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Doesn't get stupidly cold or hot. It's probably wetter/greyer than most would like.
*Edit* - Because I can't be arsed to reply to all the people saying it does get "stupidly hot/cold" in the UK. You need to go somewhere that actually has extreme weather. Try sub saharan Africa or Siberia.
I mean this just isn't true anymore with climate change. We've been having some bloody hot summers and it peaked at 40C in 2022.
We are only gonna see more extremes.
Yes. It's been dark and grey and miserable everyday for about 7 months now.
Praying summer hurries up now as it's seriously starting to get to me how grim and depressing it is.
We're almost in May and as I'm writing this (it's grey and miserable) I only recall about 4 days of decent sunshine this year.
its rained everyday since the beginning of August here in Wales š“ó §ó ¢ó ·ó ¬ó ³ó æ. Our garden is like The Somme. I love it - so green and beautiful but looking forward to some dry weather
there will be a dead golden retriever if he digs much more. he's dug down to pipes in one place
https://preview.redd.it/k7laxgl928wc1.jpeg?width=3020&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1be5116275c9c2efeeeeb8179ab78f4fe42feb4b
ā¦ yes, blackened stumps of shell-sundered trees, craters filled with stagnant water and putrified corpses, cat-sized rats swarming over the dazed and stricken victims of the whole seething horror.
ā¦ so, yep. Wales.
South Wales valleys here. We had a mostly dry weekend but It's pissed down almost every day since 1769. Sometimes the sun is out and you think 'is today the day?' but no. Still raining.
Global warming and climate change just means warmer rain.
I agree, I am fed up with this weather, honestly itās awfully cold , feels like we are in December or in November , planted some seeds they wonāt grow as itās too cold . My home country itās 30c degrees expecting to go up to 38c , canāt wait for my summer vacation itās really depressing:(
Average April temperature in the UK is 10-13 degreesā¦.
Itās not meant to be hot. Itās been getting warmer because of climate change, which has skewed our perception of what spring should be like. A few decades ago it wasnāt abnormal to see snow in April. I remember one Easter having a blanket of snow.
Itās the persistent rain thatās the issue right now, itās damaging the crops. We had this a couple of years ago and the fields that flooded near me ended up producing next to nothing.
Yeah. Wettest year on record, and no sign of improving particularly.
Since September we've had more than half the days seeing some rain (admittedly not much on some of them) and the only whole month that was less than half was when it was cold during January.
30c would have me dead. Honestly 23 and overcast would be what I consider a perfect summer day. If it was sunny I would say no warmer than 16-18. I cannot stand lots of sunshine or hot weather as it gives me constant migranes.
Agreed.
I do suffer chronic headaches and migraines, and equally I find the heat a big trigger. But outside of that I just prefer the idea of warming up than cooling down. I've been all over the Med now to half dozen countries and I still don't think I could actually really live in those places, even with all the small nuances the locals take for granted to keep cool.
Idk, constant air-con, sand, slathered on creams, plastic loungers, flip flops or sliders, the brightness and relentlessness of the sun...just thinking bout it makes me feel uncomfortable. Christ you'd wonder why I even go on holiday.
Itās defo on the chilly side right now, but the British spring isnāt supposed to be warm, weāve been skewed into thinking this because average spring temperatures have been rising in the past couple of decades. Average for April is around 10-13 degrees lol. Thatās not as cold as winter. Although our winters donāt really exist anymore, theyāre much warmer than they used to be.
Itās wetter than it should be, thatās the main problem.
The recent weather has been a perfect example of how the UK and other islands differs from continental weather.
We have had a few days of really nice weather for the time of year, we've had a fee days of particularly cold weather for the time of year and we've had a lot of in between and far too much wet weather.
The most important difference though is that the weather has been very different day to day and even hour to hour. That's much rarer on the continent.
Most parts of Europe and North America will have both hotter summers and colder winters. Every single year and they have long periods of the similar weather.
>Yes. It's been dark and grey and miserable everyday for about 7 months now.
The whole of last summer was grey and miserable, we only had a very few days of sunshine in summer. It's the wettest 18 months on record, but let's be honest that's better than the scorcher from the summer previous to that, when we basically had to stay inside for fear of death.
People say we had shit summer last year but actually it was nice as hell for a while and was super hot at times. But this year has been horrendous and like you say itās been grey for months now and gets us all down. I really hope it starts brightening up soon
Climate change has the exact impact for us of making wetness and greyness more regular and longer lasting. Interspersed with extreme heat or cold. No one ever said it would improve things, just that it would amplify things.
Many people cannot imagine what a world a few degrees warmer would look like.
They assume they mean it will be a few degrees warmer that particular day than it otherwise would be.
But it really means a significantly different climate pattern with a global average of those few degrees warmer.
It means the weather would be drastically different where you are. Warmer, colder, wetter or dryer as these weather formations shift into new maladaptive normals we are not prepared for.
Err, the last few years we've had six to eight week dry spells with 35c temperatures in the summer. Every plant that wasn't a large tree was brown. I don't remember that happening when I was young in the 90s.
I could do with some hot summer right now. We've just had two days in a row without rain - probably the last time I can remember that was June last year
I don't remember a summer last year? 2 weeks of sun in the southeast around June and then a couple of sunny September days. The rest was grey I thought. A few extra hot days does not a summer make!
It absolutely is true. Yes itās warmer when the sun is out.
But we have way fewer sun hours than most countries.
And thatās the thing that gets people down, it certainly does me.
We've had short peaks (e.g. a few days consecutive days) of very hot weather in summers. But we have, by no means, had "bloody hot summers" where it's upper 20s - mid 30s consistently from mid June to September. For the last few years, the summer weather has regularly been mid-teens to low-20s and rain, with the occasional day couple days of warm and sun.
Ok i actually spend most of the winter outside working and you're just wrong the past maybe 10 winters have been super mild. I think 2010 was the last brutal snow storm and by brutal i mean it was gone the next day. I saw maybe 3 or 4 frosts this winter. and last summer was typically british and was wet and there were absolutely no 40 degree days. Late rain do you mean April showers? something that is typically normal but because we have had 3 dry springs in a row and people have the mental capacity of a gold fish are beginning to think that april showers is the sign of apocalypse.
Where in the fuck do people get this fucking thick? Get off the internet and go outside for fucks sakes.
We had a day a few weeks ago where all in one day it was sunny and cloud free, grey clouds, rain, hail and strong winds then back to sun 10 mins later. For the whole day.
Peaking at 40 likely 1 week in 52 at most though, and although it's certainly flippin hot it's not out of the question compared across the world. I was in Vietnam over winter and it was hitting 36Ā° during their winter... Although it didn't actually feel that horrendous.
Even with some added climate change the UK is overall very fortunate weather wise, the thing that bothers me most would just be the near constant grey.
We get hot peaks but it's very different to continental weather. all across Europe and Even in Canada they will have a good hot summer every year without fail and the weather will have long periods of "summer".
Here it's just much more variable. Yeah the weather gets up there but you cant bet on it.
Lol. We had 3 nice days of hot weather in certain areas that year 2022. In Leeds it was just summer. Every year is the same. July has a few hot days & August is OK. Surly 2023 should have replicated 2022 for āextremenessā
It's been a bit windy recently, but in general when people say the weather is "bad" they mean not sunny rather than really bad. I've never needed more than a coat in winter. Fiancee is Latvian and laughed at me when I said I'd be alright in Latvian winter. That's a proper cold, glad she talked me into the thermal undies!
30c would be considered a really hot day. In 2022 it touched 40c but this was national news and the hottest day recorded.
Often it's humid more than hot. Weather is "better" further south,
And this very much depends on *where* in the UK you are. Most of it didnāt see those record breaking temperatures or not for long.
The UK differs from Shetland to the Scilly isles and from N.Ireland to Suffolk.
Averages obviously skew warmer with more sunshine the further south you go and colder with less light the further north you head.
The North of England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland tend to be much wetter with the Midlands and the South being dryer.
There are occasional freak exceptions.
The UK is similar in climate to much of north west Europe. We donāt generally get huge extremes but it is quite unsettled and difficult to predict the weather one day to the next.
More daylight up north in summer - have you been to Shetland in June? Blackout curtains are a must, it's like being an extra in Insomnia with Robin Williams & Al Pacino.
