NO ONE could say we did not have advance warning about what the weather would bring today.

For almost a week there have been daily bulletins heralding heavy snowfalls and ice.

Not that snow in January is in any way unusual.

Whatever they say about global warning we still get snow and ice at this time of year - pretty well every year.

In colder countries than ours such as Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Russia the whole nation is geared up for the inevitable and takes it in its stride.

And the conditions they experience are far worse than anything we get.

People still arrive at work as scheduled, public transport keeps running to time, shops open - and everything pretty well continues as normal.

Would that the same could be said of East Lancashire and indeed the rest of England.

Our roads become ice rinks, traffic slithers and slides to a halt, vehicles collide because motorists don't know how to adjust their driving and pedestrians slip and struggle on treacherous pavements.

If the snow comes down as people are leaving for work, as it did today, we are told that the gritters cannot get through the queues of cars to do their business.

Either way the result is pretty chaotic.

The question is, why we do we find ourselves in such a predictable mess time and time again?