NC Penguin

The weather in NC is one reason why I've been able to cope with living in the US (compared to say the NE US and FL that have extreme winters and summers, respectively).

NC has four distinct seasons and even in the summer, with temperatures over 95F (and a number of days over 100F so far this year), it's been OK.

NC has its fair share of rain too but it's not much like the UK because in the warmer months, it can often rain when it's bright and sunny or at other times there are sudden torrential rainstorms that I rarely encountered in the UK.



NC Penguin

snorkmaiden

During the summer I prefer the British weather. I am one of those odd people who enjoyed both the cold and the rain but the long summer nights in the UK and being able to walk in the evenings without being attacked by mosquito's I find particularly enjoyable.

I find the summer here in Texas to be oppressive for many reasons. Firstly we have a really long summer holiday for the children, but most of it has to be spent indoors because the air is so bad it's not safe to go out in it.

Secondly if they do go out they can only go out for a few minutes at a time because they are fair and even with factor 45 will burn if they are out longer. That and the fact that Fire Ants are everywhere in our area and the little buggers will attack you just for walking on their stretch of the pavement.

All the air conditioning and poor air gives everyone chest infections. We are a family of non-smokers yet my husband gets bronchitis repeatedly now which takes months to get rid of.

The only time of day when it is pleasant enough to go for a walk, just happens to be the time when the mosquito's are going out for dinner and we have confirmed cases of west nile here.

So, I find the Texas summer not that nice, but I love Tornado season, we don't tend to get the tornado's in our part of town but we do get some amazing storms and freakishly fast weather changes which I very much enjoy.

Last year we were playing in snow on Valentines Day and then at the park in short sleeved t-shirts the next day, and I only had to wear a coat twice last winter, so if I could spend the summer somewhere else I'd very much enjoy the Texas weather

ScyLarc

It's our first Summer here and we are really struggling with the heat. Actually it's not the heat it's the humidity, i can't believe how muggy it is. Just walking from the office to my car leaves me very hot and sticky - makes me miss the times when i got soaked on a similar walk back in the UK.

Hopefully we will acclimatise but for now we are staying in doors or in fully Air conditioned places.

ImHere

South Florida here where its sub-tropical.

Basically we have 2 seasons (high humidity summer and lower humidity summer lite), but to compare:

Winter: (Dec 21st to Feb 14th) Great - mid 70's daytime low 60's night time, lowish humidity, bugger all rain and wall to wall sunshine pretty much every day. Maybe half a dozen days late Jan where you can only wear shorts in the middle of the day instead of all day. Perfect beach weather. Much better than a dreary gray, cold, damp and dark Brit winter. However since winter here is only about 8 weeks long it doesnt last before we move onto...

Spring: (Feb 15th to March 31st) Winter with a bit more heat, or to put it another way, summer with slightly less heat (ie 80's/70's) and humidity in the 60%'s

Summer: (April 1st to November 31st) Ugh. Hot all day (90's) and all night (80's) with constant humidity of 80%+. Very draining and you cant do anything outside (including walking to your car) without bursting into a sweat. And of course tis Hurricane season. Nuff said.

Autumn: (December 1st to December 20th) Summer part 2. No real difference as it doesnt even begin to cool off down here till end of November. Still hurricane season.


So compared to the UK? Winter MUCH better. Not sure if I could stand a Brit winter again. I miss Brit springtime (May was always my favourite month). And I miss having an autumn - the trees are green all year here. Summer I would much rather have a good English summer than a typical South Florida one but thats the pay off I suppose.

Lesley1020

Last summer I found it unbearable, and it was apparently not as bad as it usually is in Memphis. This year has been much hotter, but I have actually enjoyed it to a point... It's great to wake up to the bright skies every day, and watch the sun rising, and I love to take the dog out in the evenings and just throw on a t-shirt and some flip flops! On the weekends we will go and lay at the pool and sometimes I catch myself thinking how lucky I am to be able to do this every weekend, when it was a 2 weeks once a year thing before!