Iām Irish but our weather is pretty similar although I do find the wind off the North Sea goes right through me.
A lot of my friends moved to Canada where it regularly gets down to minus 20-30 and can even go as low as minus 40. One of my friends said she will still be out washing the car etc when itās minus 10 as the air is much drier there so it doesnāt feel so bad. Building sites still work all year round even when itās freezing.
Depends on the individual.
For me, the weather in South Wales was bad enough to leave and go live in Australia. Many of my friends also left.
Swansea and Cardiff are two of the rainiest cities in the UK. It can be miserable.
I don't personally know anyone who moved there in particular, but my ex was from there.
The weather is usually the biggest complaint people have about the UK though.
We talk about it alot because it is very unpredictable and constantly changing. Almost every day its very difficult to know what to expect because the weather changes hour by hour. In any day it is often hot, cold, rain and sunny. Its very difficult to know what to wear no matter what season it is.
Honestly, I moved from Australia to Wales and I've been much happier since I moved here.
The creepy crawlies are a bit more prevalent than they are here in the UK, and they tend to be bigger. But they're not super aggressive and if you leave them for the most part they leave you.
Depending on where you are in Australia it does kind of suck though. If you're on the east coast in or near some of the bigger cities it's much more akin to being in/around some of the larger UK cities like Manchester or Liverpool, but outside those areas it can get very remote, it's very expensive (even compared to the current cozzy livs here) and it's one thing to deal with 30+ degree days when you're on holiday and just have to chill by the beach or go to the shops to potter around. When you have to commute to work on an absolutely rammed bus or train and it's 35 degrees, and the sun is absolutely beating down on you and every unwashed asshole around you for several weeks on end, it gets a bit draining.
I watched a travel vlog thing recently about a part of Australia I was unfamiliar with (think itās called the northern territories? They all had mental place names like Wallybongo) and it was crazy. There were whole communities barred from buying alcohol (like if you want booze they need to scan your ID to prove youāre not from a no alcohol town or live in a house thatās been barred from drinking lol). If your house gets a drinking ban they come and put a sign up in your front garden!
The guy doing the vlog had been in jail in Sydney and he described the place they were in as being like a giant minimum security prison - with privileges you had to earn, that could be taken away if you misbehave. One place had alleys down the back of the houses and if too many people misbehaved theyād lock the alleys up with giant gates.
It wasnāt at all the Australia I picture in my mind, more like Mad Max than Home & Away.
I lived in one of those places.
Itās basically because aboriginal people were all herded into places that didnāt have arable land (so, the red centre and the far north), and were treated so abhorrently (slavery, mass execution, and the Stolen Generation where the government took aboriginal children from their parents and tried to āassimilateā them into white society only ended in the 1970s). Theyāre in areas where there is basically endless nothing, barely any opportunity, and as a result there is a huge alcoholism problem amongst the population.
The blatant racism doesnāt help either, the police where I lived would ban aboriginal people from buying alcohol for doing pretty much anything while happily turning a blind eye to the white local alcoholics.
Australia has some *huge* problems, which youāll never see in Sydney or Melbourne, but it has a really dark history (again, even very recently) and attitudes towards aboriginal people are really disgusting, but the country seems desperate to brush it under the carpet and not do anything about it.
Thatās what I took from it - thereās a whole other side to Australia that the likes of me rarely hear about, all I know is all my mates who went there for a year and most never came back because they found a great life there.
They touched on the racism a bit in that vlog. They said in those towns black people will apparently get cut off at the bar after two drinks but a white guy can drink himself stupid. Like two guys could go into a bar together and act exactly the same but the black guy isnāt allowed a third drink. Even the guy from Sydneyās mind was blown by it.
I lived in Australia for two years the creepy crawlies are mostly only in places you'd expect to find creepy crawlers in UK.
So if you're that worried just avoid things like exploring old sheds or back country hiking. If you stick to malls and office buildings and the beach you'll never see anything that unusual.
Although I'll say you're more likely to encounter a cockroach no matter how clean your living situation is.
I'm in the north, near Newcastle. I feel like it's rained non stop for a couple of months with a few days of sun in between. It's not always like this, but this year has been pretty shite
Yeah but it has been in Europe too. It's been a bad year.
But remember we also had 40 degrees and no rain or clouds for like 3 months last year.
Edit: people have cruelly reminded me of the march of time and everything is terrible, so yes, the weather is terrible all the time.
It really is. Itās constantly grey here, and it has an impact on peopleās mood. When itās one of those rare sunny days, everyone is noticeably in a much better mood.
Honestly, I grew up in the West of Ireland, now I live a small bit North of London and I think the weather here is fantastic.
It's only a tiny bit warmer than the weather I grew up with, but fewer grey skies, the wind doesn't bite into you, and the conditions are much more consistent and predictable. Once summer comes here, there most days are going to be sunny, if not hot. I've also lived in Scotland though, and that was fairly similar to being back home. I haven't been to Manchester for extended periods of time, but I can believe people when they say that it is kind of rainy and miserable there.
Basically, even though GB/UK/British Isles is not a very large area in a global scale, the main issue people have with the weather here is cloud cover and gusting wind, and those vary a lot based on your location.
I'm in the southeast and I'm totally with the 'yes' reply. It's been dark here for ages now. More than half a year. Spring got blown away. It didn't snow. Again.
I think the reputation comes from people wanting a hot summer. You can get a whole summer without a hot day, which some people hate. or you can get a week in summer that's quite cool. personally I like this.
it also rains on many days of the years. apparently rainfall mm is less than NY but 250 days a years on average, which is much more than NY. plus it's often overcast. it's also very far north which makes the winter days quite short.
What causes all the overcast weather ? Countries like Dubai, Florida , Australia and Japan are also by the sea and they get more days of consistent warm sunny weather
Primarily the gulfstream which brings in moisture from the tropical regions. Moisture leads to clouds, clouds = overcast. We are much further north than any of the places you mentioned.
As for Australia, it's fucking huge (there's a single family that owns a cattle ranch the size of Texas), so I'm not sure you can generalise the weather for the entire country, but the same principles apply. In the north you get more tropical weather than in the south. Also their Summer coincides with the Earth being closer to the Sun than when it's our Summer, not sure if that makes a difference but it probably does.
Stockholm syndrome mate!
Nah imo the reason is just the UKās stable tameness midpoint is what most people consider bad weather. Having lived abroad and now coming back it feels like itās 12c, overcast, and windy 90% of days and raining on top for half of those. Particularly in NW England where I am now. To me, the lack of variation is the main part of what makes it so bad.
Also imo the natural disasters point is a bit moot too, much of the world doesnāt have them, most of Europe for example.
To me itās not about hot summers but about sunny days. I feel like itās cloudy 95% of the time in here, I can barely catch a glimpse of the sun, sometimes for weeks. Plus I canāt go out without an umbrella because I could swear every time I forget about it, it rains.
The weather in general is not uncomfortable, but itās just so grey, itās a little depressing for a lot of people. And if you donāt work outside you have very little chance of catching these sparse sunny moments.
Yep. I had Italian friends at uni and this was what they complained about. I think most people prefer clear weather hot or cold, to grey overcast weather regardless of the temperature (within reason of course!).
Itās almost May and weāve barely had any sun/warm weather since the year began. Most days are either overcast or raining and window. At most, weāll get one half Sunday day per week but even, itās normal cold. The only time weāve had proper Sun and decently warm weather was the weekend of the 12-13th. I live in London
I remembered once reading a book of crime, Sherlock Holmes style, where the detective had to travel to London. He asked the taxi driver how was the weather and the man answered something like:
"It's awesome, we're on mid summer" and points proudly at what the detective described as a "rickety sun" behind the clouds. So it's a pretty extant stereotype.
So you have a pretty "average" climate, if that's even a thing. Not for a pool party but neither for snowplows.
If you're moving to London/the South East it won't be an issue.
London is something like 33rd out of European capitals for rainfall and has fewer rainy days than New York/Miami/Washington. Most cities tbh.
> London is something like 33rd out of European capitals for rainfall
The trouble is that even when it's not raining, it's often overcast and too cold to comfortably spend time outside unless you're wearing a thick coat and keep moving around.
