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Original poster

Does the UK weather make you feel like shit...

200 replies

DilemmaADay · 27/03/2023 13:36

This is a bit of a rant, but just wanted to sound out here and see if anyone else feels the same.
I'm just honestly fed up with the weather in the UK at the moment. In the North we haven't had one consecutive week where it's not rained and been grey. We have a bit of sun at the moment, but it's decieving as it's freezing once you step outside.
Me and DH only have one day a fortnight off together and it always seems to rain, so plans for nice long walks and brunches get replaced by staying in with Netflix. A lot of MNers would tell me to donn my waterproofs and embrace the weather, but I can't imagine anything worse than trudging through the pissing rain, wrapped up to the eyeballs in waterproofs
I have some nice summer clothes bought for holidays, find myself wearing the same five outfits in rotation which involves jumpers waterproof boots and tights. I feel frumpy and dowdy and I'm only 34.
Someone once mentioned the drinking culture in the UK, which I think has largely to do with the weather here as well. We're not like the Mediterranean's who can sit having 2 hour antipasti lunches outside with a glass of wine. It's a good life style, but I think the weather on top of everything that's gone on these past few years like Covid, cost of living increases, etc is making a lot of people miserable.
I don't think I have SAD, as I don't think sitting in front of the bright light would make me feel better. I want to feel the sun on my skin, be able to go for a walk where you're not packing for 15 weather changes and be able to eat outside just for once.

OP posts:
Platoo · 27/03/2023 13:52

Yup, it's been a particularly long, cold, wet winter I think, and spring is taking a long time to appear so it's not just you.

Pasadenadreaming · 27/03/2023 13:54

Absolutely not just you. We really only have Sundays as a day to do something together and you can bet your bottom dollar that Sunday will be grey and miserable. It really does get you down! Saying that, the sun is shining here today and I can see signs of spring at last so I am hopeful that better things are on the way.

I used to live in California and I miss the weather there so much. The way you live when it's warmer and sunnier is just so different.

ErinAndTonic · 27/03/2023 13:56

Yep. It's been grim and never ending. Although the sun seems to be making its way out a bit more.

I'll still be glad to be in Asia in a few days though! 😅

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Weather
megletthesecond · 27/03/2023 14:01

Yes. I can't stand the grey and damp.
Funnily enough I'm OK with snow as at least it's pretty and you can go sledging. The endless grey does my head in though. Roll on summer.

WaterIsGood · 27/03/2023 14:01

Funny enough I feel the opposite! I'm in the South East and we barely had any rain last year, reservoir levels were low, and talks of another scorching summer, global warming etc makes me anxious. It's only really this month we've had plenty of rain and it's felt like a huge relief!

I work with a lot of people in the US and Middle East who are permanently in a draught, and haven't had rain for months on end, it's a constant worry for them, so I feel pretty lucky!

JassyRadlett · 27/03/2023 14:03

I'm with you. I just want to be warm, and have the sun on my skin.

JamSandle · 27/03/2023 14:04

If we had a decent spring and summer it would make a huge difference. The winter is tolerable when you know there will be blue skies, light evenings, warmth. This is why Brits go wild abroad 🤣

teddybearsbear · 27/03/2023 14:05

Absolutely agree

I long for the days where I can go out in a shirt or even a sweatshirt without the layering and wrapping up. Completely sick of wearing the same jumpers on rotation

Don't even long for tropical heat just warm enough for nicer clothes and being able to have a cuppa in the garden!!

frozendaisy · 27/03/2023 14:06

I quite like seasons but this spring, oh lord, just want the temperature to start to rise now and not dip right back down.

Almost thought we were done with school jumpers, but they are still on this week.

DivineAffliction · 27/03/2023 14:06

Admittedly this has been a grim winter, but I found the climate far more depressing when I lived in the Middle East where there were no seasons other than ‘unbearably hot’ ‘hot’ and ‘less hot’, no rain, virtually no naturally-occurring vegetation that wasn’t the result of environmentally disastrous irrigation, the sun rose and set at the same time all year round, and you opened your eyes to the same hot, dry weather day after day. It rained twice in the two years I lived there.

OffToThatPlace · 27/03/2023 14:07

Yes, this winter seems to have gone on forever here in the SW. It is still cold and damp where I am, and any warm sunshine doesn't last for long - like the 5 minutes of it which came in through my window at lunchtime and was lovely to sit in.

