WHEN, at the weekend, people woke up to discover that the Island was blanketed in fresh snow, most will have been entranced by the transformation of the landscape. Unsullied snow scenes are always beautiful, but they are especially remarkable here in Jersey, where they also have scarcity value.

If, however, we regret that rising daytime temperatures, often accompanied by rain, soon transform our pure white snow into grey slush, this process has its benefits. Living in the most southerly of Britain’s islands means that we are generally spared long-term chaos of the sort that is currently blighting so much of the UK.

There are, of course, exceptions to the temperate Jersey rule and we are not immune to big freezes. Older Islanders will, for example, remember the winter of 1963, when the snow lay deep and even for a prolonged period and temperatures were so low that the sea froze at the edge of St Aubin’s Bay.

Such events are rare as well as extreme, so it is almost impossible to prepare for them adequately. It goes almost without saying that keeping snowploughs garaged for years on end or stockpiling vast quantities of rock salt just in case severe weather arrived would make no sense at all.

That said, the Island is better equipped to cope with the cold than it was in the past. Building standards are higher and central heating and double-glazing, both of which were luxuries in the 1960s, are now seen almost as essentials.

But missing the worst that the weather can throw at north-western Europe does not mean that Channel Islanders escape the consequences of conditions elsewhere. Disruption to traffic – and in particular air traffic – has obvious knock-on effects. If planes are unable to take off from UK airports, schedules clearly go to pieces very quickly. As a result, many people’s Christmas travels plans are now in disarray. Equally, deliveries of mail, national newspapers and other goods sent by air are easily disrupted.

Now, as local conditions improve, the chances of Jersey seeing a white Christmas – a species of event that is vanishingly rare hereabouts – diminish. Notwithstanding the multiple inconveniences that accompany snow, this will disappoint some, but, all in all, we should be happiest over the holiday period if the coldest place in the Island by a long chalk is the ice rink in the Parade.