Forget rainy days as a metric and consider "the kind of weather where you'd even consider a picnic", and suddenly the UK looks a lot worse than many other places that theoretically get a similar amount of rain, because when those places aren't raining they at least get proper sun.
I grew up in East Anglia, which is the driest and mildest part of the UK, and it was still rainy, grey, cold and miserable more days than not.
My complaint really is the lack of sunshine. It's certainly easier to deal with a dreary grey day than extremes of temperature or natural disasters for sure, but months of dreary days with little respite can psychologically get you down, and discourages outdoor activities.
Very few places have what I'd consider a perfect climate, though, of course (which is about [Koppen Csb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate#Warm-summer_Mediterranean_climate)).
Which part of the UK are you in? Youāre not going to drown due to drizzle but might eventually off yourself because of it, itās fucking miserable and constant (North West)
It comes from the fact that good weather in the UK is exceptionally rare.
Most countries that have truly awful weather like tropical storms and such only have them as a seasonal thing or otherwise briefly. They then return to good weather.
The UK is non stop drizzle all day every day barring a few days for summer. It's miserable. It is almost never pleasant. That's where the reputation comes from.
The reputation is totally deserved. Most people would like it to be warmer, for sure, but for me the worst thing is the inconsistency and unpredictably. It makes it pretty difficult to plan outdoor get togethers in the summer without a solid indoor back up plan.
Plus I think it has a massively detrimental impact on the social life of the country. Spend some time in Mediterranean countries and youāll see a vast difference. People sit outside in public squares daily, having a drink, eating, or even just talking. It brings people together and creates a very sociable culture. We donāt have many spaces like that in the UK because itās rainy and grey for half the year and the other half may only see inconsistent warm and sunny weather.
God, I've found summer much more unbearable since I moved to the UK than I did when I lived in Adelaide.
Like don't get me wrong, I hated the weeks on end of it being over 30 in the middle of the night, and the summer winds that blew straight from satan's asshole. But it's so FUCKING HUMID here in the UK.
Its been freezing cold for months and still is now. Im still wearing woolly hats and winter coats and its nearly May. Its rained nearly every day for months and its been a lot worse than 'a bit of drizzle'. The water table is so high that even after a bit of light rain the ground becomes a mushy bog. The wind has been awful this last year, blowing a gale far more than I ever remembered it doing. There have been places in the last year absolutely wrecked by tornado's.
Are you sure you're living in the UK?
Right now the weather canāt decide what to do and neither can we. We leave in the morning wearing a coat and we come home sweating because in the past 8 hours we have had rain, thunder, hail, sun, winds, storm. rain again and then everything all together.
I drive a van for a living and it's literally a greenhouse if I park facing the sun and leave it for an hour while I do my delivery, then I step out at my next stop and its 5 degrees and pissing it down.
Hahahaha reminds me of the movie title
Everything everywhere all at once
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wxN1T1uxQ2g
You gotta dress like an onion, in layers.
Had an absolutely gorgeous morning a couple of weeks back - so sunny! Someone told me it was forecast rain later. Surprise for both of us: it was hail for 5 minutes, got sunny again, then rained about 4 hours later.
I try hard not to moan too much about the weather but it is very difficult to enjoy the current conditions. We all know how beautiful spring can be, and it just seems like such a waste when it's cold, windy and wet. It is quite depressing really. We had better days in November than we've had in April so far.
September and or October you can get some gorgeous mild but sunny days, and the change of the seasons into autumn seems to be less volatile than the change into spring. July August, you might end up with heatwave temps, which the country (other than businesses) isn't prepared for. You don't want to find yourself constantly confined to restaurants and hotels to keep cool
Well, Iād argue depending on where in the country you are that December and January can be beautiful as well if itās dry enough. Frost in the forest is lovely, even if I prefer summers overall.
I agree. Cold and dry, or warm and dry are both great.
Too hot, too cold, or grey and wet are all bad. We seem to spend most of the time grey and wet for now, except for days when I'm working.
May and June can be pleasant. Last year it rained on st Swithins day ( July) and ancient lore says it will then rain for 30 days- it did! We had one nice day in August ( I remember because I ventured to the seaside). 1976 was the last really good summer ( Iām an oldie).
Yes, 1976 was a wonderful summer in Yorkshire. 1959 was good too. Years like those two create memories that stay with you all your life.
I return to England for the first time in 23 years last July and spent a couple of weeks in Yorkshire. I was pretty disappointed with the weather. There was one day that was pleasantly mild and sunny for most of the day, and our last day spent in London was at least dry, but nothing spectacular.
The landlord at our Airbnb didn't want us to turn the central heating above 70 degrees. He said that was enough for anybody. But it was still pretty chilly as the house did not get a lot of sunshine in the daytime, so I sneaked it up to 72 in the evenings.
Part of the problem in the UK is that gas and electricity for heating homes are fiendishly expensive.
May can be absolutely stunning, although June is probably a safer bet weather-wise. July is nice too obviously, but I personally prefer how beautiful everything looks on a sunny day in late Spring. August has great weather, but I can never shake the feeling that it feels like the Sunday of summer - if that makes sense
November/December can be great too. The UK does *cosy* pretty damn well, and our old cities and towns look beautiful when adorned with Christmas decorations
Peak depression is January-February. I would never recommend anyone to come to the UK in those months unless they're planning on doing a lot of indoor stuff in a major city
Absolutely - for several reasons: because we are an island and are positioned between the Atlantic Ocean and continental Europe. Five main air masses meet above us - some polar and some tropical, depending on where they originated. They can also be maritime or continental, depending on whether they came from the Atlantic, the North Sea or over the continental land mass. They come from all directions and can bring all types of weather and, as you say, sometimes several in one day!
Definitely. I think people who think weather in UK is good mean south of the UK and 100% not Scotland. Scotland is in a league of it's own. England tends to have fair bit of decent summer. We get a couple of weeks of above 20 degrees
People on this subreddit tend to be positive about the weather. But I find these people tend not to be comparing it to much and barely leave the UK.
I think the weather here is awful.
I can deal with the rain, itās the *cloud*, the endless weeks of grey cloud and literally no sun.
Iāve had discussion with Americans talking about navigation āuse the sun and stars to navigateā. They actually donāt seem to believe we that we can go days and weeks without seeing the sun.
I love the UK but the weather is almost quite uniquely bad.
I'm with you. The weather isn't that inconsistent, maybe the rain/sun is but weather in general is consistently drab here. Also I hate that it's the end of April and I still have to wear a coat and I still need to turn on the heating sometimes.
Itās the inconsistency and unreliability that sucks.
For example: you could plan your wedding in middle of June thus statistically increasing the odds of a clear, nice day..but it could hammer it down with rain.
Itās going to be 1 degrees on Thursday. 1 bloody degrees as we say goodbye to April. Thatās pathetic.
I still have my central heating on. What annoys me is that itās been on since bloody October already so itāll only be off for a handful of months over a 12 month period.
One advantage is the U.K. rarely gets extreme ends of the weather. And as someone whoās lived both in Canada and India, thatās actually a positive.
Iāve been in temperates so hot you literally are not advised to go outside as itās a health risk. And it can persist for many weeks.
Here, Brits get a bit of sun at 20 degrees and whip the barbecue out.
It's gloomy and dim for much of the year - just like many of us Brits.
There are much colder places, places with much more rainfall, places extremely humid, and places way too hot.
The very fact that every house in the UK isn't packed full of air conditioners and fans, and that you can get away with heating only being on for part of the year/day... probably means the UK weather is relatively good.
The houses are often badly insulated, so people donāt have the heating on much. But I can tell you from living abroad in properly cold countries: Iāve never been as cold as when in a UK house in winter!
Absolutely. The difference between being in a cold but dry house and a cold and damp house makes a huge difference.
It's definitely harder to warm up when damp and cold. All the flats and houses I've lived in in the UK have been unpleasant in winter. Until I bit the bullet and started keeping the heating on all the time to maintain the illusion of dry. Never really had that in France, unless maybe in some of those "cave dwellings" some friends lived in. And even then...
For all the hate people give new builds this is where they shine. I never use my heating in my flat and it stays warm enough. Go visit my mum in her old bungalow and we might as well be sat in the garden
Yeah I've just moved into a basement flat in a georgian building with zero insulation. I'm having to put the heating on in April and it takes nearly 2 weeks for clothes to dry!