Until it gets over 95, I definitely enjoy it - other than the hair frizzies which I am sure most of the girls can relate to!

evoal2003

Seems like the term 'The grass is always greener
lives on well, here.

dbark

Arkansas here. Like others have said, I enjoy waking up to the sun, in fact I love the mornings here altogether, but by 9 am the humidity is unpleasant. However, I refuse to stay in the house the whole time, I am an outdoors person, and I take my book to a shady place and read for 30 minutes, it's my bit of luxury. The heat doesn't bother me unless it's a really humid day, then it's exhausting to mow the lawn, etc.

I miss the mildness of British summers, but don't miss the long dark winters, when you feel spring is never going to get here. It used to depress me no end. We've seen more snow here these past two years than for the previous 12 years in London.

The rain? I do miss it, although here it is lovely to be able to not freeze to death in the rain. We also have magnificent storms here, and actually being able to see the skyline helps enjoy the weather that bit more. And of course I laugh at people here complaining about the rain, they don't want to get wet at all even though it's warm. I want to tell 'em about English rain.

Lothianlad

On the whole it's a lovely summer here this year...better down in England and the south than here in Scotland but even here we've had some really great sunny days and a hot sometimes. 29C at Aviemore once and we havent had much rain at all. In the south oif England they've had less than 50% normal rainfall for months and months. New York and Seattle has twice as much annual rainfall than London and more than Manchester as well.

Cheers

dbark

What I loved about summertime in Scotland (visiting - I lived in London) were the light evenings to 10 pm and beyond. Here we are lucky to make it to 8.15 midsummer before darkness sets in.

ukemigrant

I live in midwestern PA, near Pittsburgh. This summer has been the hottest since I got here in winter 2002, and it's been a long stretch. The grass is toasted. I wouldn't swap it for NI weather ever, but it would be nice to have one day of rain in 6 days of sun...

krizzy

I'm happy that I never moved to the USA for better weather.......I miss going out nearly everyday I walked everywhere in the UK...I'm not so fit here....when it gets cooler the mozzies come out....we built a deck 2 years ago and never get to sit on it......the house needs running repairs from rot.....needs painting all the time....so the nice days we have......are taken up doing that.....

Jabba1

Ah yes, I can see the new UK tourists brochures now. "Come and enjoy the great sunny weather of Great Britian." Or perhaps...."For a great tan, visit the UK, the world's new sunshine capitol".

paddingtongreen

I sympathise, my first was in Philadelphia, and I had to walk to the station both ends. Air conditioning provides respite from it but not relief. I know that sounds odd, but it's like British cold goes to the marrow of your bones, you have to be warm for a long time before you feel it all through. This heat is similar, you have to be in the air for a while before your inside gets cool. The one thing that seems to work is twenty minutes in a swim pool. It's very effective.

woodsey

Have to say I didn't imagine not being able to go out in the summer here, taking my son to the park has to be done before 10 am otherwise the swings are too hot for him to sit in, same with the slide.. What is nice though, is to be able to plan things without worrying about whether or not its going to piss it down as is what happened many times when I was back in England just. Being able to drive to the beach at weekends here is wonderful, had a lovely day yesterday at the beach which is always cooler than inland, certainly beats Scarborough. Last time I went there in August it was bloody freezing.
I do have the luxury of a pool in my back yard which beats going to the swings anyway although its nice to actually leave the house on the odd occasion too. Many moms here seem to just take their kids to the mall just for something to do in the summer, I can't believe there aren't more places geared for entertaining your kids inside other than places such as Chuckee Cheeses, back home we have places with fabulous indoor climbing frames, ball pools etc, especially for younger kids, my son loved them on rainy days, something like that would be perfect here for the hot summers.
One thing I do miss here and love about the UK is the light nights, by 8.30 its pitch black, back home we could get light evenings until 10.30 at least.
I was expecting to be able to say it was nice here having a mild winter but all it did was piss it down for 6 months so we didn't do much then either.

ImHere

Pissed it down everyday here for weeks. What with it being the rainy season and all. The upside though is the rain is actually hotter than I have my shower in the mornings. And jumping in the sea to cool off is a nono...not at 95 degrees as it is at the moment. Very large hot bath anyone?