When do you switch weather preference?

I am a bit of a weather and climate nerd, saw this topic on another forum.

I also quite like a mix of weather and temperatures (though I don’t really enjoy rain) and start to look forward to cold in late summer, and warm in late winter.

Usually around early March, I start to crave warm temperatures, shorts and long evenings in the sun – and the cold really starts to grate on me.

I’d say around the beginning of September, I start to look forward to it cooling off again, wearing warm jumpers and seeing my breath in the morning. You know, your typical “Autumn american girl instagram” stuff.

If you are like me, where do you draw your lines like this? Or would you prefer sunny and warm all year?

You know, your typical “Autumn american girl instagram” stuff.

Perfect description 😀 .

I experience similar feelings at a similar time in September, but then I catch myself and remember how grim winter is in southern Scotland. I’d rather live somewhere room temperature all year round.

It’s the darkness that get’s me – cycle commuting in the dark for 2-3 months isn’t great. Then again, I do like cold frosty mornings, of which we had very few last winter.

I’ll be buried in shorts.

I’d love it to get cold and beautiful.

The problem is it doesnt do that in the UK, it just goes from the top end of ‘mild’ to the bottom end of ‘mild’ but with added wind, rain, and greyness.

Can we have just two “Sunny and Warm*” and “Clear skies, Frozen and a load of Snow” please!?

Mild, grey and wet can do one! 🙂

(*but not too warm – 24 degrees is perfect!)

@finbar – Yeah I don’t really remember a time in the last few years when it has *actually* been pumpkin-spice weather here in Edinburgh. I think we maybe get a week or so of the trees looking pretty, and then it’s just that uniquely Scottish damp cold where its 6 degrees but feels like your bones have turned to slush.

But nostalgia is a powerful thing I guess when our house is such a heat trap at night and I can’t sleep sweating into the bedsheet!

@fossy – I’m with you. I do kinda like the darker mornings for some reason, but when it’s getting dark again at 3 it is never good. I’d take everything else about winter if it never got dark before like 7.

I’d say around the beginning of September, I start to look forward to it cooling off again, wearing warm jumpers and seeing my breath in the morning.

I think Autumn is generally my favorite time of year  – so I’m always looking forward to it – even when it’s autumn. I think you get the best version of every kind of weather in autumn. Autumn sunshine is great, warm autumn weather is great, cold autumn weather is great. autumn storms are great.

I used to like winter, especially a bit of snow, but can’t be arsed with it now. A steady 20c and sunset at 10pm would be great.

temperature I have no real preference (by UK standards) as long as daytime temps are warm enough tha bikes still work (-5ish) and cool enough that I’m not at risk of passing out (35 ish) I’d be happy.

Lack of daylight, and incessant rain , on the other hand – is a miserable thought at any time of year.

@ayjaydoubleyou – Yeah I had a bit of an experience in that freezing cold December period we had where my dropper post stopped working because of frozen moisture in the cable outer. I’d say about freezing for anything active like biking is probably my limit, below that I start to get snotty and my legs just feel heavy and crap. Also it’s dangerous!

But – when not biking I do like it much colder when appropriate. It’s cool to look out the window and see everything covered in frost…like a street of ghost cars.

I’m not sure the ‘when’ question makes much sense any more, given that we seemed to have basically the same weather from last September through to a few weeks ago – endless rain, crappy low double/high single temperatures, like a sort of endless late autumn without the Indian summer.

Personally, dry at any temperature up to around 25˚C with low humidity is good with me. Sub zero and frozen is even better. High humidity and/or rain, not so good, but in medium-sized helpings everything is pretty much okay, it’s when it just seems stalled in a world of endless rain that I get a bit hacked off.

Very stable weather – the Andes for example ime – is great for a while, but after a few months you start to appreciate the variety of the British climate.

My ideal riding temperature is probable 5 degrees C.

Once I’ve had a few sweaty days, been followed by flies, harrassed by midges having lunch, finding tick bites and deer keds crawling in my clothes, I’m looking forward to October.

I hate Autumn and Winter. Not because of the weather, just the lack of daylight. Does a proper number on me. I can take any weather but prefer a clear, mild day. Cool enough that you’re not sweating but warm enough to be comfortable in shorts. Proper snow is also great.

