Just how different IS the weather?

The weather in England has always been one of those things my hubby is worried I won't be able to fully adjust to. I'm form the South in the US - were it's not hot that gets you during the summer time, it's the HUMIDITY! - so I'm use to the extreme hot of summer (105 F, almost 50 C) to the extreme cold of winter (15 F, -9 C). I've never visited the UK (looong story, although funny now) so I can only go by the numbers but it seems we have the much more severe weather than they do.

Now hubby's area does tend to get more rain than we do but even his area doesn't get as much rain as some other parts do, it's only a little more on average than we ourselves get. So my question to any Southerners living in England now or anyone, just how different was the weather for you and was it hard to adjust to in the beginning?

I'm from Dallas so I'm used to tornadoes, vicious thunderstorms, hail, powerful winds that will rip your house apart, ice and sleet storms, tropical storms, droughts, blistering heat that gave me bad heat sickness at least once every summer, dust storms (including the occasional dust devil), random and obnoxious drops and jumps in temperature (70 one afternoon then below freezing the next anyone?)... I could go on. So for me at least, I find the weather here pretty dull and consistent. I do think it's one of the things that makes Britons and Americans different. Not innately, but I do think our weather makes us a bit loony I remember listening to a lecture about a British man who did journalism in America and he spoke about a report in Las Vegas about a dust storm destroying several cars on the high way and injuring several people. "You just don't have to deal with that sort of thing in Dorset," he said.

The temperatures here, most of the time, slowly go up and go down. I think I have heard thunder here twice in the two 1/2 years I've lived here. It rains a lot but not hard rain, mostly drizzle. Forget about extremes. I live in the South East and it can get cold here but not for very long. It's -2 C now but later this week it will rise to 4-8 range, so bearable temperatures. In September, there was a 'heat wave' when the temperature rose to 80 F for three days While I definitely don't miss the dust storms, I do miss thunderstorms.

lol, so you're pretty much use to what I'm use to. :p We're in the middle now of that LOVELY weather of being 60 degrees one day and 30 the next day!

My husband has actually commented on the whole lack of thunderstorms before. I LOVE thunderstorms, so I think it will be one thing I find hard to adjust to. My cat will love it - he hates thunderstorms, lol! Hubby has felt summers here - we were in NY one June - and he was about to die. It was hot but for me it was normal June heat, ya know?

The first summer husband was here in humid stormy Ohio, the window thermometer read 110 F and he hasn't been the same since! The entire first week for him was hot. He is an annoying grump when he is hot. Even in the air-conditioning he puffs how hot is even if it is only outside.

I despise thunderstorms so I knew England had less. It does rain weird things there once in awhile like tiny frogs or sand from the Sahara and then just recently the man in the south with the blue balls...

I agree I miss thunderstorms, and a big snow storm now and the...but overall I don't mind the weather. What I found much harder to adjust to, and wasn't expecting at all, is the shorter days in the winter. Is dark so much earlier- I very much miss seeing the sun in the winter...it is dark when I go to work, and dark when I get out.

What I found much harder to adjust to, and wasn't expecting at all, is the shorter days in the winter. Is dark so much earlier- I very much miss seeing the sun in the winter...it is dark when I go to work, and dark when I get out.

Yep, I wasn't prepared for that either!  The sun rising at 8:30 am & setting by 3:30 pm in the depths of December - ugh.  On the other hand, June is brilliant - sun coming up around 4 am & it doesn't get fully dark until around 11 pm - midnight.  Both HG & I live up north though (I go by Stuart Maconie's definition of The North in Pies & Prejudice - The North begins at Crewe...though for some Londoners, it may begin at Watford Gap!).

The weather?  It's much of a muchness really.  Most of the year, temperature will be somewhere between 40-70 F, rain - some areas get more rain that others, meh.  When it's chilly here it seems colder (I think) because of the dampness.

As for how different it'll be for someone coming from the US - all depends on where you're coming from & where you're going to over here.  As for the over here bit, you'll get a different answer for someone living in Cornwall from someone living in Inverness!

I grew up & lived in Kansas for 33 years.  Kansas gets both extremes - oppressive, tending to be dry redhot (landlocked) heat in summer, cold & snowy winters.  I absolutely hated midwestern winters, and so moved to Tampa Bay, Florida, where I lived for about 6-7 years.  Loved Tampa Bay weather & all that brilliant sunshine - for me, that's like the most perfect weather there is!  Love it hot & humid in the summer, pleasantly warm 'winters', etc.

