Does it really rain that much over there?
Posted by SteezusHChrist@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 223 comments
I’ve heard the stories online and from people who visited that it’s constantly raining? I assumed it’s an over exaggerated stereotype but I could be wrong is the annual rainfall very high like people claim?
Mysterious_County154@reddit
Doesn't rain enough in my opinion.
Agitated_Custard7395@reddit
England has the best weather, never too hot, never too cold, no extreme weather and it doesn’t rain nearly as much as people say it does.
Plus, we’re living in the golden age of global warming where our summers are glorious
atheist-bum-clapper@reddit
It has barely rained for 2 months now, the ground is very very hard
Steamrolled777@reddit
UK/Ireland is surprising far north (55° North), and we can get weather systems come down from Artic Circle, across from Russia, up from Sahara, and fuck up our warm air coming across Atlantic, for days or weeks.
Closest weather I can think of in North America, is weather in Seattle/Vancouver (48° North), which has slightly more rain, but doesn't vary as much.
tartanthing@reddit
The 5 uk air masses are: Polar Continental (North East) Polar Maritime (North West) Arctic Maritime (North) Tropical Continental (South) Tropical Maritime (South West)
Sea-Situation7495@reddit
That's also where the British stereotype of always talking about the weather comes from.
Talk to immigrants to the UK, and after a fairly short length of time, they tell you that now they get it - and then they too will start talking about the weather,
It is so fickle and unpredictable, that it just has to be discussed.
Case in point: yesterday was sunscreen, shorts and tee-shirt weather - and today I'm sitting here freezing.
Steamrolled777@reddit
Yesterday, I was wondering if it was too early to turn off the heating, but sunny as hell today.
orbtastic1@reddit
I battled with turning off the heating back in March and kept turning it on/off. It’s off and has been for a while but I’ve kept my goose down quilt on. This week I’ve been wearing shorts but I think Thursday or weds was super cold so I ended up going to the supermarket in shorts and big puffer jacket plus baseball cap. I caught a glance of myself in the big windows and thought wtf am I wearing but noticed loads of other people wearing coats so didn’t feel too insane. Fast forward a day and everyone’s back to T-shirt and flip flops.
AlGunner@reddit
One of the reasons we are a temperate climate is the weather fronts from all those places meeting here, particularly the equatorial and Artic air masses. The fact we are an island between the edge of a major land mass of Europe and the Atlantic ocean means those fronts cause a lot of rain as well.
The big difference to a lot of places is that our weather is so changeable compared to some places where they get up in the morning and the weather will be the same all day. Things like sunny and raining alternating doesnt happen in a lot of places.
Hate_Feight@reddit
And we are so warm because of the Atlantic currents.
EnglishWolverine@reddit
Driest March since the 60’s and half the normal rainfall in April compared to the usual. Very dry now and possible risk of draught over the summer I think.
ScottyW88@reddit
Plenty of draughts this summer. Lager and cider!
EnglishWolverine@reddit
Haha thanks for pointing that out! 🤦🏻♂️😂
Suspiciously-Kale@reddit
Pour one out for us!
ScottyW88@reddit
🤪
scarlettohara1936@reddit
Is that a good thing? In your opinion? And is your opinion a popular opinion? My sister was in her late 30s when she finally figured out that she prefers rainy, cloudy weather. So she lives where it rains a lot.
I love the sunshine! So I live in Arizona :) I love rainy, cloudy days. We only get maybe 10 of them a year though! My opinion on cloudy days is fairly popular because they're far and few between.
Trenchyjj@reddit
Likely very bad news. It's hotter than usual, and since we still get the benefit of the jet stream for now, the inevitable summer storms will have nowhere to drain, and there will likely be terrible flooding again.
scarlettohara1936@reddit
Oh no. I'm sorry! I hope everything works out
atheist-bum-clapper@reddit
I'm not that fussed. I know normal (unpredictable) weather will be resumed. It's been so wet for the last two years that reservoir levels are still above average despite the recent weirdness.
scarlettohara1936@reddit
So it's been a nice break from the usual weather then?
atheist-bum-clapper@reddit
Yea it's been great I've walked the dog and children in dry weather for what feels like ages.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
Would spring not be the rainiest time of year for you?
geeoharee@reddit
This is the dryest spring in fifty years, or some kind of statistic like that. It doesn't normally do this.
I live in Manchester which is stereotyped as being even rainier than the rest of England, this year has been weird. York for instance is dryer than Manchester because it's in the rain shadow of the Pennines, but overall yeah it's a temperate damp climate owing to the prevailing wind off the Atlantic.
gandyg@reddit
I never understand that stereotype when it's much rainier further north in Cumbria. The rest of the country can be dry and there's a little patch of rain over us! Saying that, it hasn't rained for over a month now.
atheist-bum-clapper@reddit
It can be, but nothing is predictable.
purrcthrowa@reddit
To be fair, it's pretty predictable that as soon as you mix tennis, champagne and strawberries in South West London, it will start raining heavily.
123twiglets@reddit
Or a cricket match looks like it might actually see a result...
NotTheBatwoman@reddit
Don't forget any kind of festival with enormous attendance or some kind of remembrance service. Guaranteed at least half an hour's heavy rain if not a torrential downpour.
PigeonSquab@reddit
Also Bank Holidays!
ellemace@reddit
Or washing your car, or windows.
fat_mummy@reddit
I feel like this sums up the weather… “it should do this, but we don’t know…”
tartanthing@reddit
In Scotland we try to avoid the use of seasons and instead refer to the angle of the rain to indicate time of the year.
