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