To have a rant about the weather?

[Michiru]

Probably, because it's November and it's been done to death, but I am so bloody sick and tired of the continuous rain and greyness.

It's been pissing it down on and off since the end of June where I am (and even in June it's only been 2 weeks of sun, before that more grey and rain), with only brief respite in early September. The ground is so saturated with water it's trying to come in from under my house. I did some early garden prep in spring and most plants have been completely ruined this year. My crabapple tree bore one single apple all year.

Car parks and roads in town are regularly flooded.

I already have the heating on so much I'm dreading my October bill, just to stave off the damp, because it makes barely any difference trying to air the house with the humidity outside. It gets cold in the house really quickly when it's raining.

My washing has to be line dried (no space for a tumble dryer) so I rely on the odd day where it doesn't rain. Today was meant to be that day and yet it's just started raining again.

I am affected by SAD and yes, I use the SAD light as instructed, but if I already need the full recommended time in early November I am dreading what the winter will do to my needs for bright light. I can't afford a holiday to go away. I go out despite the rain to try and catch some light but it's not fun.

Yes, there are greater problems, but honestly, I can't be the only one whose mental health is taking a massive tumble with the weather.

I’m really sorry, it sounds awful, but where do you live? It doesn’t feel like it’s been like that where we are (Surrey / London). Flooding is often a very localised thing too. Some places are a lot greyer than others. My DH is from the south coast and often complains that it’s not sunny enough here but I’m from the north west and it always seems great to me in comparison!

It has been a particularly rubbish summer this year OP, we've had similar weather. Where I live it is generally grey and dark for 5+ months over autumn and winter, but when you don't even get a bit of respite over summer it does take a toll.

I take vitamin D, which I think helps, and I'm considering buying a SAD lamp like you use. I have a dog to walk which helps force you out even in the rain. Do you live in an older house? It must be tricky with the heating and the damp. Can you use a launderette to help dry clothes? Might be cheaper than using radiators, and would reduce the damp in your house.

Yeah, I concur, the weather has been bloody awful. Everything is just saturated. It feels really cold and miserable with the constant rain and greyness. Usually we’d have a bit of summer to recharge our batteries, but apart from a couple of weeks in June and a week in September it’s been dismal. There seems to be hardly a day that goes by where it doesn’t rain, puting the washing out has been impossible. I can’t drive and I’m sick to death of getting wet almost every time I leave the house, it’s really got me down this year.

Yep, I agree, totally shit miserable weather

Where in the country do you live?
I agree we did have quite a lot of rain in the Summer - it started as soon as schools broke up here - but it certainly hasn't rained all the time (I'm in the Midlands).
I went abroad for a week in mid May as I desperately wanted some sunshine and when we got back we had 6 weeks of sunny weather here so I was wishing I'd saved my money on the trip abroad. Then the schools broke up and the heavens opened - although not constantly after the 1st week. We camped for a week in the South Shropshire hills and only had rain twice in the daytime. We also went to Norfolk for 5 days to visit family and had dry weather. I've dried my washing outside for all of the Summer and our newly installed solar panels have performed well since we had the installed in March - so it can't have been that bad!

Up here in Yorkshire we had cold and grey skies for most of June whilst the rest of the country was basking. I had to go out and water my garden, because it had been dry since April, but I had to do it wearing a coat and hat because it was so cold. We had ten nice days at the end of June, then it started to rain at the beginning of July and didn't stop apart from a few decent days in August. September wasn't too dreadful, a nice fortnight in October at the beginning and then rain.

I live in the Midlands.

Vitamin D might be a good shout.

Our local launderette is expensive, as I have recently had to experience when I needed to wash and dry duvets and pillows. Spent over £50 on 3 sets of bedding, so not at all feasible for weekly use.

That sound shit. Where do you live that's been that bad?

YANBU, because it is fucking raining again. Heavily. Again. Despite promises of a 0% chance of rain and clear skies from both BBC and Met Office tonight for the fireworks.

But no, I will be standing ankle deep in cold mud again, getting rained on and watching fireworks through my umbrella.

