This has been a hugely challenging week (and it's not over yet) for many PrintWeek readers up and down the country.  

At PrintWeek Towers here in the 'soft south' we have never known it to be so cold – minus six in London is unusual to say the least, and the wind chill is absolutely bitter. Can't begin to imagine what it's been like at more exposed locations.  

We know that printers have been battling to keep going in the face of this extreme weather, and our own printer Pensord took the difficult decision to shut down completely due to a 'danger to life' red weather warning in its area of south Wales.  

This morning, Pensord boss Darren Coxon told me that the situation in the locality is treacherous with abandoned vehicles on ice covered roads and deep snow drifts. Yikes.  

That's in South Wales, and elsewhere I've been in touch with contacts from Glasgow, Birmingham, Lincolnshire, Kent and beyond who have been disrupted, and are doing their best to cope in extremely difficult conditions.  

Even if they and their employees are able to get to their own facilities, there's every likelihood that courier and delivery companies won't make it.  

There's no doubt that many jobs are going to run late. This stuff is beyond anyone's control, and I sincerely hope customers will be understanding about that. 

In the face of calamities and cock-ups of hair-wrenching proportion, I usually calm myself by putting things into perspective: "nobody died". 

In weather conditions where a number of people have already died, I hope any client tempted to have a hissy fit can instead put things into perspective.  

We're all willing to go above and beyond, but no print job is worth dying for.