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You calmly say you've both had snow. Just so none of us feels we have a problem, could you tell us how much? And the minus temperatures?
mattrom and busby, I don't think we need to know about Australia!!

We've had bitter cold this winter, records being broken left and right, but there was a bit of a break a few days ago and the fourteen inches of snow we got last Thursday actually disappeared. We got only four inches yesterday but it's 18 F (-8 C) right now so it won't be melting quickly. Even the Deep South is getting hammered. They're freezing indoors in New Orleans because the houses aren't insulated and their heating systems can't handle temperatures they've never seen before down there. Still, it feels like spring here after the numbing cold we've had- so many days well below 0 F.

Did I read or imagine something about frozen iguanas falling out of trees in Florida? My sister is on holiday there at the moment!

Yes, that did happen.

We've had a bit of snow and ice this week but obviously nothing nearly as severe as across the pond. My main problem was that our boiler decided to give up the ghost last Thursday and the company couldn't get an engineer out until Monday, so had to borrow and buy heaters. Of course "repair" to boiler lasted until Monday night before it stopped working again. Cue return of engineers on Tuesday to effect another "repair" which lasted only an hour before breaking down again. Touch wood, they came back yesterday and everything seems OK now. We've had 4 parts replaced (one of them twice), so I wondered if our boiler is a bit like Trigger's broom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HisD_pqlRHQ

I simply can't imagine what would happen here if 14" of snow fell in one day! Total chaos.
SW- I think you're quite lucky the boiler engineer didn't do what they usually seem to and look mournful, shake head and mutter about special offers on new boilers! Hope you and Skye are toasty warm now (and any others you share your home with, of course)

Thanks, Rosalind. I was worried about the old "They don't make the parts for that anymore" routine. I think the fact our service/repair contract is with an insurance company, and not with the manufacturer may have saved us. It can be a palaver organising a call-out (1. Phone insurance company. 2. Get job number to give to boiler company. 3. Phone boiler company with job number to arrange appointment. 4. Service or repair carried out and boiler company charge insurance company directly). I'm speculating, but perhaps failure to effect a repair would have resulted in no payment to the boiler company. I'm sure they weren't worried about how many new components were being fitted if they were all going to be charged to the insurance company anyway.

Forgot, we had one other problem. The 7-year-old grandson of our friends and neighbours, unbeknownst to us, decided to do us the favour of clearing snow from our driveway. Unfortunately he cleared the snow from the front half to form a large mound at the back, rendering that part unusable. (We still gave him a small recompense for his thoughtfulness).