To prefer a summer of rain to summer heatwave if we have to choose between the extremes?

[WeWantSweet]

At least we still have the bright mornings and the light nights and if I get damp it's because I haven't rainproofed myself..

YABU, we have ten months of cool, cloudy, rainy weather. I bloody hate it! Last week I had my heating on it was so damn cold. I’m sick to death of it. Doesn’t have to be boiling hot though, just mid-20s, sunny and no cloud or wind. Yesterday was quite nice here; warm and sunny but it’s rained overnight and is noticeably cooler and more rain clouds.

Pretty much the majority of staff (we work outside) have had their winter coats on the last few weeks. It’s just so miserable and there’s no joy in going for walks or visiting the nearby coastal towns when it’s like this.

Too much rain is also detrimental to farmers/gardeners. In the ‘summer’ of 2015 I was living in Kent and there were loads of fields of rotting crops that had to be destroyed as the fields were waterlogged and crops ruined. It’s also horrendous to drive in, coming home from work the other night we were down to about 40 on the motorway as the rain was that heavy.

I think it's far easier and nicer to have days out in cooler, greyer weather. No sunburn, no getting hot and sweaty if we do something more strenuous, not having to cart around masses of water bottles or wear sunhats.

YABU. Bring back last years sunshine. It's been consistently raining for ages here now, with below average temperatures for the time of year. Apart from a couple of sunny days at Easter it feels that we went straight from spring into autumn.
I live in an area of above average rainfall anyway, and I'm well fed up with it all the rain now.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/27/heatwave-made-more-than-twice-as-likely-by-climate-change-scientists-find

I think it's far easier and nicer to have days out in cooler, greyer weather. No sunburn, no getting hot and sweaty if we do something more strenuous, not having to cart around masses of water bottles or wear sunhats.

Agreed. Also, one of my toddler's favourite things on earth to do is splash about in puddles.

Same here newaccount. It's also bemusing the number of MNers who get so utterly outraged that anyone might voice their dislike of a type of weather said MNer prefers.

We get enough rain in the Winter. I want sun in the Summer. Otherwise we'll have boring, grey, drab weather all year round. The variety of the weather is one of the UK's USPs and what has made the country what it is in terms of geography, geology, etc. The very different four seasons is something I really enjoy.

you must live in a part of the country that is dryer and brighter than where I live. The default here (Pennine South Yorkshire) really is cool, grey and damp for most of the year

Yes, I'm on the East Kent coast/London. So none of us should really be stating our personal experience of the weather as fact for the whole country.

This whole argument is so weird though. Why are people offended by it? I do hate summer and temperatures above 21ish but I don't care if other people like them. I don't get affronted by people saying they hate all the rest of the year when I like it, it's just a difference of opinion. But the summer lovers seem to be so upset by people not enjoying heat and sun.

But the summer lovers seem to be so upset by people not enjoying heat and sun.

Quite, especially when they spend the entire rest of the year moaning about the weather.

I quite accept others like hot weather. But I don't like it myself, I get as depressed in hot weather as others get in rain.

I find the widespread assumption in the media that we are all desperate for hot weather a bit irritating. I accept that most do like it and that I'm in a minority. I find the hatred some on MN have for us heat-haters quite perplexing, its not as if are actually able to influence the weather, we're just stating a preference.

But the summer lovers seem to be so upset by people not enjoying heat and sun

And like it's somehow the summer haters fault we're having rain!

Perfectly acceptable to moan about the rain and freezing cold,ice,snow but moan about the heat and YABU!

Yup.

Light rain with heat.

If it's cold, continuous rain I feel miserable and the kids are stuck inside.

And like it's somehow the summer haters fault we're having rain!

Perfectly acceptable to moan about the rain and freezing cold,ice,snow but moan about the heat and YABU!

Exactly!

YABU

I'd like a bit of in between please - warm sunny days (mid 20's) and light rain over night - on the odd week day - I didn't mind the heat last year but I did struggle to sleep through it - but I had grey damp dull weather

I've had to spend hours working in the garden, attacking weeds which are so bad because last year it was too hot and the ground was too hard to do anything!

The weeds lift out so easily though - last year they all kept breaking off, this year I've been able to keep my allotment clear very easily.

So the forecast for today was sunny. Well yes it was at 8am! I dared to put a wash on but it clouded over at about 9am and has looked like rain ever since. The temperature, which was not very high to start with, has also dropped.

I just feel so fed up with it now and long for some sun and preferably more than a couple of days although even 1 day would be nice

Mmm the unpredictability of it and the forecasts being so continually wrong is getting on my tits.

But the summer lovers seem to be so upset by people not enjoying heat and sun.

I'm not upset that people don't enjoy summer. It grates a bit when people moan about summer before we have even had one, or had a few days of hot weather.

Imagine if you had a hot summer pretty much all year round. How shit that would be for you. When people moan about it because they have to put up with their unliked weather for a few weeks a year I think how lucky they are and they have no idea what it is like to get weather you hate for the majority of the year.

I am probably unreasonable to feel that way, but I do. When SAD is an issue for you and summer brings so much more happiness and motivation you look forward to the summer massively, and we don't even know if we are guaranteed to have a nice one. Summer haters know the heat won't last and they will soon get their shit weather back.

It's not hatred. I am bloody envious that you get the weather you like the majority of the time when I am sitting looking at the pissing down rain still wearing winter clothes, desperate for some bloody heat and sun. You get the weather you want the majority of the time , you are bloody lucky.

Last summer was not a few weeks of hot weather. Last summer was, from June to August in the south east, consistently no rain at all, blazing sunshine in the high twenties to mid thirties.

No it wasn’t into August, it was over by July because I remember it got cooler when my children broke up for summer holidays. Summer usually is June - August though, so hardly surprising is it?!!

And it wasn’t into the mid-30’s! It was in the high 20’s with a breeze most of the time.

The constant rain is so depressing! Absolutely hate it and am longing for some sunshine.

And it wasn’t into the mid-30’s! It was in the high 20’s with a breeze most of the time

It might've been where you live,was much hotter where I live.

The constant rain is so depressing!

I find the relentless merciless sun depressing and boring. The stickiness, the hot night when you can’t sleep, the sauna like conditions on the tube and on the trains.

No it wasn’t into August, it was over by July because I remember it got cooler when my children broke up for summer holidays

This is an interesting point about perception. I remember it as being hideously hot all the way through to September but I just checked my Facebook and my massive rant about it being 31 inside the house at nighttime was indeed early July. I have a couple of photos of the DC in shorts but long-sleeved tops from August so it must have been a bit cooler.

I think we all just remember the weather how we don't like it. So I remember last year's heatwave lasting far longer than it did and the summer lovers remember it being grey and wet for months on end without a break. All of us skewed in our perception.