Does Britain's climate get an unfair rap? (records, temperatures, Chicago)

[B87]

Originally Posted by Sloth94

It's important to note that it was the hottest recorded day in London's history, 36.7C (98.06F). So I'd refrain from reading too much into it.

No it wasn't. It was the warmest July day on record, not the hottest ever. The record high is 38.1c/ 100.6f (which is also hotter than Miami's record high), set in August 2003.

[Sloth94]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

The hottest July day. August reached 38.1c at Kew Gardens in 2003.

My mistake, but the point still stands. It's not indicative of a pattern. Although if global warming is to be believed, it might be...

[Alkis]

The climate of UK is not bad. It may be boring bad not bad. It is very healthy. And if it was a bit sunnier it would be one of the most livable climates on Earth for me.

[Walshie79]

I think it depends on people's preconceptions of the UK climate. A lot of southern Europeans and Asians think our winters are colder than they are, and they find the climate "good" compared to what they expect. Northerners on the other hand dont expect cold Winters, what they notice is how gloomy it is a lot of the time (I remember a Canadian telling me how dark she found the UK winter, "theres no sunshine and you dont always have snow, then it gets dark in the middle of the afternoon").

Dont ask a Brit by the way. If that Chinese family who were looking at schools round here in September 2010, whom I told "it hardly ever snows before Christmas here" is reading this I apologise. That December was not what we usually get!

[Sickandtiredofthis]

I think people exaggerate the amount of rain we receive alongside the extent of the standard deviation.

Like Dean just said we don't get any extremes. Well that's not true, what about 2010 when we had -22c? Or this summer when England recorded 37c..

What would be valid, would be the that fact that we have less extremes. I don't think saying that we have no extremes is valid, to me that means temps stick between 5 and 10c constantly.

[Sickandtiredofthis]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

Florida is very warm in the winter - the odd sporadic arctic front doesn't change that. Orlando in January is as warm as July here.

I agree. I was looking at the data for Orlando and most of the time it is in and around 23c, to me that is pretty darn warm; especially in January!

The one thing that I did note about Florida was the amount of cloudy days,which was obviously ALOT higher than I expected. We once had a full week of cloud.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Sickandtiredofthis

I agree. I was looking at the data for Orlando and most of the time it is in and around 23c, to me that is pretty darn warm; especially in January!

As you would say, it has a really low latitude. It's at 28°N, same latitude as New Delhi India. New Delhi has colder winter averages but less extreme cold records for obvious geography reasons.

[Joe90]

Brits are the biggest bashers of the British climate, Plenty of British folk here, and they certainly don't sing the praises of the British climate. It's always seems to be stories about endless rain, or grey skies..

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by Dean York

There is absolutely no doubt, IMO anyway, that the weather in this country is truly rubbish.
If you like cold winter with plenty of snow, forget it. If you like warm reliable summers, forget it. If you like sunshine, forget it.
Yes, it's rubbish, but it's very liveable. The weather won't kill you here. You can walk to work pretty much everyday of the year without too much worry, and you can do it knowing you aren't going to get hypothermia or sunstroke.

That's me.

Though I do quite like London's pleasant, lukewarm summers. They just need more sunshine. That's my gripe here. The same thing goes for Western/Central Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium), which also seem rather gloomy.

Most of the UK ranges from E+ to F.

[dhdh]

1) It is extremely cloudy, even by European standards. The majority of the country records under 1500 hours of bright sunshine annually, which is lower than practically all of France, Germany, Switzerland and even Belgium, the Netherlands and a good chunk of Scandinavia, let alone Med Countries. In fact, aside from Ireland, Iceland and southern Alaska, there is scarcely another part of the world which is simultaneously quite populated and as cool and cloudy as the UK. Parts of northern southeast Asia and South America are equally cloudy, but they're far warmer.

2) It is more often than not stuck in limbo temps. Aside from London and its somehow acceptable warmish 23°C average high in July, most of the country struggles to get past 20°C as their warmest monthly average high, which is lame for high summer and outdoor activities (yes, I know it can get to 30°C in the UK); while winter average lows exceed 0°C, resulting in the general winter conditions being dark, grey and wet, rather than snowy (yes I also know it does snow in the UK, it's just not the common winter theme).

3) Summer, in addition to being coolish, is unreliable. Showers, sub-20°C highs, wind and cloud are common occurrences. And yes I know the UK gets less total precip than say Nice or Sydney, but it comes in the form of long, annoying drizzle rather than spectacular downpours.

4) It is extremely gloomy. The combination of high latitude and time zone do not help. Winter sun angle is extremely low, days are short and the 12AM solar noons (or earlier in the east) result in 3.30pm-4pm sunsets. No thanks.

5) It is very uneventful. Aside from Ireland, pretty much every country has something more distinctive and interesting to offer than the UK in terms of climate, even more northern countries. France has more sun, more intense heatwaves and coldwaves, etc. Iceland has midnight brightness. Scandinavia has auroras. Canada has tons of snow. Etc. The UK has, well, nothing. ****ty gloom and showers.

TL;DR The UK is a climatic hellhole.