Thanks ETOPS - I know both very well and give me the big "K" any time.
LGW's weather can sometimes be very tricky to forecast accurately because it's located in a valley between the North Downs to the north and Sussex Weald to the south. The river Mole plays it's part too. One minute it's clear the next can be thick fog rolling in, without any met office warning. On cold winter nights the temperature can drop a lot quicker and to a much lower minimum compared to the other London airports - the valley effect.
Airport management provide a snow/ice plan for each winter, but it's never easy to apply it in practice because of all the different variables that the UK winter can create. When de-icer is applied in great quantity and the airport remains open questions are asked if less should have been used to cut costs and keep Water Authorities happy or justify why Konsin was used which wouldn't keep them happy. Yet when the airport loses it's runway braking action due insufficent/no de-icer or the wrong type for the job applied then the opposite questions are asked. You can't win either way, you just hope that whatever plan is put into practice is the one that suits conditions at the time. Clearly conditions the other night were not forecast therefore whatever plan was used was too little too late.
People will