To think it is mercilessly cold and damp in Cumbria?!

[Pheasantlysurprised]

I lived there for 4 years, had moved further north from Cheshire, and the climate came as a shock to me.
Yeh yeh, im a bit of a soft touch and do feel the cold easily, but wtf that was a steep learning curve. Even in dry, sunny spring weather (not including midsummer) I still felt damp and freezing, and within a fortnight of moving there had packed up most of my everyday clothes (wool, winter skirt, tights, cashmere, etc) and had to swap them for tightly sealed puffer coats and thermal waterproof leggings .
Became a walking ad for mountain warehouse and Fjallraven.

I spent 4 years trussed up like a sausage, swaddled in hiking gear, tog obsessed and running up a disaster of an annual fuel bill.

The place is so, so beautiful, I love the people and miss it very much, but am hesitant to ever move back because of the weather. I like rain and my favourite season is winter, but christ that was something else.

Im now a bit further south since the pandemic and looking to move again, and not sure what to do.
Can the climate really put you off a place?
I am self employed wfh so location is flexible, but currently don't drive. I really liked it up there but honestly feel depressed about returning due to this.

That's a beautiful description @liveforsummer

I must admit I love fog.

God yes, the climate can put you off a place!

Every time I have been to the Lake District, the weather changes the second you turn off the motorway. Grim.

I heard it has a microclimate of it’s own up there. You can tell because the buildings are so damp-looking. So grey. Last time we went it rained incessantly for three days. It was 19 degrees and in London it was 35 degrees and had been like that for weeks. In fact, most of England was scorching that week - only Cumbria was in the fog!

I’ve heard Western Scotland is even worse! I don’t know why anyone would choose to live in these places, to be honest. Weather really affects to your mood and energy levels.

You might like Herefordshire OP. It’s beautiful in winter (and the rest of the year) but I don’t remember it as being particularly damp. Apparently annual rainfall in Scotland has increased by about 10% in the last few decades so definitely don’t come here

@StoneofDestiny

Yorkshire is one of the coldest, dampest and rain filled places I've ever lived and I've lived all over the UK

Have you lived in Manchester?

I grew up in the west of Scotland and went to university in the north east, because I was told it wasn't as damp.

They didn't mention the ice-cold wind that blows through you.

Swings and roundabouts, innit?

I have to agree the west coast of Scotland is very damp.
Yorkshire was cold, often foggy in winter but at least dry much of the time. There was flooding but not perpetual drizzle.

When I first arrived in Yorkshire everyone told me I'd be used to the cold and the biting wind coming from Scotland.
I explained a lot about the Gulf Stream and having palm trees on our promenade.

We have a temperate climate - which is pretty good really as many countries are too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter so if your hobby is hill walking, cycling this is the place to be as you can do it year round. (as long as you don't mind rain)

I grew up in the West of Scotland, the Arrochar Alps were on my doorstep and I ador walking. I honestly think the west coast of Scotland is the most beautiful scenery imaginable and I adore it. But I would never live there again - the rain and the midges and in summer the two often combine.

I now live in Perthshire and it is lovely, obviously not as beautiful but I enjoy the outdoors more with less rain/bitten to death. The Black Isle, although far north, is similarly lovely, with relatively little rainfall for Scotland, it is the one other area I would live in.

Damp cold is a special kind of cold and misery, I love a chilly day and am not bothered about warm weather, but the damp that sinks into your bones and soul is miserable.

I’m always shocked by how much wetter it is in the NW than the NE, even though I know that’s how it is it surprises me every time.

You can tell because the buildings are so damp-looking. So grey. The buildings are grey because that's the local stone. They wouldn't magically turn into honey coloured Cotswold stone if the sun shone more.

We were there a couple of weeks ago and driving through Kendal thought it looked like a really nice place to live (mind you, we're Scottish West Coast so used to the weather).

The most miserable I've ever been is sitting at a bus stop in the drizzle and biting East coast wind in Edinburgh. At least it doesn't get so cold in Glasgow.

And we don't get the haar in the West which is a pain in the arse in the summer.

