I always get annoyed by the "they cope in Canada" argument - yes, in other countries, it snows a lot, every single year, they can count on it. It would be only newsworthy if there was no snow on the ground all winter. And therefore, their infrastructure is arranged on the understanding there will be snow for several months of the year. I believe in parts of Canada, they used to reset the train tracks for winter every year (do they still do that?) - it was a massively expensive and distruptive proceedure, but worth 2-3 days of distruption to ensure 2-3 months of operating in snowy conditions, and worth the costs. In the UK, it just wouldn't be worth it.
I live in the SE, I've been in this house for 5 winters, in that time, we've had 3 years with some snow, but not snow settling at all for the last 2. (so far, a few flurries, but nothing settling, and no snow predicted). Yes on 2 of the 3 years it snowed there was some travel distruption and schools closing for 1-2 days, but nothing worth spending millions on redesigning transport systems or factoring snow into the planning designs of schools, limiting the use of space all year round on the off chance it might not be suitable for a couple of days every few years.
Last year, hte trouble wasn't snow, it was rain - we got away lightly in our town, but in the next town over the river flooded. Train tracks were also flooded so only half the trains that go through our town were running (as the ones going down that track were cancelled). The other line, however, goes through a village that has a different river running through it, one that's flooded pretty much every winter as long as anyone can remember. Yet, the trains were running, because when building the trainline in the late 1800s, they knew that village would flood at least once every winter, so built the trainline up on a high embankmant. Most of the old houses in that village were also fine, they have been building to allow for flooding for 200+ years, houses are built up, none have cellars, gardens are often sloping.
The other town that flooded, my PIL have lived in that town for nearly 40 years, MIL can only remember it flooding to the same extent 2 other times in that period, so builders don't plan for river flooding.