TheGeordieGal@reddit
We get loads of rain and storms in autumn/winter. I’d say that’s wettest - at least where I am (northern England). This last autumn/winter was dreadful and seemed to be constantly wet or overcast. Spring has been remarkably dry (our 2 weeks of summer come early lol) and warm but it can also snow at this time of year.
Beginning-Falcon2899@reddit
Even this isn’t exactly accurate. Out autism are generally bloody lovely
Beginning-Falcon2899@reddit
Autumn
TheGeordieGal@reddit
Maybe where you are lol. I tend to spend a lot of time outside in autumn and it’s unusual to spend a few days outside without getting soaked. The storms generally track more northerly too so I see more bad weather from those.
It would be nice to have longer than a few days to enjoy the autumn colour without leaves being blown off trees
TheShakyHandsMan@reddit
I can’t remember the last time I saw rain. Well over a month now and maybe longer
dwair@reddit
Week maybe 10 days ago down here in Cornwall. Couple of very wet days.
Plot_3@reddit
When I went to Argentina for three months the people there would always ask me about how much it rains in the UK. I realised after a while what a well worn stereotype it was. While I was in Buenos Aires there were constant amazing storms with lots of rain, so it always amused me that they would ask me about how wet the UK was. We can get a lot of rain and some summers can be a bit of a disappointment because of it. However, we are currently living through the driest spring on record and I am praying for rain.
modfever@reddit
It’s definitely different though. From when I was in Argentina it would come down in one spell, you’d have one rainy day with a big storm then it’d clear up and be lovely for the rest of the week. We don’t have that pattern in the UK.
It’s lovely atm and has been for weeks but this is rare. Most of the time the rain/cloud hangs over for a longer spell. Recent summers it’s felt like it’s rainy the majority of the time. An occasional nice couple of days but bad weather 60% of the time as opposed to like 10-15% in Argentina.
IrisAngel131@reddit
Climate change my guy. All bets are off when it comes to old stereotypes about weather.
Status_Accident_2819@reddit
But once summer we hit June it'll start raining. March-May has been overly warm and dry for certainly the last 5 years
Delicious-Cut-7911@reddit
It's not rained for months. It does not constantly rain. the lake district has the most rain due to it being mountanous. The South barely has any rain.
OCraig8705@reddit
It’s not rained for so long now I can’t remember what rain feels like.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
You can move here. 100 inches per year where I live
Charming-Objective14@reddit
Stop bragging what about the rain 😁
Mattechoo@reddit
Yes please. I adore rain. There’s not enough of it where I live in the UK.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
Moving to the US right now isn’t a good idea check back in 4-5 years
ghostofkilgore@reddit
Verbally speaking, it absolutely does not rain in much in Britain as Brits like to make out. We have a weird trait where we like to talk as though Britain is absolutely rain-soaked. There is a significant east/west divide in Britain with the west getting a lot more rain than the east due to rain coming in off the Atlantic.
The numbers are really easy to find online, though.
London gets less rainfall per year than Paris, Toulouse, and Bucharest.
Edinburgh gets less rainfall per year than Monaco, Rome, Perth (Australia), and Dallas.
Cardiff is the wettest major city in the UK and that gets a similar amount of precipitation as Bilbao, Zurich, and Porto.
Britain does get more changeable weather than most other places. It's not uncommon for it to be sunny, then rain for 20 mins and then get sunny again. So compared to continental Europe, Britain tends to get more days where it rains a but less rain per "rain session." It very rarely rains all day in Britain.
But generally, the idea that Britain is very rainy compared to, say, continental Europe or the US is a myth.
moon_witch_26@reddit
Aye in Scotland we can have #4seasonsin1day
Ordinary-Extreme3013@reddit
I’m from one of the rainier parts of the Uk and annually it gets around a 100 cm of rain there. The Lake District has around twice the amount of annual rainfall in some parts I believe. Wales is know to be very wet especially the south and also Plymouth, Scottish Highlands, the west coast of Scotland. However the East coast is typically much, much drier especially East Anglia. The difference can be as much as getting almost half the rainfall as the West coast. So the West coast is drastically wetter than the East coast usually.
I wouldn’t say so, it’s more like a blanket of cloud occupying the sky that doesn’t move for most of the year and light rain, it’s more consistency (days of) of rain over quantity. We like to complain and exaggerate all the time about the weather it’s a part of our culture, especially about it being cold and wet however in a general sense I’d say the Uk is typically mild and doesn’t get as much rainfall as most people think or say it does. It can absolutely vary though.
moon_witch_26@reddit
Dundee is geographically the sunniest city in Scotland #randomfact 😅
TwoTenNine@reddit
Apart from the two massive downpours, it hasn't rained since mid-March. Is this what the rest of the world calls a summer?
OverPaper3573@reddit
Dry season I think.
Competitive-Green430@reddit
Yes some part are classed as rainforests but without what the Amazon types have
farfetchedfrank@reddit
It only rains when you go on holiday in the UK
bassplayingmonkey@reddit
Or generally just weekends when you don't have to work.
hongkonghonky@reddit
It is a myth that it rains all of the time in the UK, a tired all trope that we are all bored of.
Sometimes you get sleet or even snow.
LJ161@reddit
Plus I don't think that sideways rain should be in the same category as regular rainfall.
stinglikeameg@reddit
What about that fine rain that gets you soaked through?
Ok-Blackberry-3534@reddit
It's not falling. It's travelling.
LJ161@reddit
Hirizontal rain travel.
pic_strum@reddit
it has barely rained this year. Drought is expected this summer. This happens from time to time.
