Some like it hot
British summertime is plagued with uncertainty, but we enjoy moaning about that almost as much as the sun itself
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON
ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH BERRY
Packing for a summer holiday in the British Isles is as close as most of us are likely to come to sampling the “mysterymoon,” aka the surprise-destination honeymoon that could take you anywhere from sunny Barcelona to Australia in the winter. Out comes the suitcase and in go wispy sundresses and woolly socks, shorts and pullovers, straw hats and of course an umbrella— do not forget the umbrella.
With five distinct air masses coming at us from different directions, the sheer variability of the British climate creates its own drama. While other nations are battered by monsoons and hurricanes, we can experience several seasons’ worth of weather in a single day. It’s no wonder that we’re so ready to offer up meteorological observations—there’s just so much to say. Social anthropologist Kate Fox memorably found that 94 per cent of Brits had spoken about the weather within the previous six hours.