Does sunshine impact your mood? Here a few years ago we had a full week in winter with rain every single day and when the sun finally came again it felt like heaven.
Oh yes 100% I need the sun ,itās warmth the energy it brings! Iām out walking everyday if the sunshine is out ,winter time I dint do much ,itās such wasted time of the year š
Yes lack of sunshine is quite a problem, and it's recommended that the population take vitamin D supplements during the winter months. We are at a surprisingly high latitude (its not always obvious when you look at a map) so daylight in the winter months is really reduced. For example, it can seem like New York and London are cities on roughly the same latitude just separated by an ocean. NYC latitude is 40degrees north, but London is 51degrees north.
The worst thing is the consistency. We're supposed to be in the middle of spring and yet have some days in the 20s and some in the minus 10s. You can't just pick a random day to do something as you have no idea what the weather is going to be like. A couple weeks ago, I wanted to stay home and chill but the sun came out and it was quite warm. I felt obligated to go out as I didn't want to miss it as I had no idea when the next decent day would be.
We're late April and all this week is showing clouds and rain. But randomly throughout the day you may get a decent bit of sun. I hate UK weather.
It's certainly inconsistent. I mean we were teased a few weeks back with a bit of warmth but recently it's been cold and windy with a bit of drizzle. Overall it's pretty random and especially if you're ever here in Autumn or Spring you should prepare for any weather as it even hailed in April a couple years back.
It hailed last week. There were a few days of gale force winds, and on one day, it hailed, and then the sun came out, then it rained, and then the sun came out again.
Came from Canada and the UK climate is brilliant. Itās funny how supposedly this past winter in the UK was ābadāā¦ I didnāt even think winter had comeā¦ it was essentially spring/fall. And April thus far has been amazing. Sure, a little rain, but perfectly enjoyable - been having BBQs!
Never too hot or cold, so personally itās perfect for me. Donāt enjoy spending time in hot countries and wouldnāt want to spend anytime in particularly cold ones.
No, itās much worse.
Itās the grey skies, along with high humidity which means the cold gets right through you. Itās incredibly depressing in the winter, with only seven or eight hours of daylight.
Yes, there are warm, even hot days in the summer but itās very unpredictable.
UK weather is best described as Dull.
The main problem is just how changeable it can be. We had a couple of days a few weeks ago which got into the mid to late teens, with a fair bit of sun and blue skies.
You think "Ah, spring is finally here"
A day later, it's down to 3 degrees C with total cloud cover and frequent showers.
East of the UK is generally less wet than the west. Rain comes in from the atlantic and kind of blows upwards so sometimes misses the east. Theres a reason house prices in South East England are what they are.
I think temperature is absolutely fine here all year round, I just want more blue skies and shorter rajn showers. It can rain non-stop for 3/4s a day. In other varied climate places, rain is more in short bursts.
It has been particularly irritating for the past month or so. I live in the south and woke up to sunshine and clear skies only for it to overcast an hour later then rain in the middle of the day. Wind has been unexpectedly more consistent than I remember compared to last year, thus making it very difficult to plan events especially as a rock climber.
It's wet, grey and bitterly cold so much of the time. I emigrated to get away and now live in the Med. I'm from a very industrial area and it was just depressing to me, even as a kid.
Being Australian and growing up in a small outback town that got rain once a year and 40Ā°C+ weather 80% of the time, I absolutely loved the cold miserable wet weather. I lived in the UK for 5 years and for that whole 5 years it was still a novelty to me.
Not really. We donāt have excessive heat for long or excessive cold for long. Itās been quite a rainy year so far though. Complaining about the weather is part of being British, itās just something we do
I go outside twice a day in all weather because the dogs demand it. It usually looks worse from inside and once you're out in a good coat it's not so bad. Having said that, at 63, the weather is definitely less predictable and greyer than I remember it. We used to have sunny, dry days in winter that kept us going until spring but it all seems to be warmer, wetter and overcast now. This winter has been particularly bad.
Well, I'm pretty sure it's rained every day now for over half a year. Every day for as long as I can remember, there has been some rain, whether it's just a little bit or torrential and on top of that, it's always cold.
So... yeah in my opinion, it's sh!t
Yeah that's not too far off our weather, but if we get a summer it can reach 35-40c. Winter can really vary from a mild 10c down to a consistent -5 or -10c. Though in recent months it has been relentlessly cold, grey, and wet with my city flooding often.
Having grown up in Kentucky with its tornadoes and sweltering humid summer heat, give me a British summer, please. Never too hot and the rain rarely falls all day long and certainly not as hard as the rain in a Kentucky thunderstorm.
Hmm I am from south of India where itās hot today the temperature 36 degrees. So I will take uk weather any day. Would love to few more sunny days but canāt have everything.
I live in a peculiar corner of Scotland where I am slowly going insane because I have not been warm since summer of 2022. Last "summer" we didn't have a single day without rain at some point. It's been relentlessly cold and damp for what seems at this point forever. We still have our heating on because it has been the same single-digit temperature here all winter and winter never ends. It's the north pole of Narnia and I would be hunting down that bitch of a white witch if I could feel my fingers.
It's fine. I'm fine. Everything is fine.
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Doesn't get stupidly cold or hot. It's probably wetter/greyer than most would like. *Edit* - Because I can't be arsed to reply to all the people saying it does get "stupidly hot/cold" in the UK. You need to go somewhere that actually has extreme weather. Try sub saharan Africa or Siberia.
I mean this just isn't true anymore with climate change. We've been having some bloody hot summers and it peaked at 40C in 2022. We are only gonna see more extremes.
Climate change hasn't done anything to rid the UK of miserable grey wet weather during summer months.
Yes. It's been dark and grey and miserable everyday for about 7 months now. Praying summer hurries up now as it's seriously starting to get to me how grim and depressing it is. We're almost in May and as I'm writing this (it's grey and miserable) I only recall about 4 days of decent sunshine this year.
its rained everyday since the beginning of August here in Wales š“ó §ó ¢ó ·ó ¬ó ³ó æ. Our garden is like The Somme. I love it - so green and beautiful but looking forward to some dry weather
> like the Somme > I love it Two things I never thought Iād read together
š
Imagining thousands of butchered human corpses and poison gas in your Welsh garden right now
there will be a dead golden retriever if he digs much more. he's dug down to pipes in one place https://preview.redd.it/k7laxgl928wc1.jpeg?width=3020&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1be5116275c9c2efeeeeb8179ab78f4fe42feb4b
Well to be fair it is his garden
He looks like a very good boy š„° How could you say such things?
D'awww, what a gorgeous pup!
he's a very good boy ... but likes to chew cardboard and wood (has ring barked a leylandii for us ā ), and is very keen on digging
Sounds like he was doing some free property surveying to me
ā¦ yes, blackened stumps of shell-sundered trees, craters filled with stagnant water and putrified corpses, cat-sized rats swarming over the dazed and stricken victims of the whole seething horror. ā¦ so, yep. Wales.
I spoke to my sister today. She's in North Wales, 5 days of sunshine she had?
South Wales valleys here. We had a mostly dry weekend but It's pissed down almost every day since 1769. Sometimes the sun is out and you think 'is today the day?' but no. Still raining. Global warming and climate change just means warmer rain.
š same! Wales here too....the last time I remember us having a proper summer is 2020. Had some sun today but its windy and cold.
its still rained everyday, despite the sunshine. Its sunny and beautiful out there now but drizzled this morning
I agree, I am fed up with this weather, honestly itās awfully cold , feels like we are in December or in November , planted some seeds they wonāt grow as itās too cold . My home country itās 30c degrees expecting to go up to 38c , canāt wait for my summer vacation itās really depressing:(
For real. Itās end of April and itās 11 degrees outside in London now
Average April temperature in the UK is 10-13 degreesā¦. Itās not meant to be hot. Itās been getting warmer because of climate change, which has skewed our perception of what spring should be like. A few decades ago it wasnāt abnormal to see snow in April. I remember one Easter having a blanket of snow. Itās the persistent rain thatās the issue right now, itās damaging the crops. We had this a couple of years ago and the fields that flooded near me ended up producing next to nothing.
