Weather

[USALady]

As an American, I am always curious as to weather in other parts of the world. What is the weather generally like in UK this time of year? Does is normally vary as in the US where part of the country will be freezing while the other part is basking in warm temperatures.

[shaneystar2]

No ..it's generally dim and dreary over the whole country at the moment ..
We are not a big enough country to have wide variations in temperature . At the moment we are all freezing ,from the north of Scotland southwards . It tends to be more temperate in the south but nowhere near warm at this time of the year.It can be minus whatever in Scotland and plus eight to ten in the south but that's still cold in my book . I live in the east of England on the coast not far from the most easterly point in GB and at the moment it is bloomin ' freezing .We had heavy snow the weekend before last . This soon melts away though .
Yet in the summer we are supposed to be one of the driest counties . But the last two or three years we have had had awful summers ,rain and more rain !
Our fickle British weather is a topic of conversation wherever you live in the UK :))
Have a look at our Met office site
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_fore cast_weather.html

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[KARL]

The previous answer is correct to mention that the weather is a conversation piece, ad nauseam for non-Brits who find little of interest in it. People will pass perfect strangers in the street and say only something like It's a nice day, or Terrible weather, or whatever - greetings like Good morning, Hello or whatever sometimes appear not to be used at all. The weather is for the most part numbingly boring, neither very cold nor very warm, neither wet nor dry - and frequently feels much colder than it is due to dampness, but most of all because housing is very poor (almost no insulation and draughts - drafts to you - are religiously maintained) and heating is still a form of sacrilege to most people (will lead to all manner of ills from sickness to damage to structures, so it is widely believed - simply not good for anyone or anything, most especially the wallet). Another interesting point is that people living roughly south of a line drawn from Bristol to Ipswich think that, by comparison with those north of it, they are practically in the tropics. Temperature records frequently prove this to be a fallacy, although on average the further south you go the warmer it is for most months. Every year, even at the height of summer, a time will come when a higher temperature is recorded quite far north in Scotland than on the south coast of England. At around this time of year (around mid to late December many/most years) a period may come when the south east of England is the coldest place in the British Isles, colder even than parts of Iceland at the same time. But enough about the weather.

[KARL]

Oh, this may puzzle you, but it is true (and has nothing to do with the weather). In terms of simple north to south distances, the northern two thirds of England are referred to as the North. The southern 10% or so are referred to as the South. Of the remainder the northern half is called the Midlands. The rest is called Here. Wales and Scotland are much more straight forward.

[spudqueen]

Hi USALady, well we don't have the vast difference in temperatures that you do in the US as Britain is much smaller, doesn't go as far south as eg Florida, and doesn't have anywhere thousands (or even hundreds) or miles from the sea. We are as far north as Canada, yet are much milder as we have the gulf stream to warm us.
At the moment we have snow in some places, and where it has fallen everything grinds to a halt. We just aren't geared up for severe weather, of any kind, here, so even 3 inches of snow closes 200 schools, roads are closed etc etc. Not like in the States, where even 8 or 9 inches is dealt with efficiently and everyone manages to go about their daily business.
And yes, we do have differences in temperatures, but only by a few degrees centigrade. Have a look here at todays temperatures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ukweather/tempera ture.shtml

[USALady]

Thanks for the responses to the weather. It's fun to see the different responses from everyone!

[AutomaticGal]

ever heard the term "typical british weather" - its true...

[modeller]

Some years ago an American was interviewed on TV and he said that he was told that British weather was changeable . Last night there was heavy snow followed this morning by heavy rain and this afternoon there were floods and beautiful sunshine. I expected it to be changeable but not all in 24 hours. I think that answers your question.

[Booldawg]

If you look where Britian is on the map its sometimes alarmingly more 'Northern' than people realise. We're pretty much on the same latitute (or is it longitude?) as Northern parts of Canada.

Apparently we're favoured by a stream of warm weather that blows up from the Atlantic, raising the overall climate.

[ummmm]

The weather in England is fine if only it had a roof.....!!!

[poltergeist]

Wow can you kitesurf in it? If so look at matthew rodbournes website here http://www.matthewrodbourne.com if you don�t know what that is