(Pain in the arse getting it that is. I like waking up to sunny mornings, few and far between they might be).

I wouldn’t live in Cumbria or Lancashire again; bitterly cold damp, driving rain, even when it’s not raining the damp chill seems to get in. I’ve lived all over the Lakes, found the climate depressing. Much happier on the south coast!

I went to Lancaster Uni and I used to say every time I drove past Manchester it started raining and didn't stop! When I later moved to Birmingham I really noticed how much less it rained. I've lived in the North East as well, both Tyneside and Dundee and found it colder and windier but definitely drier.

@MamsellMarie

We have a temperate climate - which is pretty good really as many countries are too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter so if your hobby is hill walking, cycling this is the place to be as you can do it year round. (as long as you don't mind rain)

Oh yes. I lived in Pennsylvania for a couple of years. Too darned hot in summer, too darned cold in winter. Below zero is in F°. Spring didn't really seem to be a thing, it just went from too cold to to hot overnight. There would be some nice weather in the Fall. As to rain - I'd often thought rain in films looked unrealistic, it was obviously coming from a hose. Until I lived in PA.... it really does bucket down worse than anything I've experienced in the U.K. Then there were the massive hailstones...

I live in one of the mildest parts of the UK, officially. And I am an absolute snowflake as a result. If I go north of even Watford I start to shiver.

Manchester has its own special microclimate of mainly rain. I can’t remember seeing a dry day when I lived there, it’s wet in the slaked but at least it’s beautifully wet and always somewhere gorgeous to look rather than at wet high rise buildings.

I kind of like rain, and I adore the poetic gloom of cumbria, it suits ,e so well. My most enduring memories of autumn and winter are from my time there, but the cold really did wear me down a bit.

Sometimes just walking around kendal made me feel as if my fingers were going to snap off. It's true about the damp - there were many, many months were it didnt even rain and the damp was still murderous.

There are lots of lovely little villages outside of Carlisle but if im afraid of kendal I might just wither away up there! Sad because I do love them. I wonder if it is less damp away from the valleys.....

It’s not.

It's definitely the damp. I lived in a country that had proper cold -20 and lower winters but it didn't feel like it seeped into your bones the way British cold does. I always felt warm again when I went in whereas here you have to slowly thaw out and warm back up.

@Pheasantlysurprised

I kind of like rain, and I adore the poetic gloom of cumbria, it suits ,e so well. My most enduring memories of autumn and winter are from my time there, but the cold really did wear me down a bit.

Sometimes just walking around kendal made me feel as if my fingers were going to snap off. It's true about the damp - there were many, many months were it didnt even rain and the damp was still murderous.

There are lots of lovely little villages outside of Carlisle but if im afraid of kendal I might just wither away up there! Sad because I do love them. I wonder if it is less damp away from the valleys.....

The bottom line really OP is that the climate in this part of the world just doesn't suit you does it? It doesn't really matter what other people think, it's what you find enjoyable that counts. I'm a bit perplexed by your description of Cumbrian weather as I don't find it bad really. I'm still cycling in shorts at the moment as it's too warm for tights still, and I don't even own clothing like you describe in your first post but that doesn't make me right and you wrong - we're just different. The weather does vary a bit across the county. You'll probably find it a little bit drier but windier say on the Solway plain compared to in the middle of the Lakes but it won't be massively different. And living in a village outside on the main tourist areas without driving would be very difficult. There is one bus per week through our village, which takes you to the nearest small town and gives a couple of hours before you get the return bus. I love where I live, but without a car it would be very difficult - you'd potentially be stuck in the village for long periods in this weather that gets you down. It sounds a bit like you are trying to persuade yourself that it would be ok, but really it's just not right for you. I hope you find somewhere that suits you better.

You need to get nearer to the west coast. Then you get the eighteen different varieties of rain and also the driving gales off the Irish Sea.

Love how the northern word nesh actually sounds like someone who is soaked through and pissed off.

Aye, get ye to Barrow and enjoy the biting wind as well as the rain. It generally a couple of degrees warmer than the Lakes