Few were prepared for the heavy snowfall which hit the Cumbrian village of Hawkshead on Saturday. In the Girl Guides' centre, people who had gathered for the annual Christmas fair suddenly found themselves unable to leave. Their numbers were swelled by motorists forced to abandon their cars. In the end 45 people were vying for 32 bunks.

"There were quite a few sleeping on the floor in the main hall," said local Brownie leader Judith Myers.¹ "We put an appeal out on Facebook to members of the public... they brought along sleeping bags and blankets."

Power cuts hit 7,500 homes and businesses in the area; around 45 schools were closed yesterday. And as the snow began to thaw, the Met OfficeThe Meteorological Office is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It was established in 1854 to provide a gale warning service for shipping. warned of dangerously icy roads when the evening brought further freezing temperatures. The RACAn insurance company that responds to people whose car has broken down in the UK. called it "ice rink Monday".

Other countries suffered too, with trains and flights cancelled in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.

But despite the inconvenience it causes, many people love snow. And writing in Fast Company, Tracy Bower argues that it is good for our mental health.

One reason is the quiet it brings. Snow absorbs as much as 60% of background noise.² At the same time, it can amplify the sounds of nature, such as birdsong.

Another is that it makes you feel more alive. Snow sports like skiing and snowboarding can be amazingly exhilarating.

Most obviously, its beauty transforms and purifies the landscape and lifts the heart. In his poem London Snow, Robert Bridges writes of people on their way to work: "The daily thoughts of labour and sorrow slumber/ At the sight of the beauty that greets them." And of course there is the fun of throwing snowballs and making snowmen.

Between 1608 and 1814, there were 24 winters when the weather was so cold that the River Thames in London froze. People played games such as nine-pins on it and set up Frost Fairs, where food and souvenirs were sold.

Fires were built on the ice to roast sheep and oxen. The Museum of London has a silver spoon inscribed "This was bought at the faire kept upon the Midle of ye Thames against ye Temple in the great frost on the 29 of January 1683/4."

But the icy winter of 1709 - known as the Great Frost - had terrible consequences. Flocks of birds are said to have frozen in mid-air and tumbled to the ground.

The freezing of rivers across Europe made moving goods extremely difficult. When a thaw came after three months, it caused flooding which ruined many crops and sent the price of grain soaring. GDPShort for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country. dropped by 23% and took 10 years to recover.³

In 1963 Britain suffered its coldest winter for over 200 years. Many homes did not yet have central heating, and some people woke with ice on their bedclothes. Some houses were without water for weeks because of burst pipes.

School playgrounds were closed because of ice. A man who parked his car opposite his house before a snowfall did not see it again for three weeks.

Yes: Snow makes the world a magical place and reminds us of how beautiful Earth can be. It brings out the helpfulness in people and slows down the pace of life so that we can think more carefully.  

No: It brings enormous suffering to those who cannot afford to heat their houses properly. Ice disrupts transport and makes it extremely difficult for schools and businesses to function.

Or... Climate change means that we are likely to have winters either with very heavy snow or none at all. We need to prepare ourselves to make the best of them, for instance by insulating houses better.