That London weather

So time for a little weather talk. We've been here nearly two months and are starting to feel a little less like visitors and a little more like locals; and one thing the locals like to do around here is talk (mostly complain) about the weather.

When we first started thinking about moving to the UK, one of the obvious "cons" that came to mind was those rainy, grey, blustery days; the lack of summer heat or autumn color; much of the year spent in dull twilight, deprived of sun and blue sky.

Now a couple of months into it -- early days for sure -- here are a few quick observations:

1) Ok the weather sucks -- but it has not been quite as awful as I had remembered or Karen had been expecting. Much of the time it is indeed cloudy, cool and wet, as described above. Mid-August feels how you'd expect mid-October to feel in New Jersey, and September was really rainy. But there have been some really good days here and there -- such as today (see photo), brilliant sunshine, no wind, t-shirt weather. And it is true that you enjoy those days a lot more when they're sandwiched on either side by many days of bluster.

2) Although Mark Twain was talking about New England when he wrote that if you don't like the weather just wait a few minutes, his observation is all the more applicable to "old" England. You simply can't say "yesterday was ___", because the odds were that it was indeed "___" for part of the day but something very different from "___" for other parts of the day. Clouds come rolling in and roll out again. Fog descends and then burns off (as it did today). Impenetrable rain clouds suddenly disperse, dissected by brilliant rays of light. Empty blue sky fills in a moment with small speckled white clouds, and then turns to dull shimmering grey in a few moments more.

3) Partially because of point #2, weather forecasts are useless here -- absolutely useless. The BBC description of "current conditions" often makes for a good laugh with basic facts like sun/rain completely off, and current temperature differing by as much as 20 degrees from our own thermometer. When it comes to tomorrow's forecast, forget it, this bears even less relation to reality. (In fact it's probably not a good thing that they are calling for 5 uninterrupted days of sun, as they certainly won't be right.)

So this all goes to say that although London is no San Diego or Barcelona, the weather hasn't proven to be quite as much of a negative as expected. The rules are simple. Always bring rain gear. Always be ready to shed or add layers. Keep expectations low. Fortunately the kids don't seem to have developed an appreciation for sunshine yet.

I write all this knowing full well that we are still headed into the eye of the storm: many months ahead of gray, chill and darkness. Which is why we're already starting to think about winter weekend escapes to warmer, sunnier shores.