I live in Switzerland. A country with lots of snow and regular hot summers.
The airports here shut during extreme snow events just like the UK. Sure, "extreme snow" here is way more than what the UK calls extreme, but the frequency (once every few years) is the same. Recently, with St Pancras in a mess due to expanding bendy railway tracks, a friend says "see? UK has gone to the dogs! I bet that never happens in Switzerland where you are". Except ... Zurich station had problems last week due to, yep, expanding bendy railway tracks. There's always a trade-off between the amount of money it costs to fix or prepare for rare events, and the cost and impact of the disruption caused by them. Most countries (the functional ones with normal economies at any rate - yes, that's highly subjective) seem to make a similar cost/benefit analysis and hence are all pretty similar.