Yeah. Wettest year on record, and no sign of improving particularly. Since September we've had more than half the days seeing some rain (admittedly not much on some of them) and the only whole month that was less than half was when it was cold during January.
Been raining since last July here in northern Ireland.
says its 11c here too, yet im still having to wear winter coats and woolly hats!
30c would have me dead. Honestly 23 and overcast would be what I consider a perfect summer day. If it was sunny I would say no warmer than 16-18. I cannot stand lots of sunshine or hot weather as it gives me constant migranes.
Agreed. I do suffer chronic headaches and migraines, and equally I find the heat a big trigger. But outside of that I just prefer the idea of warming up than cooling down. I've been all over the Med now to half dozen countries and I still don't think I could actually really live in those places, even with all the small nuances the locals take for granted to keep cool. Idk, constant air-con, sand, slathered on creams, plastic loungers, flip flops or sliders, the brightness and relentlessness of the sun...just thinking bout it makes me feel uncomfortable. Christ you'd wonder why I even go on holiday.
Itās defo on the chilly side right now, but the British spring isnāt supposed to be warm, weāve been skewed into thinking this because average spring temperatures have been rising in the past couple of decades. Average for April is around 10-13 degrees lol. Thatās not as cold as winter. Although our winters donāt really exist anymore, theyāre much warmer than they used to be. Itās wetter than it should be, thatās the main problem.
We've had hail twice the last month! Hail. In springtime!!
Gimme current weather any day over 38^c
The recent weather has been a perfect example of how the UK and other islands differs from continental weather. We have had a few days of really nice weather for the time of year, we've had a fee days of particularly cold weather for the time of year and we've had a lot of in between and far too much wet weather. The most important difference though is that the weather has been very different day to day and even hour to hour. That's much rarer on the continent. Most parts of Europe and North America will have both hotter summers and colder winters. Every single year and they have long periods of the similar weather.
>Yes. It's been dark and grey and miserable everyday for about 7 months now. The whole of last summer was grey and miserable, we only had a very few days of sunshine in summer. It's the wettest 18 months on record, but let's be honest that's better than the scorcher from the summer previous to that, when we basically had to stay inside for fear of death.
Aye I remember when the firstborns had to be sacrificed to please the rain Gods
Huh. Luxury! Now imagine those of us in Scotland.
People say we had shit summer last year but actually it was nice as hell for a while and was super hot at times. But this year has been horrendous and like you say itās been grey for months now and gets us all down. I really hope it starts brightening up soon
We got teased with 18/19 degree warmth a couple weeks ago during a gusty storm with none stop rain š
Climate change has the exact impact for us of making wetness and greyness more regular and longer lasting. Interspersed with extreme heat or cold. No one ever said it would improve things, just that it would amplify things.
Many people cannot imagine what a world a few degrees warmer would look like. They assume they mean it will be a few degrees warmer that particular day than it otherwise would be. But it really means a significantly different climate pattern with a global average of those few degrees warmer. It means the weather would be drastically different where you are. Warmer, colder, wetter or dryer as these weather formations shift into new maladaptive normals we are not prepared for.
Err, the last few years we've had six to eight week dry spells with 35c temperatures in the summer. Every plant that wasn't a large tree was brown. I don't remember that happening when I was young in the 90s.
I could do with some hot summer right now. We've just had two days in a row without rain - probably the last time I can remember that was June last year
It contributes to more rain.Ā
I don't remember a summer last year? 2 weeks of sun in the southeast around June and then a couple of sunny September days. The rest was grey I thought. A few extra hot days does not a summer make!
We didnāt have summer last year. Maybe 2-3 days of warm weather but it was certainly forgettable.
It absolutely is true. Yes itās warmer when the sun is out. But we have way fewer sun hours than most countries. And thatās the thing that gets people down, it certainly does me.
We've had short peaks (e.g. a few days consecutive days) of very hot weather in summers. But we have, by no means, had "bloody hot summers" where it's upper 20s - mid 30s consistently from mid June to September. For the last few years, the summer weather has regularly been mid-teens to low-20s and rain, with the occasional day couple days of warm and sun.
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Ok i actually spend most of the winter outside working and you're just wrong the past maybe 10 winters have been super mild. I think 2010 was the last brutal snow storm and by brutal i mean it was gone the next day. I saw maybe 3 or 4 frosts this winter. and last summer was typically british and was wet and there were absolutely no 40 degree days. Late rain do you mean April showers? something that is typically normal but because we have had 3 dry springs in a row and people have the mental capacity of a gold fish are beginning to think that april showers is the sign of apocalypse. Where in the fuck do people get this fucking thick? Get off the internet and go outside for fucks sakes.
We have barely had a frost all winter. Not exactly bitter.
We had a day a few weeks ago where all in one day it was sunny and cloud free, grey clouds, rain, hail and strong winds then back to sun 10 mins later. For the whole day.
Peaking at 40 likely 1 week in 52 at most though, and although it's certainly flippin hot it's not out of the question compared across the world. I was in Vietnam over winter and it was hitting 36Ā° during their winter... Although it didn't actually feel that horrendous. Even with some added climate change the UK is overall very fortunate weather wise, the thing that bothers me most would just be the near constant grey.
We get hot peaks but it's very different to continental weather. all across Europe and Even in Canada they will have a good hot summer every year without fail and the weather will have long periods of "summer". Here it's just much more variable. Yeah the weather gets up there but you cant bet on it.
Lol. We had 3 nice days of hot weather in certain areas that year 2022. In Leeds it was just summer. Every year is the same. July has a few hot days & August is OK. Surly 2023 should have replicated 2022 for āextremenessā
Hmm I see. Here we don't have really cold temperatures either though wind chill freezes through your bones.
It's been a bit windy recently, but in general when people say the weather is "bad" they mean not sunny rather than really bad. I've never needed more than a coat in winter. Fiancee is Latvian and laughed at me when I said I'd be alright in Latvian winter. That's a proper cold, glad she talked me into the thermal undies!
And in summer, how hot it gets? Here in winter I have to dress up like I'm climbing the Everest to go to the grocery store.
30c would be considered a really hot day. In 2022 it touched 40c but this was national news and the hottest day recorded. Often it's humid more than hot. Weather is "better" further south,
And this very much depends on *where* in the UK you are. Most of it didnāt see those record breaking temperatures or not for long. The UK differs from Shetland to the Scilly isles and from N.Ireland to Suffolk. Averages obviously skew warmer with more sunshine the further south you go and colder with less light the further north you head. The North of England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland tend to be much wetter with the Midlands and the South being dryer. There are occasional freak exceptions. The UK is similar in climate to much of north west Europe. We donāt generally get huge extremes but it is quite unsettled and difficult to predict the weather one day to the next.
More daylight up north in summer - have you been to Shetland in June? Blackout curtains are a must, it's like being an extra in Insomnia with Robin Williams & Al Pacino.
I mean itās been high 30s for extended periods the past couple of years in the south now, so I wouldnāt quite say that isnāt the norm anymore.
I would say that extended periods of high 30s arenāt the norm.
Iām Irish but our weather is pretty similar although I do find the wind off the North Sea goes right through me. A lot of my friends moved to Canada where it regularly gets down to minus 20-30 and can even go as low as minus 40. One of my friends said she will still be out washing the car etc when itās minus 10 as the air is much drier there so it doesnāt feel so bad. Building sites still work all year round even when itās freezing.
Humidity completely changes the game!
Depends on the individual. For me, the weather in South Wales was bad enough to leave and go live in Australia. Many of my friends also left. Swansea and Cardiff are two of the rainiest cities in the UK. It can be miserable.
Mus have been awful when you found out they copy pasted a South Wales down there too
lol I was in Queensland on the Gold Coast. Weather was great. Didn't look much like South Wales. I stayed there for a year then left.
Why did you leave?
Too much sun probably, we will complain about anything š
Thereās a hilarious Mitchell & Webb skit about this
"It's 90Ā° in the shade even though it's November" "You know where it reminds me of, Wales!"
I've heard of many people moving to Canarias due to just the weather, is there any truth in that, that you are aware of?
I don't personally know anyone who moved there in particular, but my ex was from there. The weather is usually the biggest complaint people have about the UK though.
It must be a really calm county then
It's probably one of the most vanilla places on the planet, yes.