On the flip side we barely seemed to have two days in a row without rain from Christmas 2023 to June 2024.
Thick-Cockroach1853@reddit
Yes <3
jock_fae_leith@reddit
Britain doesn't have mono-weather - there is a big difference in rainfall between East Britain and West Britain.
YUNoPamping@reddit
Depends where you are and obviously the time of year.
London is pretty dry, for example, but I lived in Wales for a while and there were long periods where it would rain every day.
CatherineC1979@reddit
It does… we are in a drought right now
RobertHellier@reddit
Hasn’t rained for weeks but in the winter is pisses down
Big-Ad4382@reddit
I love watching British crime shows. It’s always raining. Also the sound of a fox screaming at night terrified the hell out of me while watching the show. I was like “why isn’t Barnaby worried about that woman’s scream?”
mishimomo@reddit
No we just love complaining. I lived in the Netherlands and the rain was no joke there compared
LilithXCX@reddit
It’s only after leaving the UK and moving to New York that I noticed how wetter the UK feels. Apparently it NY gets more rain, but we don’t seem to have the drizzly days that the UK has, and the temperature is hotter so it does make it seem less.
DizzyMine4964@reddit
I live in East Anglia. I can't remember when it last rained. I've been struggling to keep the plants watered and have had to use dish water for fear of a huge water bill.
Lidlpalli@reddit
It usually rains a lot yeah
Wraithei@reddit
Our weather is wildly inconsistent and unpredictable We've basically been having full on summer through half of spring 😂😂
Latter-Fun1305@reddit
We have some of the best weather in the world when all is said and done.
barriedalenick@reddit
Not really. I moved to Portugal and some parts here get 3 times the rainfall of parts of the UK. Of course, it does depend on where you live. London\Kent are quite dry, Wales in general is quite wet.
RandomTopTT@reddit
Yeah the South East gets remarkably little rainfall in terms of totals. I think it’s just the percentage of time where any rain is falling is high. I live somewhere that gets slightly less rain than the South East of England in terms of totals but it all falls at once so we have well over 300 days with no rain at all and if you added up the hours of rain we probably have actual rain falling less than 5% of the time. The ridiculous amount of sunshine helps too, more than double the sunniest place in the UK and 3 times the sun compared to places in the north.
GN_10@reddit
The sunniest place in the UK is Shanklin on the Isle of Wight which has 1,976 hours of sunshine annually. Double that would be 3,952 hours.
Faro in Portugal gets 3,044 hours.
RandomTopTT@reddit
That IS sunny for the UK. Interesting I guess the mainland then. I live in the eastern, slightly elevated, slightly sunnier suburbs of a city with 3,605 hours. So we’re probably around the 3,650 mark. We’re also the sunniest place on earth for 4 months of the year. Believe me it’s TOO MUCH sun. I don’t think there’s anywhere in Europe with that much sun.
GN_10@reddit
Lots of places on the south coast of England have over 1,900 hours of sunshine. Coastal areas are often sunnier in the UK because cloud often forms inland. Going just a few miles inland can make a huge difference in the climate.
But yeah you're right, 3,650 hours is more than anywhere in Europe. Sunniest places in continental Europe are Faro, Seville and Murcia with around 3,000-3,100 hours.
RandomTopTT@reddit
Redding which is a couple of hours north of me has 3,800 hours which is just ludicrous. It sounds great after living in the UK but 3,600 is probably at least 600 more than anyone needs. There really isn’t any weather and May through September is just one long continuous never ending day. No clouds, no rain, no nothing.
GN_10@reddit
Yeah that's crazy, living in the UK I do often find myself craving sunshine but it's also good to have some variability in weather - I think an ideal scenario would be around 2,500 to 3,000 hours with enough thunderstorms or rainfall to keep the vegetation green and lush.
RandomTopTT@reddit
Yes. If you can live with humidity and/or proper cold winters that’s ideal. The Western United States is very dry and sunny but there’s little variation and zero changeable weather like we have in the UK. The forecasts are eerily accurate.
SilentCatPaws@reddit
I genuinely can't remember the last time it rained here
SquareYogurtcloset88@reddit
It depends on the year I think? It's rained a few times lately but we've had a lot of sun too. Sometimes we get a lot of rain fall in June, when Wimbledon starts 😂
MrRWhitworth@reddit
We haven’t had any for a while. When it eventually comes, we will, collectively, as a nation, make a cuppa, look out the window and mutter ‘we needed this’
PermanentSend1983@reddit
*the grass needed this
suspicious-donut88@reddit
Sometimes we get all of the weather in one day. See your breath freezing in the morning, thunder at lunch, lovely sunny afternoon and sideways rain that turns to snow for the night. Croeso i Gymru.
Sea-Guard3608@reddit
It’s more drizzle-all-the-time than heavy rain just enough to annoy you, not soak you
tygeorgiou@reddit
I used to live in Wigan, (north west, near Manchester) and it rained alllll the time, used to call it sunny Wigan, because.. it was never sunny.
I moved to Scarborough, (north east, near York) a few years back, and it definitely rains less, despite being close to the sea, but I'd still say it rains more than abroad
I think the UK is full of little ecosystems where it rains more or less depending where you are, but I also think that maybe the fact we complain about rain so much makes it look as if it rains more than it does?
Fit-Obligation4962@reddit
North Scotland here. A few rainy days in past 6 weeks . Rivers are really low though it’s not unusual to be dry in May. This year April very dry also.
Mango_Honey9789@reddit
It hasn't rained where I live since March 1st...
