| You know that feeling. It's been raining all summer | | | | against the elements. Or play a board game with the |
| and you are travelling to a hot, sunny beach many | | | | family (even a jigsaw, heaven forbid). |
| miles from home. You call home to check on the | | | | The weather has a habit of never actually being at |
| family, pets and lottery, only to be told the sun has | | | | its optimum average. For instance the average high |
| come out and everyone back home is running around | | | | temperature for London in the summer is |
| in shorts, getting a tan and smiling at each other. It | | | | approximately 70°. This, to me, is a great |
| takes the edge off your holiday. | | | | temperature! Warm enough to be able to go about |
| We let the weather spoil our fun. Of course this is a | | | | your day without drowning in your own sweat, but |
| general statement and doesn't ring true all of the | | | | not so cool that you have to wear a coat. It's a |
| time. However, many a time I have been stuck in | | | | good opportunity to get some sun on your arms and |
| the office all week looking out of the window at the | | | | legs. But of course the temperature will meander |
| blue skies and sunshine, only for the weekend to be | | | | around this figure from day to day and hour to hour. |
| ushered in by a tropical depression - strong winds and | | | | So if you have one miserable cold week followed by |
| heavy rain. | | | | a blazing hot one, then your average for those two |
| So what is the perfect weather? Well it probably | | | | weeks may indeed be 70°. Doesn't seem like it |
| doesn't exist. If you like skiing, you like snow. But too | | | | though. Frozen one week, burnt the next. |
| much snow leads to an avalanche risk, the slopes to | | | | Storm chasing is becoming an increasingly popular |
| be closed and you stuck in your mountain chalet | | | | pastime, more obviously in the US but in other parts |
| drinking drinking cheap Gluvine and listening to '100 | | | | of the world too. Storm chasers in the UK have a |
| greatest glockenspiel hits'. | | | | pretty tough time of it as the weather is rarely |
| Likewise in a British summer. We complain every year | | | | extreme and the roads are seldom clear. In the US it |
| about the wind and rain, then when we do get a hot | | | | is a different story, there are storms, big ones, |
| summer the aquifers run dry and we are left with | | | | developing most days through the storm season. A |
| sunstroke and bottled water. Mad dogs and | | | | storm chasers paradise? Possibly. But how much |
| Englishmen. I'm thinking particularly of 2003 when the | | | | work and effort needs to go into chasing a storm |
| mercury hit 100 for the first time on record, and this | | | | that may be developing a five hour drive away with |
| in a country where air conditioning is considered a | | | | no guarantee that it will drop the tornado which is |
| luxury. Then in 2007 it rains all summer and we have | | | | the holy grail of storm chasing? Not to mention the |
| the worst floods on record. We're never happy. | | | | price of petrol (or 'gas' for our colonial cousins). |
| Now the secret to enjoying every weather type is | | | | I suppose the point I am making is that the climate is |
| simply positive thinking. If it is going to rain there | | | | rarely perfect and it is this fact that makes it one of |
| really isn't a whole lot you can do about it. So look | | | | the great talking points of our day. Well it is cloudy |
| forward to it. Maybe it is an excuse to stay in in | | | | and cool here at the moment, so I am off to take |
| front of the fire watching a DVD, or get your | | | | the dog out for a walk. Enjoy your weather, |
| waterproof coat on and enjoy a brisk walk/battle | | | | wherever you are! |