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Are british people obsessed with the weather..?


paul1977

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France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries all get the same and in some cases worse weather than the uk.. Most comments on here by people who are moving to Australia end up

mentioning the weather.. The question is how comes those people from those countries seem to have the ability to deal with it..?

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I think for some people it just seems to be a automatic choice of topic. I always get old people at the bus stop talking to me about it, I think sometimes it can be a good conversation starter. I do agree though that some are a bit obsessed about it. I'll probably be one of the ones moaning about the winter though!

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France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries all get the same and in some cases worse weather than the uk.. Most comments on here by people who are moving to Australia end up

mentioning the weather.. The question is how comes those people from those countries seem to have the ability to deal with it..?

 

I wouldn't say we are obsessed by the weather, but it's something that is a part of our culture to discuss a lot of the time. I'm sure there are things in European countries that are culturally important to them that we don't give much attention to here. Weather just so happens to be a hot topic of discussion here that is remembered from the earliest of ages. Maybe us Brits on here are also subconsciously concerned that we will actually MISS the changeable/wonderful/inconsistent beauty of it all, when we prepare to get subjected to blue sky and big temps day in day out, months on end - thus it being discussed frequently.

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Yes, I think we are, we are brought up with the weather being a safe small talk topic. Our weather is interesting but very rarely extreme to the extent of threatening lives so there is usually something positive to say. Nothing better than going for a walk around my neighbourhood or in one of the local parks and having a word with virtually everyone you pass. 'Nice day today' doesn't work too well as a greeting in a Perth summer :)

 

When my friend was leaving for a new life in Spain I bought her a book about the British obsession with weather - just looking for it on Amazon now and couldn't find it but saw this:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turned-Out-Nice-Again-Weather/dp/1781250529

 

I liked this bit 'the myths of Golden Summers and our persistent state of denial about the winter' sounds like a few people on here :)

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People who have emigrated to Oz are obsessed with the UK weather...bit strange really.

I think it is used as a justification for being here. When the novelty wears off or you take it for granted then you are faced with what you have left. Took me a few years to realise that comfort of friends and family, interesting travel options, architecture, pubs etc were more important to me than on tap sunshine. Took me a couple more years after that to realise that I kind of miss cool weather. I had so many years where I craved to be in the heat, I think I lost track of important stuff along the way.

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France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries all get the same and in some cases worse weather than the uk.. Most comments on here by people who are moving to Australia end up

mentioning the weather.. The question is how comes those people from those countries seem to have the ability to deal with it..?

 

I don't have any experience of those other nations but certainly the Brits are obsessed by it and I definitely include myself. We always make such a big deal of it and I would be interested to know how many times it makes the front pages of the newspapers and even the main story when it just a little bit warmer, colder, wetter etc than normal. Tiny amounts of snow shuts schools and therefore contribute to general absenteeism. I would be surprised if it happened so much anywhere else.

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France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries all get the same and in some cases worse weather than the uk.. Most comments on here by people who are moving to Australia end up

mentioning the weather.. The question is how comes those people from those countries seem to have the ability to deal with it..?

 

I think it depends WHERE in the UK you come from. When I moved to London from Aberdeen, i remember being stunned at how good the weather was - it had never occurred to me that there would be such a big difference between the two, since the UK is not a big place.

 

Look at a map of Europe and most of it is south of the UK, which means the summers are warmer - and it's the lack of sunshine that most people mean when they talk about weather.

 

As for Scandinavia, I agree their winters are much worse than ours - but as someone from the North, I'd say I'd much prefer the crisp deep snow of Scandinavia to the slushy, sleety stuff that characterises a UK winter.

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I think it depends WHERE in the UK you come from. When I moved to London from Aberdeen, i remember being stunned at how good the weather was - it had never occurred to me that there would be such a big difference between the two, since the UK is not a big place.

 

Look at a map of Europe and most of it is south of the UK, which means the summers are warmer - and it's the lack of sunshine that most people mean when they talk about weather.

 

As for Scandinavia, I agree their winters are much worse than ours - but as someone from the North, I'd say I'd much prefer the crisp deep snow of Scandinavia to the slushy, sleety stuff that characterises a UK winter.

I'm from London myself and can never recal the weather being as bad as people make it out on this site.. Yes winters are a bit •••• but it doesn't rain for 9-10 months of the year like you led to belive.

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I think it's the changeability of British weather which prompts such avid discussion - if you live somewhere like Norway then the summers are warm and light and the winters are dark and cold with lots of snow. In the UK it can snow in April and be 25 degrees in November (NB I have never experienced this bit it's predicted for this year apparently) summers supposed to be a fairly standard temp can be "Indian" or the "wettest on record".

 

We are a bit obsessed though, I agree!

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