Snow Way

The British are often accused of having a preoccupation with the weather but this winter has been so protracted and dry as to cause it to be even more of a conversation topic with my friends and colleagues over the last few weeks. One phrase that cropped up often, so often I actually heard myself saying it when I entered buildings:
“It’s trying to snow”

Now, this innocent little phrase started to annoy me. Exactly what is trying to snow, what does the “it” in the phrase refer to? The word “trying” seems to imply some sort of consciousness to the act.

It is as though there is some great snow god in the heavens attempting to make it snow down on us. To me, the phrase conjures the idea that there is a great deal of straining taking place to make it snow.

It invokes the idea of a great, cold, constipated sky putting in a great deal of effort to make it snow rather than the result of atmospheric changes, or maybe I should not take things quite so literally.

Hurry up spring.