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I have often noticed that most people think lots of sunshine and heat are synonymous with great weather.
I live in Portugal and what can I say, I am so sick of the sunshine. We have had a wet, rainy winter and the summer has not really even started yet. Still, whenever there are clouds upon the sky these days I am happy, hoping there will be rain again and maybe even a thunderstorm.
A couple of sunny days in a row feels like death to me, it makes my mind go in boredom mode somehow
I also have the impression that people are more superficial and emotionally distant in the summer, hard to describe that feeling. Maybe this is also what's behind the term 'summer love', easy come easy go so to speak
Why is it that to most people great weather = sunshine and heat?
They don't. Subscibe to UK weather forums such as www.netweather.tv and www.ukweatherworld.co.uk and you'll discover that 99.5% of users on there love cold, dark, rain, snow, ice and fog, and nearly all complain about "stifling heat" if it reaches 65°F by day, or falls to fall below 50°F at night. Seriously.
Why is it that to most people great weather = sunshine and heat?
They don't. Subscibe to UK weather forums such as www.netweather.tv and www.ukweatherworld.co.uk and you'll discover that 99.5% of users on there love cold, dark, rain, snow, ice and fog, and nearly all complain about "stifling heat" if it reaches 65°F by day, or falls to fall below 50°F at night. Seriously.
Hm, I used to live in Britain for about a year and can't confirm that Maybe people on those boards are being sarcastic, British sense of humor
I have often noticed that most people think lots of sunshine and heat are synonymous with great weather.
I live in Portugal and what can I say, I am so sick of the sunshine. We have had a wet, rainy winter and the summer has not really even started yet. Still, whenever there are clouds upon the sky these days I am happy, hoping there will be rain again and maybe even a thunderstorm.
A couple of sunny days in a row feels like death to me, it makes my mind go in boredom mode somehow
I also have the impression that people are more superficial and emotionally distant in the summer, hard to describe that feeling. Maybe this is also what's behind the term 'summer love', easy come easy go so to speak
spend a winter a seattle and talk to me LOL
the grass is always greener on the other side friend
Hm, I used to live in Britain for about a year and can't confirm that Maybe people on those boards are being sarcastic, British sense of humor
We clearly have a distinction between the "general public" in Britain then, and the "weather fans" dominating those forums.
The overall public might prefer warm and sunny (but probably because of the general lack of it here) and the weather fans as I mentioned, definitely do prefer cold/snow and wintry weather. Weather fans on all UK weather forums I've ever used have generally been cold lovers even to the point of creating a huge bias in model output discussions, while "warm lovers" seem few and far between on there.
Seems the cold lovers have a strangely childish fascination with snow in particular. Could be that so many of the weather lovers on UK forums like wintery garbage because it's the only time anything interesting other than drizzle, cloud or wind occurs in the UK (namely: SNOW) but I really don't know because I hate winter and cold and love warm and sunny. I just think they're all mad.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I'm in the Seattle area, and it's just a matter of having something to complain about. All winter it's too cold, spring and fall it's too wet, summer it's too hot.
Our problem is that it's never perfect. I'm actually 100% Portuguese myself, and to me perfect is about 65 with morning and evening sun, cloudy during the day. I do enjoy the rain, but it's a little more often than I'd like. Once it gets above 75 like yesterday, I'm using the AC. I think most people around here (like my family) thing 75-80 and sunny is perfect, so they can go to the beach or lay out in the sun in the patio or deck.
Like others have said, it's all what you're used to. I live in Vancouver where 10 months of the year we hardly see the sun and so when the sun does come out for July and August, everyone is happy
My own observations about people's climatic preferences (since taking an interest in climate/weather):
almost everyone has a different preference - opinions are very widespread. I guess it is like anything in life in that we are unique individuals with different drivers and opinions
people that live in a certain skewed climate zone (e.g. constantly sunny, constantly cold and/or wet, constantly monotonous, or constantly unpredictable) seem to overwhelmingly tire of it and want change
there are a disproportionate number of people on weather forums that love dramatic weather conditions e.g. thunderstorms, hail, heavy rain etc when compared to Joe Public (based on my own conversations with people vs reading some threads)
These are just my observations of course.
Referring to the first bullet point, my only gripe is that I wish people would respect the fact we have preferences. I tire of people making the comment "I cannot understand why you do not like {insert weather type here} weather....." and try and force their opinion onto you
I don't know if you are talking about on the forum or where you live personally, but a fair thought is that a good representation of posters living in the English-speaking world is probably in the temperate zones (though to be fair lots of posters from places like the US south have expressed their dislike of the heat and sun).
Probably lots of people living in the equatorial and tropical regions don't feel the need of more sun and heat.
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