41Naija419er@reddit
Yes. It’s always grey aswell. Awful combination.
wonky-hex@reddit
Not currently
DucksBac@reddit
As others have said, we don't get a lot of rain, just frequent rain. As an island in a cold sea, with lots of big hills and the gulf stream, we get all kinds of weather in one day, making it literally remarkable. We love it!
StressyIBSy@reddit
It can be very rainy over here, but no more so than some other places. In fact Seattle apparently gets more rain annually than London! We have some years where it feels like we haven't seen the sun for months, and then long dry spells too. Currently on the brink of a drought as we've had very little rain for past couple of months and are looking at the driest spring on record. Reservoirs are very low and crops aren't growing well so we're really hoping for some decent rain!
RandomTopTT@reddit
Seattle would also be the sunniest place in the UK by a distance. That’s the thing Americans find hard to believe as it’s considered an extremely cloudy place.
Weary_Structure2444@reddit
I live in the West Midlands, of course it doesn’t rain 24/7, we’re having some lovely weather at the moment! But would it say the weather is bad more then it is good? Yes 😆
RandomTopTT@reddit
I mean raining aside. British weather is terrible. That’s why I left 😂
Dmahf0806@reddit
I also live in the West Midlands. I remember last time May was like this it was the first lockdown. The problem with British weather is the unpredictability and the greyness. London is always used to compare and yet that is in the south of the country.
I've had a day trip the last 3 weekends. Doing it now as we don't know when the whether will change. My birthday is end of may. I can never plan a barbecue. I've had plenty for my birthday, but I can never plan too far in advance.
We can have days and days of drissle and greyness. I think i would prefer a monsoon season get it all out the way.
There is a reason a lot of brits go to France, Italy, Spain or Portugal in the summer and that is guaranteed good weather.
Rasputin-69@reddit
Only for 8 months then we have a drought
JCDU@reddit
The UK is a diverse place - visitors to one popular place (EG Edinburgh in Scotland or Belfast in Northern Ireland) could expect predominantly grey & overcast weather with a fair chance of rain, while visitors to somewhere else like the south of England (EG Dorset, Brighton, or London) in the summer months could find it as sunny and hot as the Mediterranean.
We love to joke - and complain - about the weather but it's really not THAT bad, it's just a bit more variable day-to-day than other countries that get very distinct seasons where they pretty much KNOW they're going to get a certain type of weather for the next few months.
apeliott@reddit
Some areas more than others.
I grew up in South Wales and hated the rain. It felt like a constant, damp, drizzle. I ended up moving away because of it.
I think some other parts of the UK are much dryer.
BlinkysaurusRex@reddit
Same. Moved away from Cumbria, and the weather was like a secondary reason. Got sick of the constant grey, rain and wind. It felt like being trapped in a black and white oil painting for twenty years. The cold was no problem. It could be minus three, but as long as the sun’s out, I’m cool.
Although silver lining, I think the reduced exposure to sunlight has resulted in me continuing to look much younger than I am.
Spare-Egg24@reddit
Same here with Lancashire. I happened to live in the valley between two massive hills and I never saw the sun. It was just a constant grey drizzle.
My mum lived in Kent and it was such a stark contrast my daughter started calling her Nanny Blue Skies.
sossighead@reddit
I used to live in Norfolk and I remember it being very dry there.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
Ah so more of a constant rain for you than just torrential downfall?
apeliott@reddit
Yes. I mean, I get occasional torrential rain where I live now, but it's just a few times a year. Back in Wales, it felt like a near-constant dampness in the air. Not all the time, but enough to make me want to leave.
EmuArtistic6499@reddit
Not in Norfolk
trhhyymse@reddit
sometimes it feels like that bit in how to train your dragon where hiccup says “it snows 9 months of the year and hails the other three” and then the weather is just nice the whole time until they need it to be bad for plot reasons
SilverellaUK@reddit
We once spent a week in Cornwall. It rained all week except between 14.00 and 16.00 on Monday.
Lots of people go to Cornwall every year and never see rain.
skibbin@reddit
The UK has lots of wet days, rather than lots of total rain. Annual rainfall isn't high. London has the same annual rainfall as:
It's always funny when I see a film crew in London with a rain machine because, you know, it's London, it always rains!
Some parts of the UK are of course wetter, highlands and western areas take the brunt of the weather. So North Wales is pretty wet. For the most part the UK has island weather that makes it a bit wetter but very changeable. One of the reasons British people talk about the weather so much is because it can do the unexpected. A sunny day with blue skies can be a total washout a few hours later. When rain does come it might be for 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days or 5 weeks.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
That last part about random weather applies to me here haha
Odd-Quail01@reddit
Where is here?
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
Place called Transylvania County NC
Fast-Fruit-8569@reddit
According to Google you get 90 inches of rain annually. England gets around 30in, Scotland, Wales, N Ireland loads more. The UK is small but very varied, oh and we have a drought right now
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
It’s closer to 100 in my actual area but yeah I live in a rainforest
improperble@reddit
I don't mean to "well actually" at you, but fun fact: film productions almost always use a rain machine even when its raining. Real rain is never dense enough to come out well on camera. In almost any rainy scene on tv/film, you can notice that it is quite a lot heavier than actual real rain.
skibbin@reddit
I know, but my point was that they always have to represent London as raining, well beyond the reality of it. If you only got your information from films London would be 80% drenched
Danelius90@reddit
Interestingly, Sydney Australia gets around double the rainfall compared to London. It just often happens all at once.
majesticfloofiness@reddit
I came to comment same thing and checked before posting. I’ve lived in both and it’s the one thing I’d say people outside Australia have no idea about how much it can rain at least around Nsw & Vic coast and you can go from Sun to Storm in seconds. Biggest hail I’ve ever seen was in Sydney and I once saw snow for a few seconds over Christmas first time visiting Melbourne.
