Is the British weather unique in the world?

[Thundery wintry showers]

The British climate is awful for anyone whose a lover of weather, we have crap seasons of benign mildness with little in the way of excitable weather for much of the year, I envy those who either have tropical paradise or proper seasons with heat in summer and brutal cold in winter.

 

I remember a quote from The Weather Outlook's forums saying, "Is the British climate a case of, jack of all trades and master of none?"  Indeed, when I talk of "some weather types occurring too frequently for my liking and vice-versa" it is primarily in relation to the benign, mild and/or cloudy weather types occurring often, and dramatic and/or sunny ones occurring less often, and the rarity of sharp temperature fluctuations where cold and warm synoptics occur in quick succession.

 

The UK has a reputation for having "sunshine and showers" as the most common type of weather, but statistically the most common type of weather is dry and cloudy, except n some upland parts of north-western Britain where during autumn and winter, wet and cloudy weather may be slightly more common.

 

However, in a stable tropical type of climate, for many weather enthusiasts, and especially those into forecasting, the relatively high frequency of dramatic and/or sunny weather may be offset by the greater predictability of the weather from one day/week to the next.  Forecasting the weather in Britain is a real challenge as many of us will be aware!

[Roger J Smith]

I think there are probably some places just north of here on the west coast of North America that would show statistical similarity to the British climate, at least to some regions. From here south, there's too much sunshine July to September to hold the statistical comparison close enough, but otherwise I don't see a lot of difference. We can get a week or two of very cold and snowy weather in the average winter and sometimes more than that. Mean monthly temperatures are very similar. I would say that between Nanaimo and Campbell River on eastern Vancouver Island you would find almost identical climate values to parts of Wales or northwest England. Extreme values are also similar. There are places that never fall much below -12 C or rise much above 33 C in the most extreme spells, similar to coastal regions of the UK (and Ireland). Of course I've been over numerous times so I know that subjectively it feels about the same as well. The one thing that might throw off a strict comparison is that November and December tend to be very wet in our climate and probably have a higher peak relative to other months although I understand November is the wettest month in some parts of the British Isles as well. The frequency of strong winds and peak values would also be comparable. We also get periods of inversion fog and frost in the late autumn and early winter. Another thing that might be a bit different is that a southeast wind here can downslope and add a few degrees to some local temperatures, but that's a rare effect and does not extend to eastern Vancouver Island where I think the closest analogue climate exists. I would also think that some parts of Tasmania and the south island of New Zealand might score fairly high on correlations of mean temperature and rainfall although they have different winter synoptics than either the UK or western Canada.

 

Eastern Long Island and Cape Cod and "the islands" probably have some correlation with southeast England but I wouldn't rate that nearly as high a comparison.

[syed2878]

i don't think the british weather anything to sing about, like many said on here many parts of the world do expirience nearly the same as what we get here. If i lived anyware else i would mis many things here but not the weather.

[syed2878]

@sceptical inquirer. Totaly agree with your post regarding the our climate here couldn't of put it any better my self. At least other parts of the world get proper summers and winters.