[m_myers]

A frost fair was held on the Thames that very winter of 1776 [1], so I imagine the British were familiar with hard winters.

The problem was more that the professionals couldn't predict the actions of highly motivated amateurs.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames_frost_fairs

[bane]

There's an old joke about American military doctrine:

The Soviets: "One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine."

The Nazis: "The reason that the American army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos and the American army practices chaos on a daily basis."

America: "If we don't know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can't anticipate our future actions!"

[afarrell]

Oh interesting. I assume some combination of climate change (including the Little Ice Age?) and a greater urban heat island have made the difference. People in my office (in London) had some amusing reactions to snow that would not have closed school where I grew up (near Albany, NY).

[pbhjpbhj]

FWIW those levels of snow wouldn't have closed schools in the UK 20 years ago either.

Primary Schools in particular are very risk averse now.