Sunday, July 02, 2006

Sultry

It's a common observation that the English are weather obsessed. What I find strange is the eagerness to believe that the weather here is extreme.

Right now it's about 30 degrees maximum in the daytime, this is known as a 'heatwave'. A couple of weeks ago, a five minute downpour led to front page newspaper headlines about 'London's monsoon'. If it's windy there are 'torrential gales'. And in winter, if the snow sticks to the ground there must have been a 'blizzard'.

Although daytime temeratures are currently about 30 degrees, it falls to about twenty degrees at night. This doesn't stop the BBC website predicting that tonight will be 'sultry'. What I love though, is the same thing I've heard weather reporters saying since the middle of the week when daytime temperatures went above 25 degrees - 'It's going to be another scorcher today and very difficult again to sleep at night'.

I'm managing to endure the torture. Last night I went strolling around in a short sleeved shirt and felt really comfortable for the first time in ages. Lovely.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this cos Americans are more direct in conversation and don't need to rely on 'safe' default topics like the weather?

'Weather talk' is supposed to be more about relationship building than information transfer. The weather in the US is probably much more interesting to comment on than the weather in the UK!

Anonymous said...
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