full marks to EGKK for being SNOCLO - how about they buy a couple of snowploughs and get their act together.
A few flakes of the white stuff and this country grinds to a halt, its embarrasing!!
I'd hardly call 150,000 tonnes of snow a few flakes, and that was of yesterday evening, with many areas still to clear. There's been a good three feet of snow in places in the south east, over a period of just two days.
Two more snow ploughs on top of the current fleet wouldn't make a great deal of difference. Gatwick has an extensive fleet of snow clearance vehicles, including sweepers, schorlings, ploughs, diggers and de-icers, not to mention the fleet of dozens (and I don't exaggerate, I suggest 50 is a conservative estimate) of contracted flat bed lorries and JCBs pulled in to move the drifts and piles which inevitably build during clearance and can impinge on the protected surfaces of the runway.
It's fun to whinge and think we know better, and that someone else is incompetent or lazy. I don't usually rise to it, but your comment is at best naive, and perhaps better described as ignorant and moronic.
A lot of people (hundreds certainly, thousands more likely) have worked incredibly hard over the past four days, not seen their families once, and put a lot of planning into action. Kudos all round for a job well done.
It's fair to say that there may be a misconception regarding the amount of snow that has fallen in Surrey, Kent and the Sussexes. I had heard one estimate from somebody who had observed both locations that Heathrow had received only approximately 10% of the snow that had fallen at Gatwick. Incredible considering the distance. 'Snow trains' was a phrase used by The Times, incredibly directed narrow weather systems, delivery the majority of the snow to relatively localised areas.
During the course of yesterday from around 18:00 to 03:00 this morning the temperature rose from -8 degrees centigrade to +4. You can check the METARs for that data. This has been an extraordinary cold snap.
As a unnecessarily childish parting shot, what's embarrassing is your inability to even spell the word.
Rant over.