Yep, we were due to go to fireworks last night and just could not face standing in a muddy field in the rain for several hours so we went to a restaurant instead and ate huge burgers and massive chocolate cakes.

Trying to avoid giving EON all our money this winter so currently sat on my oodie (knockoff) and roasting pork and potatoes for dinner.

Vitamin D3 is what you need, I use D drops - luckily had well timed blood tests and I increased my D3 levels by almost 50% in just a few months !

Also just bought a Proper Raincoat from Seasalt (recommended on here) so I’m hoping I’ll force myself out the door for a walk whether it’s raining or not🙏🏻just incase it continues !

I’m in the East Midlands and 2023 has undoubtedly been the worst year of weather I can remember. Spring here was relentlessly cold & grey with biting north easterly winds day in, day out for weeks. Summer didn’t really happen. July, in particular was a wash out. There was a decent spell of weather in September, then it started constantly raining & it hasn’t stopped. It’s utterly miserable.

Where we are, the flooding is really bad and it’s relentlessly grey and wet.

Have you tried taking additional Vitamin D? It really helps.

I think it's the awful combination of all 3 this year - the dark that happens all the time, but exacerbated by the sheer amount of cloudy and rainy days, the constant damp from rain and humidity, and yes, the cold that lasted so long I was still putting the heating on in mid-May.

Let's hope that when winter comes, it's at least a white one (though I doubt it) to make it appear brighter and to make it less humid overall.

I think it's called a warmer, wetter world. I'm sure I read something somewhere.... environment pages of a quality newspaper....? I think we were first informed/warned about 20 years ago.... there's a conference about to happen... COP something?.... Never mind, business as usual, damn nuisance those protestor!

Can you get a dehumidifier? If you're mostly using the heating to dry the house out then it might be cheaper than having the radiators on (disclaimer: I'm not actually sure if it would be or not)

I feel for you OP, its miserable when it rains constantly and is just so grey and dismal. Its why I'm not a fan of Autumn, despite the pretty tree colours (as you can't really enjoy looking at them when its pissing it down)

I'm not in the UK so our weather has been a bit different but last month was so much colder than usual which made me a bit miserable, and then on Halloween we got hit by heavy snow (literally snowed nonstop day and night for two days - 24cm in the first day which is really unusual for October) which may have been a change from dismal greyness and pretty to look at but its not pleasant when I rely on a bike to get around. And now its back to rain again.

Is there really a need for this?

I too live in the Midlands, today was sunny

We've had some nice weather since June, not really sure what you're on about

Because the Midlands are a large area and weather patterns can be very different depending on where exactly you live?

Glad you had sunshine. We had a glimpse, but mostly cloud and then rain. Again. I am sick of the squelch sound under my shoes when I walk across my garden.

People have ridiculously short memories and crazy expectations in relation to weather.

This year hasn’t been that odd for the UK.

shrug I've lived in the UK for over 20 years. In that time, I recall only two complete washout summers, with this year being one of the two. Most years, the cold and damp hasn't been almost continuous and where summer (mostly August) was shite, there was a nice spring or autumn to compensate. I feel we didn't have any of that this year.

YANBU op! I'm in Manchester and bar a couple of weeks in June I think, and the odd dry day here and there, it's been more or less endless grey skies and rain. I don't usually feel the clock changes too badly but this week in particular has been horrendous for me. I feel really out of sorts still. I think I'm still recovering from covid a few months ago so obvs that doesn't help, but this week the darkness is creeping in from about 2pm on the grey days and it feels so oppressive. I can really feel my mood being affected. Perhaps I need to try a SAD lamp.

I’ve lived here for 61 years and it really isn’t that rare. Also this summer wasn’t “a complete washout”. We were on holiday in Norfolk in August. It was warm and dry with some sunshine and only one short period of rain. I have spent a lot of time outside working on the garden this year - many hours of weekends out there in the dry.
It is really odd living in the UK with our well understood temperate climate and expecting it to be like somewhere else.