Today saw the first proper snow of winter, with freezing temperatures expected across the UK all this week.
But while health alerts tend to focus on slippery roads, some people will be worried for a different reason.
Snow has a habit of revealing the dirty secrets of anyone who has quietly been getting on with tending their cannabis factory.
The heat lamps required to do this mean that buildings with such a crop inside are often too warm for snow to settle on their roof.
Residents of Cults in Aberdeen don’t have anything immediate to prompt suspicions, as an aerial photo of the street taken this morning shows a full house of white rectangles, with not a bare roof in sight.
While they could still be selling other drugs, there’s no indication of a cannabis den.
And it’s not just us speculating: every time it snows, police get excited because it makes their lives easier.
In 2018, officers raided a property in Keighley, Yorkshire, after receiving ‘community intelligence’ that it had an unusually clear roof after snowfall.
Once inside, they found the whole house crammed with cannabis, with around 320 plants growing in all four bedrooms and even in the cellar.
Meanwhile, another home in the Netherlands had an even more obvious melted patch on its roof.
Police there shared a photo urging people to phone them with intel if they saw anything similar.
But don’t get too hasty in grassing up your neighbours just for having slates on display.
Perhaps they simply have a sauna inside, poor insulation, or like to keep their attic very hot.
In any case, snow isn’t the only way hot homes can be spotted, as police can also simply sweep over a city in a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging.
If you want to do some amateur detective work, more snow is forecast this week with weather warnings in place for snow and ice.
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