Thursday, 11 April 2013

The British weather - Should we be surprised?


We have just reached the start of British summertime, but should we have even bothered changing the clocks in 2013?

The rain continues to fall in this country, but should it be a surprise?
As I write this piece, my bedroom windows are taking a hammering from a tropical rainstorm, the typical type associated with April showers.  As less as two weeks ago, the estate looked like a winter paradise with snow covering roofs, cars and the pavements.

It is getting a little bit ridiculous, considering April has just begun, but in reality, should we be surprised?

This is Britain after all
This is Britain after all and frankly, nothing should surprise us about the weather.

This is the land of unpredictability.  One minute, we could be sitting outside in bright, beautiful sunshine with a magazine and listening to the top pop tunes. Then in a flash, the skies darken and the heavens open and we get reminded it was all too good to be true.

Perhaps I jinked this latest spell of bitterly cold weather.  The temperatures picked up at the beginning of March, and it became so much so, I was ready to ditch the scarf and get out the sunglasses.  I even said that on Twitter.  Oops!

This time last year, it was all so different.

March 2012 – Our summer
This time last year, I was approximately five weeks away from finishing my journalism degree at the University of Northampton.

We were going through a tropical patch, and the majority of March saw hour after hour of glorious sunshine in fresh but delightful temperatures.

It was the hottest March I can ever remember.  It felt good not having to go somewhere needing to wrap up to face the elements.

I was working so hard on my final individual project at the time, it meant I wasn’t able to enjoy sitting outside with a cold beverage at the SU bar as much as I would have liked.

Little did we know at the time, but that was practically our summer.  We had another spurt of similar weather for around 10 days in May, and the second week of the Olympic Games brought some sizzling conditions.

Then, after that – the temperature plummeted, and it just kept raining.  It started to become a shock when we had a decent day’s weather.  This year – you wonder if we will experience a summer period of bright weather.

It shouldn’t happen to a weather forecaster
It is easy to criticise the Met Office, but being a weather forecaster can’t be an easy job.  And it isn’t great to listen too, especially after another news bulletin full of depressing stories.

The great Michael Fish will always be associated with his famous forecast on the eve of the powerful storm of October 1987 – when he badly got his wires crossed about an upcoming hurricane which did cause sheer destruction.


We all enjoyed Prince Charles taking on the role of reporting the weather last year, but what else can they do?  I’m sure in a perfect world, we’d like them to grit their teeth and say we will experience hot summer days all the time, when actually there is a thunderstorm on its way to these isles, but they have to tell the truth.


And it is the British weather.  Sure, it is frustrating to see it still being so cold, but at the end of the day, we can’t control the forces of Mother Nature.

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