The Environment Agency has admitted its suggestion for people to build snowmen to protect homes from flooding may have snowballed out of control.
Spokesman Roy Stokes hit the headlines yesterday when he urged homeowners to get creative with compacted snow in their gardens to slow down the sudden thawing process predicted to hit Scotland over the next week as temperatures are set to rise from -13C to 13C.
He said: “Ideally if everybody built themselves a snowman that will slow the thaw down a bit.”
Mr Stokes explained the thinking behind the idea was that snowmen melt slower than normal snow, meaning there would be less surface water when temperatures increase and rain begins to fall.
Although his tongue-in-cheek advice may have delighted snow lovers up and down the country, the agency later backtracked on the suggestion, admitting that a nationwide squad of snowmen would do little to stem the floodwaters.
A spokeswoman said: “Compacted snow does melt more slowly than untouched snow. However, while building snowmen is great fun, sadly it is unlikely to make a significant difference to the overall rate at which the snow melts.
“The most important thing anyone can do to protect themselves from flooding is to check out if they are in a flood risk area, and sign up to free flood warnings at environment-agency.gov.uk/flood.”