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

[DilemmaADay]

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.

(Forgot to say, I’m in Lancashire, so I suppose I’m used to shit weather!)

We've actually had a really unusually dry winter and large parts of the country are in drought. This is what made me feel depressed because it certainly doesn't feel like we've had a drought.

Thanks for all the support 😊I might join the PP in the garden in Cornwall, that sounds lovely, and the PP with the ducks. Anyone want to swap for Bradford 😅?

I certainly don't miss the blazing summer of 2022 where it was 40oc, I'd be more than content with a few days of 26oc, a light breeze and a good BBQ

Yep, it makes me feel a bit frumpy too. All waterproofs and walking boots instead of sandals and nice floaty outfits!

Its one of the reasons I love going somewhere warm on holiday, especially if it’s somewhere warm in the evening.

I don’t find the autumn too bad, but Jan - March isn’t fun. We once took a days leave together to go to London in June and it was 12 degrees and pissed it down, got cold and soaked. Not fun.

No. I lived in a country where it was hot 24/7. Often way too hot - 40 plus degrees.

The landscape was so scorched and dull to look at. Absolutely no variety or colour - just a dull greyish yellow as far as the eye could see. No vegetation or nature.

So hot you couldn’t go outside. We had a beach literally on our doorstep but even that would be too hot - the sand as you stood out of the back door would literally scorch your feet. Trying to sleep was often a nightmare.

When I got back to the UK I realised how gorgeous the green plants, fields and woods were. How picturesque the countryside was.

After that I promised never to complain about the British weather - I was 9!

'I certainly don't miss the blazing summer of 2022 where it was 40oc, I'd be more than content with a few days of 26oc, a light breeze and a good BBQ'

Same here. I'm absolutely dreading the summer this year

I generally enjoy Winter, but even I'm getting bored of scarves and jumpers. I get why people are sick of looking at the pissing rain. It's still only early Spring though - it's normal for the weather to be all over the place at this time of year. We'll get there!

Yes, I have realised that not long after moving to UK. Its been 8 years I still struggle to adpet with the weather here.

Pepole who grow up here might have different expectations and experiences. My friends told me they like UK spring and summer etc, but for me, there is really nothing to look forward to in terms of seasons. Winter is way to long and summer is so short.

I start wearing jackets from end of Sep to almost May, heating is on most of time of the year, no sun, grey, damp, muddy everywhere. Even in summer, mornings and evenings can still be so cold. I remember having putting fireplaces on in Aug on holiday!

Im fed up with costant putting coats, scarves, hats, and boots on and taking them off. I dont mind cold temperature, but the lack of the sun is really killing me.

I dont even want to spend summer holiday in the uk, so many times I have booked for a few holidays ended up with less than a handful of good days.

We moved here because of hubbys work, but we are seriously considering moving again.

This is very true, we did have some dreadful storms, we do seem to have had relatively calm winds this year, my garden is very grateful for this.

It’s pissed down non stop round us. All our parched dams, reservoirs and rivers are overflowing now. And they were really low last summer.

Yeah, I'm utterly fed up of it to the point of feeling quite down. I don't think I've known a winter to feel this long before, and the heating prices don't help. I've checked the weather forecast and for weeks it's shown nothing but rain (north-west). I'm sick of putting waterproofs on to walk dogs and then hose them off and then dry them. It's so much easier to feel positive about things when the sun is out.

That's good at least. Maybe they'll figure out how to dump that water to us in the SE. Or figure out a way to stop it all from evaporating when the heatwaves come back.

@DilemmaADay Cornwall, Devon and East Anglia are still in drought. It's really bad news for crops and food prices. I'm really hoping for the rain to continue in the SE and for the SW to get more of it. We just need some balance really. It's either drought or flood, neither are good for food production or mood.

After 25 years here, we’re moving abroad next year because of the climate. I can’t cope with the rain and the constant cold. The menopause has just upped the ante. I’ve truly gone into a state of mental collapse over the climate here. I’ve gone from having a good moan to seriously having no coping reserves left. It makes me so sad too because I will miss the UK terribly. But I don’t want to have to pill pop my way through ceaseless sad weather. And I really don’t want to grow old in such a cold place. Where we’re moving to will piss me off in plenty of ways but… the sun! The sun!

Yup.

We lived overseas for a few years where the winters were brutal (but everything was set up to deal with it) and the spring, summer and fall were months and months of sunshine and living live outside.

I actually find it really difficult to look at photos of that time because it just makes me want to cry about how different our lives are in the UK.

I'm on multiple threads atm bemoaning the weather, because I loathe winter and all its evil doings. However I'm delighted to say it's currently warm enough in my back garden for me to do a tiny bit of gardening, and now sit and have a coffee. 😃

I'm no sun worshipper (team spf50 here) but I had a few days in a sunnier country over Christmas and realised that the UK's greyness really affects my posture - add warmth and I'm at least an inch taller

This is a thing!! I had a drama teacher at uni tell me I had "typical north east posture" - apparently we tend to naturally hunch over, as a way of protecting ourselves from the biting cold winds off the North Sea.

He was a fellow Geordie and had spent years training himself out of it.

@TheVanguardSix
Just out of interest, where are you moving to?
It’s something I am seriously considering, I’m single, kids grown up and no elderly parents or relatives to care for and I’m sick of being cold for 8 months a year.

Does seem to have been quite grey this winter but it's been a gorgeous sunny day here in the North East. I did have to scrape the windscreen this morning though. The lambs are starting to appear in the fields and the daffodils are out but I think the forecast is for rain. Mild and wet is my least favourite weather. I don't mind the cold if it's sunny.

It's the low light levels that get me. I'm in the southwest but I notice the difference when I visit relations in East Anglia.

No the weather doesn't make me feel bad.

I welcome the winter for dog walking in comfy boots and a puffa jacket just as much as I welcome the summer for no mud on the dogs paws.

I take every opportunity to be outside during the day. I walk at 5am everyday with a headtorch in the Winter and in the summer I watch the sunrise on the same walk. At lunchtime I walk for 30 mins in spite of what the weather is doing.

I'm home from work early today and sitting out with a drink in a sunny spot and the laundry has dried on the washing line.

In January I told myself spring was on the way and sat in th garden when the temperature was 9deg with a glass of rose and my anorak on!

I love all the seasons. Sounds twee but I mean it. I live in the countryside and I love watching the seasons change.

One word answer. Yep.

I live in the east of England and its been quite nice here. Its spring though it rains a lot that's how it works, April showers and all that although aparently it was the driest February for years so I'm sure the ground needs the rain. The clocks have changed so it'll be lighter in the evenings now and getting warmer

We have friends in Malawi who have had entire villages destroyed by storm Freddy and have no running water or electricity and the threat of another huge Cholera outbreak... it could be worse

Yes which is why I’m leaving soon for sunnier skies.

No.
It seems really strange to me that on a country where we have heating, shelter and suitable clothing people seem just as obsessed with the weather as they must have been hundreds of years ago.