I prefer late summer, early autumn, just because the light is particularly lovely, but spring is a great time because of all the new life showing in the leaves and flowers, particularly bluebells. The current temperatures are perfectly fine for me, a high of 24° just about spot on for doing anything outside, like gardening.

All I think now is that we no longer have seasons, certainly no winter in England and spring / autumn is no longer defined

Bit sad really

I prefer late summer, early autumn, just because the light is particularly lovely, but spring is a great time because of all the new life showing in the leaves and flowers, particularly bluebells. The current temperatures are perfectly fine for me, a high of 24° just about spot on for doing anything outside, like gardening.

I managed to get through the winter wearing shorts, apart from one particularly cold week, but I’ve got the right clothes for whatever conditions turn up, so I’m not bothered particularly.

My Weather preference is sunny and warm proper summer, why would I want anything else?

I like the heat, I like the longer daylight hours, I like not having to worry about extra kit when I go out riding, what are the downsides?

I can tolerate cold and dry, but Cold and Wet weather can **** right off!

Anyone who claims to prefer the damp gloom of a British Autumn/Winter is clearly deranged.

pumpkin-spice weather

Autumn american girl

Do you name paints for a living?

i love warm and sunny and hate cold wet and windy (i never look forward to winter here in the uk 🙁

The problem is it doesnt do that in the UK

You what mate?

Commuting all year round I found a love for all weather conditions, and watching the seasons change through the fields and tree growth was a real ‘connection’ thing. I suspect that a lot of dog walkers may get the same feelings, when they have to be out there every day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51157ep524o

🙂

 I suspect that a lot of dog walkers may get the same feelings, when they have to be out there every day.

Yep. If i am lucky enough to be outside, with or without poocho, i couldn’t give a shit what the weather does. Bring it.

Another one for not minding the weather – even the rain – but the dark really gets me down.

We started going on holiday for some winter sun for a week or two in January/Feb and the positive impact on my outlook is actually ridiculous.

Having longer days and a bit of dry, warm weather in the middle of dreary dark wet British winter – especially if you go in Feb, because then the days start getting longer when you’re back, which always cheers me up.

As radbikebro has said above, a bit of Winter sun definitely helps you through the darkest days of that season.

Always baffles me why folks go abroad for a Summer holiday when the weather here is usually okay, go in the Wintertime when you will get more benefit.

I’m a dog walker, I’m out whatever the weather is like so it doesn’t really bothered me that much.

Can’t say I respond in that way to the weather, but each season has it’s own happiness. Autumn and winter rugby season, so I get to run around after yoof doing my ref duties… the am almost gutted when the season ends cos it’s summer… but mtbing is so much more enjoyable.

I like Summer, it was on a Monday this year so being retired I could enjoy it.  Autumn and preceding it the arrival of heather blooms and brambles is not a time I am fond of  because of what follows Modern winters are just so warm and wet and go on for ages with fewer of the compensations of old, ie snowy hills. December is just desperate.  Oh well there has to be a downside to everything and that’s what you get for living in Scotland.

In all honestly I like them all.

Love a a cold frosty or snowy winter walk but also love a red hot day chilling in a beer garden or the beach.

The older I get the more I appreciate Spring, especially later spring once the blossom gives way to new leaf cover. Everywhere is a beautiful, vibrant green. Even on the greyest days a spell alone & outside does the world of good. I have to try so hard now to be affected as the Autumn comes to a close. A perfect retirement for me would be chasing the Spring & early Summer around the globe, by bike.

@cookeaa – I think that’s not an uncommon feeling!

I think for me I can’t enjoy one without the other. There’s something very nice about dark stormy winter days sometimes, even if I am outside in it. Feels a bit more “elemental” and rewarding or some such woo-woo p**h. Just as there is something amazing about spending an evening in the golden light descending a massive line of singletrack on a purple heather ridge.

this is completely ignoring the op’s question

In terms of temperature, above 25 °c and below -25 are my cutoffs, but it depends on humidity. I like a dry climate.

back on topic, it’s not hot or cold that I want to see the back of, it’s generally conditions that make riding my bike in the woods unpleasant that I want to change for the better

Though autumn is a lovely time of year.