OverlordOfTheBeans@reddit
Also lived in both. I was in Brisbane, and got caught out in the middle of a tropical storm. I've never been more wet in my life. I swear we had the UK's average rainfall in about an hour that day. The paths and roads practically turned into 6 inch deep streams. It then proceeded to not rain again for 3 months. Crazy place.
Danelius90@reddit
I do love waking up to the sound of heavy rain, then by 10am it's sunny and the ground dries in like 30 mins lol. But can be changeable, especially Wollongong/Illawarra area
sossighead@reddit
Yeah, we have a steady baseline of overcast drizzle.
VegetableWeekend6886@reddit
Will never forget going to a festival in North Wales in September and it just totally shitting it down the whole time. Whose bright idea was it to put a festival on in North Wales in September?
fat_mummy@reddit
When I was 15 I went to a concert. It hailed in the morning, but I got sunburnt by the evening! Crazy!
Fixuperer@reddit
To be fair, hail is most common in summer
Ok-Opportunity-979@reddit
Depends where you are in the country. In the East of England, it doesn’t rain for at least a couple of weeks some times and it’s not even heavy rain. That doesn’t mean it’s always sunny though!
ChangingMonkfish@reddit
In Winter, yes. Right now, no
jakezyx@reddit
The UK is quite a large country with varied weather patterns. The west coast of Great Britain is rather wet yes, cities like Glasgow, Manchester and Plymouth do have high rainfall totals.
But the eastern half of the island (including London) is actually rather dry, London is actually one of the driest capital cities in Europe by total rainfall! What London is is overcast, there are a comparatively high number of grey and cloudy days compared to other European cities. There are also a higher number of rainy days, which means days where some quality of rain falls from the sky, but that’s often very light rain / drizzle and just for a short amount of time.
It’s very rare to have the kind of heavy rain that’s normal in a lot of places in the world in London or Eastern England.
IdioticMutterings@reddit
We're not even in the top 20 rainiest countries according to wikipedia, lol.
AdPale1469@reddit
its complete bollocks. Basically Hollywood needed a way to differentiate California from england so they got a hosepipe out and just said
"when its england its raining"
and the French propagate it for tourism
the reality is as a brit, I have had people who live in far wetter climates telling me "at least its not like London"
Bruv it usually rains for like 20 minutes every 3 days here, but this year we are heading for a drought.
Down-Right-Mystical@reddit
It's definitely an exaggeration. It can rain frequently, but it's usually not very much at a time, so annually it's going to be a fair bit less that countries that have monsoons and such.
We just talk about the weather a lot because it can be so changeable!
Nevernonethewiser@reddit
We have lower annual rainfall than Japan.
We're just louder about it than anyone else on earth.
Comfortable--Box@reddit
We are one of the rainier countries, a little above average; rains every 3 days on average. I don't think it helps we are one of the colder countries and have overcast weather very often, so it's less pleasant when it rains here
We do get quite unsettled weather sometimes, but sometimes weather can get stuck like the same for months at a time also (like we have currently, as we haven't had decent rainfall in a while now). This is due to things like jet stream and gulf steam.
Scotland being further north tends to have more unsettled weather. They say if you don't like the weather in Scotland to wait five minutes.
Overall, though, I think it's fine. Sure it's rainy, but it's not that bad. There are plenty of places which have more rainfall and more wet days. We also very rarely get extremes of weather. And I don't mind the cooler weather so suits me fine.
ShoeNo9050@reddit
Other than this current bad spell which we usually have for a few weeks during may-july it pretty much either rains or it's grey outside a lot in Edinburgh. We do see the sun it's not that bad but having said that there has been weeks at once of grey weather of just clouds so it can also happen like that.
dwair@reddit
Where I live (coastal SW) we get on average of just over a metre of rain a year. The eastern side of the country gets about half of this.
We have had a couple of weeks of dry weather now which has been nice. Prior to this the last dry spell I can remember was in October last year. Granted it doesn't piss down most of the time but we get this stuff called Mizzel in between bouts of driving rain. Mizzel exists as a state between Mist and Drizzel.
Lyrael9@reddit
Climate change's a bitch. The climate is changing but the stories haven't caught up yet.
RegularWhiteShark@reddit
Where I am in North Wales, yes, it’s very rainy.
No-Accident6125@reddit
It isn't constant, but it's relatively high.
Agile-Candle-626@reddit
The UK is wetter then average, but its not amongst the rainiest places in the world
Intrepid_Bearz@reddit
Depends on the county. Here in Suffolk it doesn’t rain that much. I was in York before, also fairly dry. Spent 20 years in Devon, which is stunning, but the soggiest place I’ve ever lived.
SlinkyBits@reddit
fact is, the uk as a whole doesnt get that much rainfall, however, it does rain FREQENTLY, like little and often.
you can look and see a sunny sky, 5 mins later you get a light splash on your arm, no clue how, but the teensiest cloud in the sky is pissing on you specifically.
According_South@reddit
It doesnt rain all the time, but i think that this expression of british weather comes from how inconsistent it is. Its not unusual for a shower of rain to appear out of nowhere, hang around for 10 minutes, and then clear up again.
Some times of year are more consistently rainy than others, like spring and autumn, and then other times its more consistently dry, like mid summer and mid winter. But its generally difficult to forecast rain outside of the firmly dry times of year, and it can come and go as it pleases.
