular basis, even if it doesn’t snow. You’d think more people would be prepared for that with properly functioning heating systems, warm clothing, etc.
The old saying is that the English drink their beer at room temperature, but they keep their rooms at 40 F, so it works out about the same as in the US.
They’re Daily Mail and Metro ‘statistics’; assuming it’s derived from anything more than Bobbi the Magic Guessing Chicken, it’s probably any death that could even be tenuously connected to cold weather- from car crashes on icy roads through to increased virus loads, via homicidal snowball fight revenge. It’s not all poor abandoned elderly folks huddling round the burning embers of their last sticks of furniture as the frosty fingers of death creep round the door.
You know I never noticed that they’re not even recorded deaths, but projections.
So basically the quesion being asked was “What the fuck is wrong with all these hypothetically dead people?”
4"? I could take a deep breath and blow that off my driveway. And by morning tomorrow I may have to. And a high of 16[sup]o[/sup]. Fahrenheit, ya wussies.
Regards,
Shodan
I think ‘wussy’ might apply to us soft southern shandy drinkers, but the ginger bearded skirt wearers north of Hadrian’s Wall might take offence at that…
…or indeed west of Offa’s Dyke. I was up Pen Y Fan in December, and there was a valley boy up there in no more than a pair of shorts and some tattoos.
Ah… Valley girls 
Keep living the dream while I keep my chortling in check until the Gulf stream shuts down and you see what it really means to live above the 55th parallel! 
stifled chortle
Well, flu and falls are how many of the old dears are dying, since it’s difficult for a living warm-blooded animal to freeze solid in weather that’s barely below freezing, but “fuel poverty” is keeping them too cold to remain healthy:
See, it’s the Telegraph. Is that respectable enough for you people?
From the Metro link, “This news comes as Britain is on track for 40,000 cold related deaths this winter, the highest number in 15 years.” The projections you dismiss as alarmist are comparable to actual numbers from recent years.
From the Daily Mail link: “Professor Sian Griffiths, president of the Faculty of Public Health, which sets and maintains professional standards in public health, said: 'A high proportion of preventable illness and deaths in the UK is caused by people living in damp and cold housing.
…
‘The UK remains one of the worst countries in the world at coping with unseasonable low temperatures.’”
“Unseasonable?” It’s fookin’ WINTER! It should stop being surprising that it shows up every year, like it were a SEASON or something! And they lose some 30,000 people every year. You’d think they’d learn, and give Granny a few shillings for the electric fire.
The Telegraph ? Respectable ?
I recently had an epiphany: I realized the Telegraph has never been right about anything. From pro-Thatcherism to Global Warming to whining about Wind Farms, it encapsulates the reasons why the Tory Party is historically called The Stupid Party. And I am by no means liberal.
Pity. It was once the dim best of British rags.
Speaking as one with virtually no heating right now: these may be in the same category as ‘smoking-related deaths’, whereby the anti-smoking loons tossed in every death from a disease that can be caused by smoking even when smoking wasn’t a known factor in the individual death. Such as every death from lung cancer in people not exposed to smoke. In the same way an old person dying from pleurisy or pneumonia could be a cold related death even if they were not exposed to actual freezing conditions. And regardless of the fact they would have died from that anyway.
Perhaps because they were heavy smokers in some cases.
Hey, at least it’s Maine - basically Canada. You expect snow. How about this pic from the second floor of my house looking out on the porch from a few years back in Maryland.
Note that it is being compared with the Daily Fail and a free alternative newspaper, much like the Яeader.
Thank You! That made me laugh. 
As for “Snowmageddon”, I’ll believe it when I see Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, and James May racing from Dartford to Cheltenham in a Snowcat, a Bulldog, and a Chieftain Tank, respectively.
Wouldn’t they use that combine harvester they turned into a plow/gritter/snow-and-pedestrian-melting flamethrower rig instead?