Snow day! Do any two words cause such excitement? The joy of waking in the middle of the night and seeing the white flakes pelting down, or in the early light to find a blanket of the stuff twinkling up from every garden, street and rooftop. Snowball fights, snowmen and hot chocolate indoors.

For many that twinkling is just the harbingerSomeone or something that announces the approach of something else. An indicator. of a massive logistical headache. Snow can halt trains and block roads. As the lower layers get more densely packed they turn to treacherous black iceA thin coat of transparent ice. Drivers often cannot see it on the road. : drivers are 15% more likely to have an accident in winter than in summer, and it is harder for the emergency services to get to them.¹

But that is the duality of snow. For centuries it has held this same grip on our collective imagination, at once bewitching and deadly.

Snow features very prominently in European mythology and literature, especially relative to the amount we actually experience.

This is partly because much European culture was created by peoples like the GothsA nomadic Germanic people who fought against the Roman Empire in the AD 300s and 400s. , SaxonsA Germanic people who spread through Gaul and Britain. , and SlavsPeople from eastern and central Europe who speak Slavic languages, for example Polish and Russian. , who originated in the harsh forests of central Europe, where the snow fell deep and thick every year.

In the 5th Century, as the Western Roman EmpireThe western provinces of the roman empire. collapsed, these peoples spread out across the whole of Europe, bringing with them icy myths about frost giants, snow gods, and Fimbulwinter, the three-year winter of relentless snow that foretells the arrival of RagnarokIn Norse mythology, Ragnarok is the end of the world. , the end of the world.²

The other reason is that in the past it was much colder in Europe. Some scholars think the Fimbulwinter myth might be related to the volcanic winterA reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash blocking the Sun. of 536, in which temperatures dropped by as much as 2.5C across Europe, causing terrible famineA widespread scarcity of food. .³

And from the 1400s to the 1800s Europe experienced the "Little Ice Age", when temperatures dropped and the ThamesThe river that runs through London. froze over almost every year.

Snow has an odd place in our collective psychology. For most people today it is associated with excitement and freedom. On snow days everything is in suspended animation and we are free to do what we like.

But in our cultural memory snow meant cold and hardship, the risk of famine, and dangerous travel. Snow was both beautiful and deadly: little wonder it was so often associated with enchantment.

In CS Lewis's Narnia series, snow and ice are the elements of the White Witch: elegant, seductive, but utterly evil.

American poet Robert FrostA 20th Century American poet known for his depictions of rural life. captured much of the same feeling in his 1922 poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, about a traveller who stops miles from rest just to watch the snow falling in a deep, dark forest. The beauty of the snow almost keeps him from getting to where he needs to be and getting the sleep he so sorely needs.

What none of these authors could have foreseen was that one day the snowfall might just stop. Annual snow cover across the planet has declined by 5%.⁴ The UK has lost five snow days every decade since 1979 and this is set to keep increasing.⁵

Even the ancient Saxons, for whom snow meant terror and hardship, would no doubt have mourned the idea that their descendants might never see snow at all.

Is wintry weather a blessing?

Yes: Snow is one of nature's miracles: radiant, sublime, enchanting. The hint of danger only adds to its charm.

No: Snowfall may look nice for the first few hours but the modern reality is brown sludge, cancelled trains, and dangerous driving. Frankly, we can do without it.

Or... What makes snow so beguiling is precisely its dual nature: at once extraordinary, stunning, miraculous, and terrifying, cruel, bringing hardship and suffering. We will miss it when it is gone.