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British Weather: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Too Hot, Too Cold, Too Wet and Too Windy"''|''Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlings''}}
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This is because it's so varied. It is not uncommon to have all four seasons in a single day.
[[
A big factor in this is prevailing winds. We have the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift from the south west, which prevents the country from getting Canada-level cold (same latitude), but also brings storms. There's also cold winds from the north.
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Britain tends to have three seasons - a cold season, a wet season, and a cold and wet season. If you're lucky, there may be a week or so of sunshine between the latter two. [[Bill Bryson]] noted seeing a forecast of 'Warm and dry, with cooler and rainy spells' and commentated that it could be printed every day, and in fact might be for all he knew, and hardly ever be wrong, and that unless you decide to go hiking up Ben Nevis in your dressing gown, you can probably get away with wearing the same thing all year round. Provided it comes with a hood.
In seriousness, Britain is a temperate country. Breaking the 30 degrees Celsius level occurs once or twice year and 40 is unheard of (the UK record is 38.5 degrees in Kent in 2003). If it gets hot, expect at least one [[British Newspapers|paper]] to have photographs of bikini-clad
Heavy snow is rare (snow of any sort is rare in cities outside of Scotland, and it's pretty scarce there too) and occurs once or twice a year. Icy roads are a more common problem, with associated light snow. If it actually snows in any significant amount, expect traffic chaos and wall-to-wall news coverage. Whenever it snows in ''[[
The most obvious thing anyone notices is the rain. Virtually every day, somewhere will have a downpour. If you look at the weather forecast for [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Wales]] on any given day, it predicts rain. The East Coast is supposed to be drier, but even there it's not exactly dry. Get two or three days of hot weather and a thunderstorm will generally finish it off. [[Wimbledon]] is a case in point, and rain (or bad light) is a frequent play-stopper in cricket. [[The Beautiful Game|Football]], on the other hand... only if the pitch is too frozen to play on, or actually flooded, is a match called off. [[Rugby Is Slaughter|Rugby won't be called off]] for anything less than a direct meteor
It floods on occasions, especially in the Midlands. London is protected by the Thames Barrier (that thing with three sails near London City airport), although that's more against very high tides.
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It's worth noting that British (and Irish) weather is actually ''far'' more temperate than it 'should' be, due to the Gulf Stream, and this is sometimes pointed out by commentators. Without the Gulf Stream, the British Isles would have a similar climate to Winnipeg, which is at the same latitude as the Isle of Wight. [[Did Not Do the Research|On the other hand however, Canada is colder than it should be as well, due to no natural barriers to the cold arctic winds straight from the North Pole.]] The warming effect of the Gulf Stream allows tropical plants to flourish in Wales and on occasion be grown as far north as Scotland.
One aspect of British and Irish weather that's often overlooked by writers used to lower latitudes is that the days are very long in the summer and very short in the winter. This is especially the case in northern Scotland, but is true of the UK and Ireland in general. There's no "midnight sun" like in the polar regions, but 10 pm sun can be expected in midsummer. This has led to some degree of [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness]] here on Earth: Britain's [[A Touch of Class, Ethnicity, and Religion|substantial]] [[
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