InsidePlan7823@reddit
We are in a bit of a dry spell at the moment, but yes generally it rains a lot, even during summer. As with most things though people do tend to over exaggerate
petethepete2000@reddit
It never rains in the UK anymore, hardly saw any this winter, and spring has been bone dry. Been like this for a fair few years now. I live in the north of England wherr its supposed to be colder. Climate change is quite scary now if it going to get worse
Lucky_Classic8064@reddit
Depends. In the West, yes. South East and east anglia are a LOT drier than the rest of the island. Ireland is even wetter.
AnneKnightley@reddit
Depends where you live - rains more on the west coast than the east. Mostly I’d say the weather is mild and changeable.
Sea-Claim3992@reddit
We get about 2-3 months on sunshine, then it goes grey and miserable for the rest of the months
practolol@reddit
Try l
Potential_Neat_8905@reddit
Carolina’s rain is much less frequent than anywhere in the UK but much heavier rainfall when it does rain.
Potential_Neat_8905@reddit
It’s not a myth but it is an exaggeration of reality.
It rains every day in any Hollywood portrayal of England but generally the South/ London does not rain all the time. The North West is different, lived in Lancashire for 20 years and there are defo more damp days than not.
Live in the US now and ‘climate’ is always one of the top three reasons I like living there compared to Blighty.
Richard__Papen@reddit
No, but you tend to get a lot of cloudy days.
stumac85@reddit
I live in Merseyside. I've seen maybe a few hours of rain in a month and a half. Of course, as soon as the schools take their summer holidays in July it'll be constant rain and chilly weather.
No_Sport_7668@reddit
It rains more than many places but not constantly, not even weekly. Right now, the only rain we’ve seen for weeks has been night rain. Oh and one thunderstorm, that was fun 😁
Mysterious-Writer949@reddit
I live in Greater Manchester and it hasn’t rained in a month. But the schools have a week off soon, so it will then.
Meow_Wick@reddit
Yes
Available-Ear7374@reddit
100% of the UK landmass is north of the 49th parallel, I'm in the south of the UK at 51N. The big thing is cloud cover. At some points of the year it can feel like it's always raining, but last 2 months, no rain, but that doesn't mean scorching sun every day either.
What most Americans don't get is how DARK it is in winter. We get about half the solar intensity Maine does in December (\~1500Watt-hours per day vs \~700Watt hours per day, on average), partly due to being further north, mostly it's the incessant cloud.
GreatBigBagOfNope@reddit
It does. More so on Ireland but GB also has temperate literal rainforests.
What it isn't really, though, is a problem
SilverLordLaz@reddit
It rains a lot - so much when my Alexa pings a warning "chance of rain" I always say "no shit - I'm in the UK"
jajay119@reddit
It rains more persistently here. Whilst we are enjoying a period of sunny weather right now that’s not unusual for May. I do think our ‘summer’ has moved earlier than most expect it to be as the weather tends to get more wet again in June.
It’s often laughed about that we can experience 4 seasons in one day and it’s quite true at certain times of year.
I think the past two years had a lot of rain - this year seems to be drier thankfully.
SingerFirm1090@reddit
At the moment, no.
Worth_His_Salt@reddit
Not really. But rain here is very weird. East London got heavy downpour with hail yesterday, while west London had sun all day. There were nice picture of the difference on other subs.
Motor_Finger_3262@reddit
Yes we do get a LOT of rain, the weather is miserable here a lot of the time. We get about a month of really hot and sunny weather per year if we’re lucky
shredditorburnit@reddit
It used to be a fairly reliable drizzle from October through to March, interspersed with a bit of snow, hail and the odd thunderstorm/week of steady rain.
Now it's more unpredictable. The drizzle seems to have largely disappeared in favour of mist and torrential downpours, plus some of the most significant hail I've ever seen in the UK in the last few years. We seem to have dry years, which tend to be very hot in the summer, and wet years, where you'd be forgiven for thinking summer never happened.
Global warming making mockery of what was a remarkably stable climate.
Resentful-user@reddit
I agree. There are fewer drizzly days; just cold grey ones.
In the past year i've bought a giant good-quality raincoat because for the heavy rainy days an umbrella doesn't cut it anymore.
giantthanks@reddit
Greater Glasgow has a unique mixture of urban warmth and natural wet spaces that creates a microclimate making it a hotspot for mushroom growth in the UK. It has mild temperatures but high humidity due to Atlantic air and persistent cloud cover.
It is classified as a Temperate Oceanic Climate under the Koppen Classification. It is one of the wettest cities in the UK with over 170 rainy days every year on average.
It's known as Raintown.
The UK is unusual for having a wide variety of everything over a short distance. It's therefore tricky to refer to the whole country as a result!
jonrosling@reddit
At present it's the opposite. It hasn't rained for any signficant length or amount for about six weeks where I am.
katie-kaboom@reddit
Some places yes, some places less so. I live in the driest part of England (East Anglia) and it hasn't rained for weeks now.
frankbowles1962@reddit
Colleague and I went from Glasgow to Ipswich for a meeting some years ago and he had a rolled up umbrella in the pocket of his backpack… B&B owner seemed surprised anyone would carry such a thing!
frankbowles1962@reddit
Rainfall across the UK is very variable, contrary to popular belief London (and the East of the country in general is quite dry), the west much wetter (Manchester, western Scotland, Cardiff); the thing is our weather is very variable and because it is so unpredictable is why it is such a talking point, it’s a typical ice breaker when you talk to a stranger “bit nicer today”, “it’s got cold all of a sudden”, “looks like the rain is on its way” and so on.