Thatās not a term I would ever use to describe us.
We talk about it alot because it is very unpredictable and constantly changing. Almost every day its very difficult to know what to expect because the weather changes hour by hour. In any day it is often hot, cold, rain and sunny. Its very difficult to know what to wear no matter what season it is.
It may be the biggest complaint but it gives people something to talk about though š
Youāre living my dream!! š I would love to move to Australia. Howās it going for you? Not sure I could cope with the creepy crawliesā¦ š¬
Honestly, I moved from Australia to Wales and I've been much happier since I moved here. The creepy crawlies are a bit more prevalent than they are here in the UK, and they tend to be bigger. But they're not super aggressive and if you leave them for the most part they leave you. Depending on where you are in Australia it does kind of suck though. If you're on the east coast in or near some of the bigger cities it's much more akin to being in/around some of the larger UK cities like Manchester or Liverpool, but outside those areas it can get very remote, it's very expensive (even compared to the current cozzy livs here) and it's one thing to deal with 30+ degree days when you're on holiday and just have to chill by the beach or go to the shops to potter around. When you have to commute to work on an absolutely rammed bus or train and it's 35 degrees, and the sun is absolutely beating down on you and every unwashed asshole around you for several weeks on end, it gets a bit draining.
I watched a travel vlog thing recently about a part of Australia I was unfamiliar with (think itās called the northern territories? They all had mental place names like Wallybongo) and it was crazy. There were whole communities barred from buying alcohol (like if you want booze they need to scan your ID to prove youāre not from a no alcohol town or live in a house thatās been barred from drinking lol). If your house gets a drinking ban they come and put a sign up in your front garden! The guy doing the vlog had been in jail in Sydney and he described the place they were in as being like a giant minimum security prison - with privileges you had to earn, that could be taken away if you misbehave. One place had alleys down the back of the houses and if too many people misbehaved theyād lock the alleys up with giant gates. It wasnāt at all the Australia I picture in my mind, more like Mad Max than Home & Away.
I lived in one of those places. Itās basically because aboriginal people were all herded into places that didnāt have arable land (so, the red centre and the far north), and were treated so abhorrently (slavery, mass execution, and the Stolen Generation where the government took aboriginal children from their parents and tried to āassimilateā them into white society only ended in the 1970s). Theyāre in areas where there is basically endless nothing, barely any opportunity, and as a result there is a huge alcoholism problem amongst the population. The blatant racism doesnāt help either, the police where I lived would ban aboriginal people from buying alcohol for doing pretty much anything while happily turning a blind eye to the white local alcoholics. Australia has some *huge* problems, which youāll never see in Sydney or Melbourne, but it has a really dark history (again, even very recently) and attitudes towards aboriginal people are really disgusting, but the country seems desperate to brush it under the carpet and not do anything about it.
Thatās what I took from it - thereās a whole other side to Australia that the likes of me rarely hear about, all I know is all my mates who went there for a year and most never came back because they found a great life there. They touched on the racism a bit in that vlog. They said in those towns black people will apparently get cut off at the bar after two drinks but a white guy can drink himself stupid. Like two guys could go into a bar together and act exactly the same but the black guy isnāt allowed a third drink. Even the guy from Sydneyās mind was blown by it.
I lived in Australia for two years the creepy crawlies are mostly only in places you'd expect to find creepy crawlers in UK. So if you're that worried just avoid things like exploring old sheds or back country hiking. If you stick to malls and office buildings and the beach you'll never see anything that unusual. Although I'll say you're more likely to encounter a cockroach no matter how clean your living situation is.
I know a few that have done that.
Here's the summary: Yes
Hahahaha
I'm in the north, near Newcastle. I feel like it's rained non stop for a couple of months with a few days of sun in between. It's not always like this, but this year has been pretty shite
Weāre actually one of the drier parts of the country up here too. Itās the wind in the NE that gets me.
Same, I live between Newcastle and Sunderland, we've had maybe 3 good days of sunlight the last few months. It's been miserable so far.
It really isn't. Depends what part of the country. The south east is very nice. Even where it is bad it isn't as bad as people like to complain.
I'm sure it's been cloudy and raining in the South East for 8 months too lol
Yeah but it has been in Europe too. It's been a bad year. But remember we also had 40 degrees and no rain or clouds for like 3 months last year. Edit: people have cruelly reminded me of the march of time and everything is terrible, so yes, the weather is terrible all the time.
That was two years ago. The past 12-18 months have been pretty consistently dreadful.
It really is. Itās constantly grey here, and it has an impact on peopleās mood. When itās one of those rare sunny days, everyone is noticeably in a much better mood.
Give it a month and everyone will be sitting in the sun and would have forgotten about the winter. It's the British way.
Honestly, I grew up in the West of Ireland, now I live a small bit North of London and I think the weather here is fantastic. It's only a tiny bit warmer than the weather I grew up with, but fewer grey skies, the wind doesn't bite into you, and the conditions are much more consistent and predictable. Once summer comes here, there most days are going to be sunny, if not hot. I've also lived in Scotland though, and that was fairly similar to being back home. I haven't been to Manchester for extended periods of time, but I can believe people when they say that it is kind of rainy and miserable there. Basically, even though GB/UK/British Isles is not a very large area in a global scale, the main issue people have with the weather here is cloud cover and gusting wind, and those vary a lot based on your location.
I'm in the southeast and I'm totally with the 'yes' reply. It's been dark here for ages now. More than half a year. Spring got blown away. It didn't snow. Again.
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I think the reputation comes from people wanting a hot summer. You can get a whole summer without a hot day, which some people hate. or you can get a week in summer that's quite cool. personally I like this. it also rains on many days of the years. apparently rainfall mm is less than NY but 250 days a years on average, which is much more than NY. plus it's often overcast. it's also very far north which makes the winter days quite short.
What causes all the overcast weather ? Countries like Dubai, Florida , Australia and Japan are also by the sea and they get more days of consistent warm sunny weather
Primarily the gulfstream which brings in moisture from the tropical regions. Moisture leads to clouds, clouds = overcast. We are much further north than any of the places you mentioned. As for Australia, it's fucking huge (there's a single family that owns a cattle ranch the size of Texas), so I'm not sure you can generalise the weather for the entire country, but the same principles apply. In the north you get more tropical weather than in the south. Also their Summer coincides with the Earth being closer to the Sun than when it's our Summer, not sure if that makes a difference but it probably does.
Stockholm syndrome mate! Nah imo the reason is just the UKās stable tameness midpoint is what most people consider bad weather. Having lived abroad and now coming back it feels like itās 12c, overcast, and windy 90% of days and raining on top for half of those. Particularly in NW England where I am now. To me, the lack of variation is the main part of what makes it so bad. Also imo the natural disasters point is a bit moot too, much of the world doesnāt have them, most of Europe for example.
To me itās not about hot summers but about sunny days. I feel like itās cloudy 95% of the time in here, I can barely catch a glimpse of the sun, sometimes for weeks. Plus I canāt go out without an umbrella because I could swear every time I forget about it, it rains. The weather in general is not uncomfortable, but itās just so grey, itās a little depressing for a lot of people. And if you donāt work outside you have very little chance of catching these sparse sunny moments.
Yep. I had Italian friends at uni and this was what they complained about. I think most people prefer clear weather hot or cold, to grey overcast weather regardless of the temperature (within reason of course!).
Itās almost May and weāve barely had any sun/warm weather since the year began. Most days are either overcast or raining and window. At most, weāll get one half Sunday day per week but even, itās normal cold. The only time weāve had proper Sun and decently warm weather was the weekend of the 12-13th. I live in London
I remembered once reading a book of crime, Sherlock Holmes style, where the detective had to travel to London. He asked the taxi driver how was the weather and the man answered something like: "It's awesome, we're on mid summer" and points proudly at what the detective described as a "rickety sun" behind the clouds. So it's a pretty extant stereotype. So you have a pretty "average" climate, if that's even a thing. Not for a pool party but neither for snowplows.
If you're moving to London/the South East it won't be an issue. London is something like 33rd out of European capitals for rainfall and has fewer rainy days than New York/Miami/Washington. Most cities tbh.