Can't wait to put away the jumpers, leggings and winter coats, but the long range forecast isn't showing much change over the next few weeks.

But previous years have been similar and had a heatwave in the summer - e.g. 2018.

TiddlySquats · 27/03/2023 14:09

I used to feel the same, it was one of the reasons I went to work in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. Endless sun and sand, what could be better?
The novelty soon wore off.
I missed the British weather, and the changing seasons so much. Now I love going for long muddy dog walks in the rain, imagining the heat and and sand and flies in SA and glad I'm not there!

SallyWD · 27/03/2023 14:09

I don't think the winter was actually that bad this year. I'm in Yorkshire and January was okish, February was lovely and Spring like. March has felt more like winter than winter did! But last week we had plenty of days in the teens which is above average for March. Today is chilly but beautifully sunny. I don't know... I'm OK with the weather here. Last summer was glorious, actually too hot at times.
I spend a lot of time in southern Europe because of family and I think I prefer our climate. Their winters are miserable - temperatures not as low as here but they don't have heating so I'm actually freezing in their houses during the nights. In Spring it can rain for days on end - much more dramatically than the showers we have here. Then in Summer it can get to the high 30s which is uncomfortably got for me. Last summer I spent the whole of August there and was absolutely sick of getting sunburnt despite wearing factor 50 - and sick of being dazzled by the sun e ery single day. Even with my sunglasses I was squinting because of the sun! They don't have rain for months in the summer and everything looks barren and brown. Also have lots of forest fires etc.

Anonhopingforbaby · 27/03/2023 14:10

Not just you.

Try and get a sunlight lamp and a vitamin D & B12 supplement and try and get through it. It's brutal.

Schmutter · 27/03/2023 14:13

I was looking on my phone at photos of this time last year and we were on the patio having drinks 🤔 We’ve not had any nice weather here yet this year (SE).

BUT! All my muscari are out and there are buds all over the wisteria. We have ducks and they are extremely frisky - spring must be coming, surely.

fizzykoalablanket · 27/03/2023 14:15

Come to Cornwall, I'm currently sat soaking up the sun in my back garden, it's a beautiful day 🙂

FourTeaFallOut · 27/03/2023 14:16

I think our winters seems worse when spring drags its heels but I'm grateful that our summers are more comfortable than those countries with milder winters.

Coastalvenues · 27/03/2023 14:17

I'm fine with it, so glad we don't live in a country of extremes, I wouldn't want to live permanently in Southern Europe, the drought and fires are only going to get worse over the coming decades. We need rain and so lucky to have it, water is so precious. I do get the desire for spring and summer though, seasons are a good thing in the whole.

Cornwallintherain · 27/03/2023 14:17

Yes!! It's horrid.

MagpiePi · 27/03/2023 14:18

I’m with you OP.
Hate the cold and damp and relentless grey, dull, dreariness.
I understand the complete opposite you get in the Middle East can be equally as wearing, but that doesn’t stop people being miserable here.

Just waiting for all the ‘but I hate hot weather’ or ‘but I love snuggling (🤢) up in a fluffy jumper with a hot chocolate by the fire’ type responses.

xogossipgirlxo · 27/03/2023 14:18

I might be very self involved, but I barely notice the weather 😂It's not too bad for me, winter wasn't too cold either and not too many rainy days now (Yorkshire).

Cornwallintherain · 27/03/2023 14:19

Although I'd rather mizzle than tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis and extreme forest fires...

LadyVictoriaSponge · 27/03/2023 14:21

megletthesecond · 27/03/2023 14:01

Yes. I can't stand the grey and damp.
Funnily enough I'm OK with snow as at least it's pretty and you can go sledging. The endless grey does my head in though. Roll on summer.

Yes it’s the endless grey, the ‘non weather’ I can’t abide, I love the sun, I love the dark heavy rain, I love snow, I just cannot stand that lifeless, relentless grey.

PenelopeTheShroudWeaver · 27/03/2023 14:21

I'm with you OP. I live in the North East and it's just been shit 😔

The worst part is that I actually chose to move to this country, but I'm now wondering what possessed me.

I'm currently planning my escape, but it will take a few years, sadly

GiantKitten · 27/03/2023 14:24

Although it has been a long cold damp winter, we had none of those awful named storms like last year, with gales and floods and all the damage they do.
While the continuing chill is depressing, and I am dying for it to be warm enough to sit out, at least all the bulbs are flowering now (& will for a while), and perennials are budding like mad.
It WILL get warmer 🥰