Traditional_Rice_123@reddit
Our wet seasons are becoming dryer which then has a knock on effect to the point where lots of the country are nearly in official drought conditions. When our summers go madzl they're getting hotter for longer - it isn't uncommon for parts of the UK to have a few days like a San Antonio summer now. And although it's only a few days, we generally don't have AC at home which makes things worse. All told I would anecdotally say I have witnessed our weather getting more extreme in my lifetime - extremely wet when it's wet, extremely dry when dry and extremely hot when hot.
Mammoth-Difference48@reddit
It rains more in New York than in London.
Final_Anybody_3862@reddit
https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/rain/how-much-does-it-rain-in-the-uk
deanopud69@reddit
It doesn’t actually rain all that much in the UK. The main issue with the weather is the amount of ‘grey or miserable’ days which is a lot. Take today for example, it’s meant to be 18 degrees where I am but the sky is grey and dull looking like it is most of October through to March.
cookiesandginge@reddit
It’s been so dry here for weeks. I actually cant remmeber when it last rained.
_debowsky@reddit
It does and it doesn't (or at least used to, I am not up to date with current data). Over the whole year yes, it rains a lot compared to other places but for example, coming from the north of Italy I prefer the way it rains here than it does back home. Here it might drizzle or shower for an hour or so and that's it, back home you have constant proper non stopping rain for weeks sometimes and floods are very common, the norm I would say.
So yes it rains a lot in the UK but it's not as much of an inconvenience in my very personal opinion.
asmiggs@reddit
The total annual rainfall isn't actually that high; the statistic that everyone likes to use is that New York has a significantly higher rainfall than the London. The reason for the well worn stereotype is that we get persistent showers so unless you've come to the UK in Spring 2025 you probably experience rainfall whereas in the rest of the world much of your rain comes at once in big spectacle storms, so if you go to New York to visit it probably won't rain on you but if you live there you will experience total more rain than if you lived in London.
thesaharadesert@reddit
Some of us have gills because it’s so damp on the coast 😝
boojes@reddit
Username does not check out.
thesaharadesert@reddit
Touché
sir-diesalot@reddit
Unpredictable defines uk weather. As a northern country we do tend to have higher moisture levels all year, so it’s damp a lot
coffeewalnut08@reddit
We’re not even in the top 10 countries for rainfall amount. So no, it’s not constantly raining. Some regions rain more than others (the west vs the east). Our annual precipitation is between 800-1000mm. Tropical countries get a lot more than that.
We’re also going through a long dry spell currently, and we’ve had dry spells and drought in the past too.
BuncleCar@reddit
While cricket is affected by rain, the fact the professional game was invented here shows that it doesn't rain that much, generally.
MuttonDressedAsGoose@reddit
I have lived mostly in the Western Highlands and the Northwest of England. It can rain an awful lot. On the Eastern side of Britain, it rains much less. We get the rain from the Gulf Stream on the Western Side. The further to the northwest, the wetter.
HippyWitchyVibes@reddit
Not where I live.
I'm in Suffolk and it's always felt like we get more sun than rain here.
Sate_Hen@reddit
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmkn7rjv7zo <- news story from yesterday
SneakyCorrecter@reddit
Scotland is having its driest period in 60 years
Lower_Inspector_9213@reddit
Can confirm!
BlueFungus458@reddit
Drizzle is common especially in the autumn and winter.
With climate change however you get the occasional very heavy downpour. Got a localised flash flood here one hour last August with sewers bursting and walls collapsing in my village and it was so localised that some insurance companies are refusing to pay people’s claims for flood as there’s no “official record” of it.
CleanMyAxe@reddit
Depends where you live. In Southampton for example it really isn't particularly wet but you still get people moaning about it.
herwiththepurplehair@reddit
London gets about the same annual rainfall as Jerusalem. Glasgow gets about double what London gets. It's all relative.
Fanoflif21@reddit
It's wetter in Wales
Silocon@reddit
Up north in Manchester, it rained really regularly but it was usually light rain. Like, you'd want an umbrella or a raincoat but you don't need waterproof trousers or big boots all the time and there was no rush of flooding. I remember a time where every time I looked out of the window for an entire week, it was raining lightly. It was quite depressing!
I now live in southern Germany. We get proper thunderstorms every few days during summer but, in between that, it's bright and sunny. So it feels like much less rain than Manchester but, looking at the statistics, my area actually gets more annual rainfall than Manchester.... It just comes in bigger storms.
So British rain is usually light but much more constant than, say, south Germany. It seems to rain on more days and rains for longer times during the day, but it isn't actually as much water as a big thunderstorm gives.
Remarkable-Ad155@reddit
The UK is literally in drought right now, most other places would be panicking but here people just shrug because it could just as easily rain solidly for the next 4 months starting tomorrow. The only constant to UK weather is it's unpredictability.
FancyMigrant@reddit
London has rain about 110 days a year, but it has about two thirds of the total rainfall that Charlotte gets.
Exact_Setting9562@reddit
It's definitely not constantly raining.
It's usually very changeable though.
We have had sunny weather for a couple of weeks now and this is unusual. I suspect the weather gods are setting us up for a fall and the summer will be pants like last year.
In the meantime it's absolutely glorious.