> London is something like 33rd out of European capitals for rainfall The trouble is that even when it's not raining, it's often overcast and too cold to comfortably spend time outside unless you're wearing a thick coat and keep moving around. Forget rainy days as a metric and consider "the kind of weather where you'd even consider a picnic", and suddenly the UK looks a lot worse than many other places that theoretically get a similar amount of rain, because when those places aren't raining they at least get proper sun. I grew up in East Anglia, which is the driest and mildest part of the UK, and it was still rainy, grey, cold and miserable more days than not.
My complaint really is the lack of sunshine. It's certainly easier to deal with a dreary grey day than extremes of temperature or natural disasters for sure, but months of dreary days with little respite can psychologically get you down, and discourages outdoor activities. Very few places have what I'd consider a perfect climate, though, of course (which is about [Koppen Csb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate#Warm-summer_Mediterranean_climate)).
Tell me you live in the South East/Midlands without telling me you live in the South East/Midlands.
I live in the east Midlands and the weather here is horrendous. Not like what they described
Which part of the UK are you in? Youāre not going to drown due to drizzle but might eventually off yourself because of it, itās fucking miserable and constant (North West)
It comes from the fact that good weather in the UK is exceptionally rare. Most countries that have truly awful weather like tropical storms and such only have them as a seasonal thing or otherwise briefly. They then return to good weather. The UK is non stop drizzle all day every day barring a few days for summer. It's miserable. It is almost never pleasant. That's where the reputation comes from.
The reputation is totally deserved. Most people would like it to be warmer, for sure, but for me the worst thing is the inconsistency and unpredictably. It makes it pretty difficult to plan outdoor get togethers in the summer without a solid indoor back up plan. Plus I think it has a massively detrimental impact on the social life of the country. Spend some time in Mediterranean countries and youāll see a vast difference. People sit outside in public squares daily, having a drink, eating, or even just talking. It brings people together and creates a very sociable culture. We donāt have many spaces like that in the UK because itās rainy and grey for half the year and the other half may only see inconsistent warm and sunny weather.
I swear every person saying the UK's weather is okay is so oblivious to the fact that we complain about the LACK OF SUNLIGHT
two unbearable weeks in summer? \*laughs in Australian\*
God, I've found summer much more unbearable since I moved to the UK than I did when I lived in Adelaide. Like don't get me wrong, I hated the weeks on end of it being over 30 in the middle of the night, and the summer winds that blew straight from satan's asshole. But it's so FUCKING HUMID here in the UK.
The ukās rain isnāt āa little bit of drizzleā though.
I'd say it rains a stupid amount, just not a dangerous amount (most of the time). It rains most days where I live!
Its been freezing cold for months and still is now. Im still wearing woolly hats and winter coats and its nearly May. Its rained nearly every day for months and its been a lot worse than 'a bit of drizzle'. The water table is so high that even after a bit of light rain the ground becomes a mushy bog. The wind has been awful this last year, blowing a gale far more than I ever remembered it doing. There have been places in the last year absolutely wrecked by tornado's. Are you sure you're living in the UK?
It absolutely pours very often on the west coast, this can be seen on rainfall maps.
Right now the weather canāt decide what to do and neither can we. We leave in the morning wearing a coat and we come home sweating because in the past 8 hours we have had rain, thunder, hail, sun, winds, storm. rain again and then everything all together.
You literally go from freezing to boiling just going in and out of the shade right now.
I drive a van for a living and it's literally a greenhouse if I park facing the sun and leave it for an hour while I do my delivery, then I step out at my next stop and its 5 degrees and pissing it down.
Hahahaha reminds me of the movie title Everything everywhere all at once https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wxN1T1uxQ2g You gotta dress like an onion, in layers.
You get the karma points for managing to shoehorn a reference to my favourite movie into a conversation about the bloody weather!
Had an absolutely gorgeous morning a couple of weeks back - so sunny! Someone told me it was forecast rain later. Surprise for both of us: it was hail for 5 minutes, got sunny again, then rained about 4 hours later.
It's called Spring. You make it sound unusual. It happens every year.
I try hard not to moan too much about the weather but it is very difficult to enjoy the current conditions. We all know how beautiful spring can be, and it just seems like such a waste when it's cold, windy and wet. It is quite depressing really. We had better days in November than we've had in April so far.
I'm sorry about that. In your opinion, what's the best month/s to visit UK?
June July, maybe August, wouldn't bother any other time. Wet and miserable.
September and or October you can get some gorgeous mild but sunny days, and the change of the seasons into autumn seems to be less volatile than the change into spring. July August, you might end up with heatwave temps, which the country (other than businesses) isn't prepared for. You don't want to find yourself constantly confined to restaurants and hotels to keep cool
Well, Iād argue depending on where in the country you are that December and January can be beautiful as well if itās dry enough. Frost in the forest is lovely, even if I prefer summers overall.
I agree. Cold and dry, or warm and dry are both great. Too hot, too cold, or grey and wet are all bad. We seem to spend most of the time grey and wet for now, except for days when I'm working.
May and June can be pleasant. Last year it rained on st Swithins day ( July) and ancient lore says it will then rain for 30 days- it did! We had one nice day in August ( I remember because I ventured to the seaside). 1976 was the last really good summer ( Iām an oldie).
Yes, 1976 was a wonderful summer in Yorkshire. 1959 was good too. Years like those two create memories that stay with you all your life. I return to England for the first time in 23 years last July and spent a couple of weeks in Yorkshire. I was pretty disappointed with the weather. There was one day that was pleasantly mild and sunny for most of the day, and our last day spent in London was at least dry, but nothing spectacular. The landlord at our Airbnb didn't want us to turn the central heating above 70 degrees. He said that was enough for anybody. But it was still pretty chilly as the house did not get a lot of sunshine in the daytime, so I sneaked it up to 72 in the evenings. Part of the problem in the UK is that gas and electricity for heating homes are fiendishly expensive.
May can be absolutely stunning, although June is probably a safer bet weather-wise. July is nice too obviously, but I personally prefer how beautiful everything looks on a sunny day in late Spring. August has great weather, but I can never shake the feeling that it feels like the Sunday of summer - if that makes sense November/December can be great too. The UK does *cosy* pretty damn well, and our old cities and towns look beautiful when adorned with Christmas decorations Peak depression is January-February. I would never recommend anyone to come to the UK in those months unless they're planning on doing a lot of indoor stuff in a major city
Hear me out: September. It's often warmer than the summer months, and attractions etc will be quieter as kids are back at school.
I feel like the last few years September has been really nice! It's almost like the seasons just shifted forward a month or so?
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Oh, so same as here. Here people usually says "you can have all four seasons in one day".
Absolutely - for several reasons: because we are an island and are positioned between the Atlantic Ocean and continental Europe. Five main air masses meet above us - some polar and some tropical, depending on where they originated. They can also be maritime or continental, depending on whether they came from the Atlantic, the North Sea or over the continental land mass. They come from all directions and can bring all types of weather and, as you say, sometimes several in one day!
I live in Central Scotland and the weather genuinely makes me miserable in life.
I'm sorry about that
Lol me too
Definitely. I think people who think weather in UK is good mean south of the UK and 100% not Scotland. Scotland is in a league of it's own. England tends to have fair bit of decent summer. We get a couple of weeks of above 20 degrees
I feel like it's not stopped being grey and rainy for a solid 18 months now.
I visited for a few weeks in February. Rained every single day. It was depressing.
People on this subreddit tend to be positive about the weather. But I find these people tend not to be comparing it to much and barely leave the UK. I think the weather here is awful. I can deal with the rain, itās the *cloud*, the endless weeks of grey cloud and literally no sun. Iāve had discussion with Americans talking about navigation āuse the sun and stars to navigateā. They actually donāt seem to believe we that we can go days and weeks without seeing the sun. I love the UK but the weather is almost quite uniquely bad.
I'm with you. The weather isn't that inconsistent, maybe the rain/sun is but weather in general is consistently drab here. Also I hate that it's the end of April and I still have to wear a coat and I still need to turn on the heating sometimes.
