Is the weather in Great Britain really that bad?

Today’s topic is possibly one of the most neutral discussion themes I could write about, yet conversely an important one too. I’m certain you have often heard or used yourself, the classic rhetorical phrase, ‘it’s a lovely day, isn’t it? It’s a wonderful way to start a conversation with a stranger, or to avoid silence during small talk.

One stereotype of England is that it always rains. Certainly, we do get our fair share of the wet stuff, but always?! I remember back to a time when I worked at a language school, a fellow teacher stormed into the staff room, without greeting any of us, and began typing wildly on the keyboard of the only PC we had that was connected to the internet – well, it was the late 1990s! I was mildly curious to know the reason my colleague was so irked and learnt that one of his students had had the audacity to criticise the weather in London. In the following 5 minutes, he accessed websites to get the requisite information he needed to defend the honour of his home city. In a few clicks he had ascertained that although our capital had over 100 rainy days per annum, it actually had less rainfall than Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon and even Rome. Admittedly, the amount of sunshine we get is less than the aforementioned cities, but the point in question was rainy weather.

Perhaps one of the reasons for foreigners’ perception of British weather is that the first idiom most learn is ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’, which indicates heavy rain. Like most idioms, the etymology is unclear, but one plausible explanation, which has been deemed false by linguists, is that on rainy days in the 16^th century, cats and dogs that had bedded down on straw roofs, fell off due to the sudden slippery surface. The experts claim that it is unlikely that the animals would seek shelter outside and moreover, thatched roofs were naturally water resistant and therefore not greasy. However, the imagery of the poor pets falling to the floor is what I think about when we have a heavy rain shower.

I leave you today with some of the possibly lesser-known vocabulary you can use to talk about the weather.

Adjectives

Chilly – uncomfortably or unpleasantly cold

Cloudy – covered with or characterised by clouds

Foggy – full of or characterized by fog

Hazy – covered by a haze

Frosty – very cold, with frost forming on surfaces

Misty – full of, covered with, or accompanied by mist

Bright – giving out or reflecting much light; shining

Blazing – very hot

Drizzling –raining lightly

Gloomy – dark or poorly lit; not

Blustery – characterised by strong winds

Muggy – unpleasantly warm and humid

Overcast – marked by a covering of grey cloud; dull

Humid – marked by a relatively high level of water vapour in the atmosphere

Balmy – characterised by pleasantly warm weather

Nouns

Precipitation – rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to or condenses on the ground

Flood – an overflow of a large amount of water beyond its normal limits, especially over what is normally dry land

Downpour – a heavy fall of rain

Drought – a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water

Drizzle – light rain falling in very fine drops

Condensation – water which collects as droplets on a cold surface when humid air is in contact with it

Dew – tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night, when atmospheric vapour condenses

Gust – a sudden strong rush of wind

Gale – a very strong wind

Hail – pellets of frozen rain