LordAnchemis@reddit
The weather is unpredictable - it can rain anytime, even on days it looked sunny an hour ago - most people carry a collapsible umbrella
nonsequitur__@reddit
It’s funny, I live in the north west and rarely bother cos it’s so stop/start.
nonsequitur__@reddit
It depends on whereabouts in the UK. Where I live (north west) it rains more than when I lived in the north east, but the north east was colder. It’s been very sunny lately. I work in Liverpool and it’s been uncomfortable wearing work clothes, and everyone outside has been walking around in strappy tops and dresses even in the morning. We usually think of south as being warmer, but when I went for work last week we were all really cold and a few hadn’t brought jackets expecting it to be warm there 🙈 this often happens when I go between the two on consecutive days.
It’s also subjective. It doesn’t constantly rain though. Not every day and it is uncommon to rain all day nonstop. Perhaps it’s because it also rains in summer that people think this? And can go from being hot and sunny one day to overcast and rainy the next.
sossighead@reddit
We’ve had one day of rain where I live in the last three weeks I think. And that’s in the North Wear which I think is statistically one of the rainiest parts of the country (the west coast in general).
It does rain a fair bit over autumn, winter and usually spring. And this period of warm dry weather will obviously end in a large storm.
MarkinW8@reddit
Where I am in London it has rained twice, pretty briefly, in the last month. The "rainy" reputation comes from October through April when you can have days/weeks on end when it is very cloudy (and very low cloud which seems darker and worse) and lot and lots of very light rain. The actual rainfall of the UK, especially in the south and east of England, is actually significantly less than a lot of place in the US and even continental Europe. All that said, you could come in July and have a week of rain so no promises!
Hour-Cup-7629@reddit
Im in the north of England. I can confirm that it rains pretty much every day for 9 months straight. Usually from mid June to April. I know because I have to walk the dogs in it every single day. Open the door in the morning and if Im lucky Ill say, Oh, not raining! The weather atm is very rare here tbh.
deanomatronix@reddit
Some places. Used to live in Manchester which I loved but god the weather was depressing. Really noticed it when I moved down south
PhilTheQuant@reddit
It varies, see this map:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/BElrjgHFsC
Dumuzzid@reddit
Nah. It really depends where you are. London and the Southeast don't get that much rain and summers tend to be hot and dry. But there are wet years for sure. Overall, the more north and west you go, the wetter and cooler it gets. Liverpool gets twice as much rain as London.
-You_Cant_Stop_Me-@reddit
Our seasons are crazily unpredictable, this time last year it was raining every night and pretty cool during the day; this year we're already talking about a drought.
sir_thrillho@reddit
Yes.
No1Reddit@reddit
Generally Paris gets more rain than London.
IntrepidTension2330@reddit
Scotland here, yes, it bloody rains too much here, but we do have beautiful greenery and great looking countryside thanks to rain. We dont stop because it rains. We also have what's called sideways rain . Rain on one side of the street, and some days we have 4 seasons in one day . You have to be very flexible regarding clothing .
Willr2645@reddit
I live in NE Scotland which is known for rain - and I’d honestly say no.
When it rains it generally rains fairly heavy but living in SW England for 4 years ( so total opposite side of country ) I never thought “ wow so much less rain “ only that the summers were like 1-2° hotter.
Specific-Sundae2530@reddit
No, it's not properly rained for at least a couple of weeks.
Mammyjam@reddit
Usually yes but we haven’t had a drop for over a month now, it’s starting to be a problem as the reservoirs are running dry
GupDeFump@reddit
It FEELS like it rains a lot but it’s random.
Last year was one of the worst years for weather I can remember. I was wearing an alpine jacket and beanie at an event in mid June.
It was so uniformly cold and damp that I booked a holiday (for this year) I could ill afford to escape the country.
This year it’s been lovely so far, lots of bright, clear and warm days. You just can’t plan for it or expect any kind of consistency. That’s what gets me down about our climate.
It would be lovely to know that spring is upon us and gonna do spring things. Then summer will come and be summery.
welshcake82@reddit
I live in South Wales which can be very wet- we had a rubbish summer last year where there was a lot of rain and overcast days. This isn’t a given however and this spring, from February on has been really dry- it’s unusual to get this long a stretch of good weather. Quite often though we will get nice weather in the Spring- it’s more likely to be stormy and rainy in the autumn and winter.
Scramjet-42@reddit
The UK is a small island with a ridge of hills and mountains roughly down the middle. Most of the prevailing wind is from the West, and the hills cause most of the rain to fall on the West.
For instance, Fort William on the West coast of Scotland gets over 60 inches of rain a year on average, whereas Canterbury, a city in the South East, gets around 20 inches.
Over the last few years, spring has been the driest season - we are currently in a drought in most of the Southern and Eastern parts of the country as it hasn’t rained for weeks, whereas most of the last few summers have seen higher than usual rainfall. Autumn and Winter are a surer bet for changeable and generally miserable weather.
susannahstar2000@reddit
Where is "there?" I'm in Oregon, US, and in the northwest, where I am, it rains alot. In central and eastern Oregon, very little.
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
r/AskABrit
RandomTopTT@reddit
There are a lot of days with rain but not as much total rain as people think. There’s also not a predictable dry season so it feels like it rains a lot. There are lots of places with more rain. The lack of sun is real though. It’s one of the least sunny places on the planet.
Horrorwriterme@reddit
I live in London we had weeks of sun with occasional rain but very little. It depends on the year. When I lived in Australia people always asked me does it really rain all the time.
ButteredNun@reddit
There’s a lot of light rain. I never owned an umbrella in the UK, a jacket will usually suffice. I’m in Asia and the annual rainfall of the city I’m in is twice that of London (umbrellas are a must)
SteezusHChrist@reddit (OP)
Oh what’s the annual there?
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