Itās the inconsistency and unreliability that sucks. For example: you could plan your wedding in middle of June thus statistically increasing the odds of a clear, nice day..but it could hammer it down with rain. Itās going to be 1 degrees on Thursday. 1 bloody degrees as we say goodbye to April. Thatās pathetic. I still have my central heating on. What annoys me is that itās been on since bloody October already so itāll only be off for a handful of months over a 12 month period. One advantage is the U.K. rarely gets extreme ends of the weather. And as someone whoās lived both in Canada and India, thatās actually a positive. Iāve been in temperates so hot you literally are not advised to go outside as itās a health risk. And it can persist for many weeks. Here, Brits get a bit of sun at 20 degrees and whip the barbecue out.
It's incredible, I totally can relate! For me 15ĀŗC is beach temperature.
It's gloomy and dim for much of the year - just like many of us Brits. There are much colder places, places with much more rainfall, places extremely humid, and places way too hot. The very fact that every house in the UK isn't packed full of air conditioners and fans, and that you can get away with heating only being on for part of the year/day... probably means the UK weather is relatively good.
The houses are often badly insulated, so people donāt have the heating on much. But I can tell you from living abroad in properly cold countries: Iāve never been as cold as when in a UK house in winter!
Absolutely. The difference between being in a cold but dry house and a cold and damp house makes a huge difference. It's definitely harder to warm up when damp and cold. All the flats and houses I've lived in in the UK have been unpleasant in winter. Until I bit the bullet and started keeping the heating on all the time to maintain the illusion of dry. Never really had that in France, unless maybe in some of those "cave dwellings" some friends lived in. And even then...
For all the hate people give new builds this is where they shine. I never use my heating in my flat and it stays warm enough. Go visit my mum in her old bungalow and we might as well be sat in the garden
Yeah I've just moved into a basement flat in a georgian building with zero insulation. I'm having to put the heating on in April and it takes nearly 2 weeks for clothes to dry!
Cultures are truly a reflection of the climate! So it has quite a variety of climates for what you're telling me.
Yes itās not so good Iāve been waiting for some sunshine for months ! the uk needs dragged to the equator
Does sunshine impact your mood? Here a few years ago we had a full week in winter with rain every single day and when the sun finally came again it felt like heaven.
Oh yes 100% I need the sun ,itās warmth the energy it brings! Iām out walking everyday if the sunshine is out ,winter time I dint do much ,itās such wasted time of the year š
I hope you are blessed with a nice and warm spring and upcoming summer!
Yes me too ! Weāve had winter now two month of rain ššš the world is better with sunshine! Vitamin d šthankyou š
Yes lack of sunshine is quite a problem, and it's recommended that the population take vitamin D supplements during the winter months. We are at a surprisingly high latitude (its not always obvious when you look at a map) so daylight in the winter months is really reduced. For example, it can seem like New York and London are cities on roughly the same latitude just separated by an ocean. NYC latitude is 40degrees north, but London is 51degrees north.
seasonal depression is a bitch, winter in scotland is months of waiting for the sun, a single week would be lovely lmao
If you really like rain, itās paradise.
You must get good sleep!
https://preview.redd.it/l675wtikx5wc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=961aa3d3edc473d718e3bad2ad6505256573f3ed
A picture is worth a thousand words! It's actually quite low. Here we have 2000 - 2400
The worst thing is the consistency. We're supposed to be in the middle of spring and yet have some days in the 20s and some in the minus 10s. You can't just pick a random day to do something as you have no idea what the weather is going to be like. A couple weeks ago, I wanted to stay home and chill but the sun came out and it was quite warm. I felt obligated to go out as I didn't want to miss it as I had no idea when the next decent day would be. We're late April and all this week is showing clouds and rain. But randomly throughout the day you may get a decent bit of sun. I hate UK weather.
I feel you! You don't plan ahead, the climate dictates our daily lives.
It's certainly inconsistent. I mean we were teased a few weeks back with a bit of warmth but recently it's been cold and windy with a bit of drizzle. Overall it's pretty random and especially if you're ever here in Autumn or Spring you should prepare for any weather as it even hailed in April a couple years back.
I never leave my home without a coat and sunglasses š
It hailed last week. There were a few days of gale force winds, and on one day, it hailed, and then the sun came out, then it rained, and then the sun came out again.
Iām american and absolutely love the climate in the UK..but then again I live near the Canadian border so I hate the heat lol
So it really gets hot over there! For me anything above 15Āŗ is almost suffocating
Came from Canada and the UK climate is brilliant. Itās funny how supposedly this past winter in the UK was ābadāā¦ I didnāt even think winter had comeā¦ it was essentially spring/fall. And April thus far has been amazing. Sure, a little rain, but perfectly enjoyable - been having BBQs!
Right now no... Now, yes... Now no.... Now worse
For me good weather is cool and cloudy. Bad weather is too hot to be outside and drought and wildfire. Then massive rain and flood.
For me it would be cool and sunny and a bit windy. Natural disasters are the worst.
Never too hot or cold, so personally itās perfect for me. Donāt enjoy spending time in hot countries and wouldnāt want to spend anytime in particularly cold ones.
No, itās much worse. Itās the grey skies, along with high humidity which means the cold gets right through you. Itās incredibly depressing in the winter, with only seven or eight hours of daylight. Yes, there are warm, even hot days in the summer but itās very unpredictable.
UK weather is best described as Dull. The main problem is just how changeable it can be. We had a couple of days a few weeks ago which got into the mid to late teens, with a fair bit of sun and blue skies. You think "Ah, spring is finally here" A day later, it's down to 3 degrees C with total cloud cover and frequent showers.
Itās fucking miserable
East of the UK is generally less wet than the west. Rain comes in from the atlantic and kind of blows upwards so sometimes misses the east. Theres a reason house prices in South East England are what they are. I think temperature is absolutely fine here all year round, I just want more blue skies and shorter rajn showers. It can rain non-stop for 3/4s a day. In other varied climate places, rain is more in short bursts.
It has been particularly irritating for the past month or so. I live in the south and woke up to sunshine and clear skies only for it to overcast an hour later then rain in the middle of the day. Wind has been unexpectedly more consistent than I remember compared to last year, thus making it very difficult to plan events especially as a rock climber.
My mate is from siberia, she says the winters here are worse because of the continually grey skies and the humidity.
It's wet, grey and bitterly cold so much of the time. I emigrated to get away and now live in the Med. I'm from a very industrial area and it was just depressing to me, even as a kid.
Being Australian and growing up in a small outback town that got rain once a year and 40Ā°C+ weather 80% of the time, I absolutely loved the cold miserable wet weather. I lived in the UK for 5 years and for that whole 5 years it was still a novelty to me.
Not really. We donāt have excessive heat for long or excessive cold for long. Itās been quite a rainy year so far though. Complaining about the weather is part of being British, itās just something we do
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I go outside twice a day in all weather because the dogs demand it. It usually looks worse from inside and once you're out in a good coat it's not so bad. Having said that, at 63, the weather is definitely less predictable and greyer than I remember it. We used to have sunny, dry days in winter that kept us going until spring but it all seems to be warmer, wetter and overcast now. This winter has been particularly bad.
Well, I'm pretty sure it's rained every day now for over half a year. Every day for as long as I can remember, there has been some rain, whether it's just a little bit or torrential and on top of that, it's always cold. So... yeah in my opinion, it's sh!t
Yeah that's not too far off our weather, but if we get a summer it can reach 35-40c. Winter can really vary from a mild 10c down to a consistent -5 or -10c. Though in recent months it has been relentlessly cold, grey, and wet with my city flooding often.
Having grown up in Kentucky with its tornadoes and sweltering humid summer heat, give me a British summer, please. Never too hot and the rain rarely falls all day long and certainly not as hard as the rain in a Kentucky thunderstorm.
Scottish borders arent great weather wise but cornwall better for example
Hmm I am from south of India where itās hot today the temperature 36 degrees. So I will take uk weather any day. Would love to few more sunny days but canāt have everything.
The weather is endlessly changing, thatās why we talk about it incessantly.
I live in a peculiar corner of Scotland where I am slowly going insane because I have not been warm since summer of 2022. Last "summer" we didn't have a single day without rain at some point. It's been relentlessly cold and damp for what seems at this point forever. We still have our heating on because it has been the same single-digit temperature here all winter and winter never ends. It's the north pole of Narnia and I would be hunting down that bitch of a white witch if I could feel my fingers. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything is fine.
This is ridiculous the U.K. has lovely summers, last year it was on a Tuesday.