So when I moved to northern England, it was a real shock to my system - took me years to get warm, lol!  And oh how I miss all that the brilliant sunshine (average sunny days in Tampa/St Pete of 360 days per year!).  I guess I'm used to it here now - as used to it as I'll ever be, but I sure do miss long hot summers & the occasional thunderstorm wouldn't go amiss either.  Up north, we're very lucky if we get a very small handful of days each year when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees.  I feel like I have been cheated out of a proper summer pretty much every year.    And I look forward to warm weather holidays in the US, or places such as Spain or Morocco.

It was just my luck last autumn, DH and I went to the US for a holiday & family visit...we spent the first weekend of October in NYC - where it was 50s/low 60s & drizzly.  Meanwhile, over here they were having freakishly warm weather of 80+ degrees & I wasn't here to enjoy it!

Since shes moving to the Southwest, we do tend to get the best of the weather in the UK. It is the overcast-ness of most days that I think will cause depression, especially when in the south its clear blue skies 0% of the time.

Since shes moving to the Southwest, we do tend to get the best of the weather in the UK. It is the overcast-ness of most days that I think will cause depression, especially when in the south its clear blue skies 0% of the time.

Wasn't sure where she was moving to - so that'll help people give better advice! 

Where I lived in the States (Philadelphia area) the winters were just as cold as they can get here in Yorkshire, so the cold I'm used to even though I'm no fan of it. What I do miss is the hot weather in the summertime, whereas here it just sort of feels like we skip Summer and just have a really long Springtime. Most everyone, even the natives complain about the UK weather    I think it all depends on if you feel like you can adjust, I know that the climate here is quite different than the Southern part of the US, but I do know someone from Florida who's lived here for several years and actually prefers the climate here, so everyone's different in whether they can adjust or not.

Since shes moving to the Southwest, we do tend to get the best of the weather in the UK.

The southwest does get the brunt of the westerly weather systems though - so I'd say there's probably more low cloud and drizzle in the southwest than in other areas of the UK, but then it is milder and there's less in the way of things like snow and freezing temps than in the north. I'd guess that the southeast might get slightly better weather than the southwest though.

Fireheart223, definitely!  Here in Yorkshire, I find it doesn't get quite as cold here as it does in the midwestern US (and most of the time, not windy like Kansas is windy pretty much all the time - which adds to the cold), and we haven't gotten the quantities of snow that places in the US do (not since I've lived here for 8 years) - so I'm grateful for those two things!

I think there is some variation, even up north, depending on where you happen to live.  For instance, you can pretty much count on it's going to be raining in Manchester more often than not.  Cross the Pennines into Yorkshire, and it's more likely to be a bit drier over here (Pennines being a watershed area that absorbs a lot of that moisture coming off the sea from the west).

I'm just a hothouse flower, I think!  

ETA - Just remembering how excited I was - when the first time we went to Paris, a few years into my life here...pulling into Gare du Nord station on an evening & there was a cracking thunderstorm going on with lots of thunder & lightning, torrents of rain - some was leaking through the station roof in places.  That thunderstorm was so exciting - I'd nearly forgotten what that was like!  Which is pretty bad for a Kansas girl.  

The southwest does get the brunt of the westerly weather systems though - so I'd say there's probably more low cloud and drizzle in the southwest than in other areas of the UK, but then it is milder and there's less in the way of things like snow and freezing temps than in the north. I'd guess that the southeast might get slightly better weather than the southwest though.

You're right. The southeast's temps always seem to be higher than ours.

I'm always cold 

The southwest does get the brunt of the westerly weather systems though - so I'd say there's probably more low cloud and drizzle in the southwest than in other areas of the UK, but then it is milder and there's less in the way of things like snow and freezing temps than in the north. I'd guess that the southeast might get slightly better weather than the southwest though.

You're probably right there, I guess 'bedt of the weather' to me means not snowing and raining all the time, like parts of the north. I wouldn't want to live in the southeast though - house prices and all that! Our sleepy little part of Taunton (which the only time it's ever been in the news is because of the crash on the M5 last november) is fine for me

I have to say, I'm not ever going to miss a humid Southern summer, lol. I'm sure I'll miss sunshine a lot and all that but the humidity? God no. I love spring/fall time here (which apparently from a lot of people is what England is or, were we will be living, most of the time aside from winter). i think the over all dampness will make it colder (because just going by temperatues we have a colder winter)  but like yesterday here it was in the low 40's but the God forsaken wind made it feel like 20 F.