London snowstorm: 2-2-2009, originally uploaded by TwoCrabs.

So this morning, the Two Crabs woke up to about 5 inches of snow on the ground. It was the biggest snow fall in London in 18 years!

It's now been snowing off-and-on for 24 hours, part of a one-two punch of snow storms. The first storm came from Russia in the east and delivered the majority of our snowfall. After a brief lunchtime respite, we got hit with smaller snow showers from France. More snow is expected tonight. All told, we got 6 inches of snow in our neighborhood and it's not over yet.

And I thought Washingtonians were wimpy about snow. The entire British capital came to a standstill today. All London buses came to a halt, as did most overground trains and airports. Roads were clogged. We never saw a single snowplow -- or "gritter" truck as they cal them here -- in our neighborhood. Not surprisingly, all schools in town were closed. And Mrs. Crab is off tomorrow too!

As I mentioned before, it RARELY snows in London. And despite the fact that we've known about this storm for several days, Londoners were just not prepared for the snow.

Unfortunately, Mr. Crab is home sick with the flu and fever. But after overdosing on DayQuil, I felt sufficiently well enough to venture into the snow and take a couple of hundred photos. The image above was even posted on CNN iReport!

Click on the Flickr icon at the top right for more photos of today's snowy day in Londontown!