to ask you all for positive (or at least realistic) stories about Manchester/University Of Manchester?

[PrivacyShutter]

I’m panicking a bit about DD starting Uni in September. We’re from down south and the vibe feels so different up there. Not in a bad way at all, just very different. I know I’m seeing it through my middle-aged eyes, but I keep reading about the crime rates and the constant rain, and it’s making me anxious! Please help me see it in a more positive light. (I’m being upbeat with DD, but I’d like to actually feel that positivity myself.)

Certainly not.

I know, thanks. All I am saying is to get a good raincoat.

I spent a lot of time there as a student despite studying elsewhere - the live music and galleries were always worth the train travel. Had nothing but good experiences. Then worked in quite a deprived bit for a year or so post graduation and still felt safe and happy, and learned loads. All some time ago now but the students I teach who’ve gone on to study there have all had a fab time too and the uni is excellent.

I'm a Londoner but my roots are in Liverpool.

This summer the weather in the SE has, at times, been unbearable. In the NW, it has been, according to my friends and family, "lovely". It's rarely as hot, sticky and humid as the SE and Manchester is within easy reach of stunning countryside and coastline.

This year it has hardly rained at all, few scattered showers that last a few minutes these days but apart from there was one week I remember it raining this whole summer
I was in castlefield locks at the weekend and the canals had almost dried out.

I know I was there in the 90s and I am pretty sure it rained every day!

No it didn't 🙄

It felt like it coming from the south. I think there is more cloud cover so it just felt grey and drizzly and I longed for blue skies.

The way poster Talk it's like it never rains in the the south it's just wall to wall sunshine whereas here in the north it's just wet wasteland, it's not that big of a country t have such wildly different climate, s.

Let them believe that. We certainly don't want them knowing that most of Lancashire is green, how stunning the Peaks are, or that property is much more affordable. They might come here if they find out 😉

It is though, I live in the north west - it does rain more, it is colder, damper and drizzlier. It's not that it doesn't rain down south - of course it does. But I definitely wore summer clothes more consistently and often when I lived in the South than I do now....

I love living in the north west - but there's no use pretending that the weather is the same in the south east as it is in the north west.

A lot of perception about weather depends what you're used to of course. I remember visiting Lanzarote in the Autumn and going for an early morning run in shorts only to find all the local runners were wearing tracksuits, wooly hats and gloves. It was about 16c so pleasantly warm to me but clearly cold to them!
There are North/South and East/West weather differences in the UK but they're not as extreme as some people are making out. Met Office data suggests there's at least 1mm of rain on around 150 days a year in Manchester but a lot of those are damp, drizzly days rather than ones with heavy rain. I spent most of my formative years in and around Manchester and now live in Cumbria which actually is England's wettest county but ot's not that bad and my Big Coat stays firmly on it's peg in the porch for most of the year. I expect that newcomers to Manchester University from the South East will notice that it's wetter and a bit colder than they're used to but honestly they won't need foul weather gear for their daily trek up Oxford Rd. It's a bit damp in Manchester but extreme weather conditions are rare!

London 557.4mm/yr
Manchester 1046 mm/yr

I just said people need a decent raincoat. That’s all. There are lots of brilliant things about Manchester I’m sure.

They said it HADN'T rained not that it wasn't going to
Its been very dry up here all summer with hosepipe bans just over the border from Gtr Manchester in Yorkshire so we do need some rain now

😂

There was an absolute deluge between 1993 and 1996, rained every single day without fail.
We built Arcs and people became part amphibians
Absolutely true

I went to uni in Manchester - it's a great city and no more dangerous than anywhere else!