Why are we so bad at dressing for the weather.

Its raining quite hard and it has been for some time this is not a “caught out” situation. On the bus there are three people with drenched down jackets someone wearin a pair of soggy uggs.

When did wet become cold?

Similarly, the other day it was quite windy, people i was with were wrapping up and complaining about it being cold, it was 21degrees.

When did windy become cold?

When did windy become cold?

Since wind chill was “invented”.  It can be 21 degrees and overcast with a strong cold wind and it won’t feel anything like 21 degrees

Likewise it can be 21 degrees with a clear sunny sky and no wind at all.

They do not feel the same and may require different clothing choices.

I am well aware what wind chill is.

On this occasion it was chilling nothing, it was quite clearly not cold. It was bright sunlight and was so bloody hot we were swimming in the tweed.

I even asked them if they actually felt cold, asin does the wind feel cold? And they admitted it wasn’t but it was windy.

You’ve essentially proved my point.

Was there a time in history when people weren’t bored enough to worry about another grown ups clothing choices? I want to go back then.

I think theres a Nordic saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choice.

Being Scottish, I always carry a pair of waterproof trousers in the rackpak, and as i wear a buffalo shirt pretty much all year round, I think I’ve got most situations covered.

In my experience, there are a lot more people who have less contact with nature (weather included) and therefore have no idea how to dress for bad weather, and even when they do buy clothes, weather resistance is not a consideration or and understanding they have.

Many will feel a nylon puffy jacket and think “nylon = waterproof “.

Matt makes a good point.

You are also assuming that these people have the money to have a range of choices of jacket/shoes. (And the sense to choose practical over fashionable)

I Luton it’s not uncommon for people not to be dressed appropriately for the weather, particularly in winter, due to poverty

You should work in a school. A bit of rain and there’s hunners of drenched bairns in hoodies and puffers squelching about.

I often see folk and wonder, based on how ‘overdressed’ they look, if they dress like that in the summer do you even venture outside in winter?

But back to the OP and to quote an ex-colleague – “a Gentleman always carries an umbrella” 🙂

Most people aren’t outdoors people, they’re going from indoors to other indoors people (house, offices, shops, cafe, pubs, cars etc) and think more about how they look socially.

Obviously there can be a poverty element, but they’re not likely to prioritise cheap bad weather gear over cheap fashion gear as it’s not a thing for them.

I’m the opposite, my clothing is cheap, but geared towards being out and about,  without a fashionable thread (street or outdoors) on my body lol!

I’m also also looking at the forecast all the time for different activities. The majority of people never seem to even consider the forecast or tides (If the even know what a tide is).

people who have less contact with nature (weather included) and therefore have no idea how to dress for bad weather

This.

You should work in a school. A bit of rain and there’s hunners of drenched bairns in hoodies and puffers squelching about

• This is true, but also, now my son goes to my school (sorry son) I realise how utterly shite school uniform is for any sort of active travel. Uniform must be worn for going to and from school. Black trousers and black jumper and black coat, but we recommend they use a helmet for cycling!!! The school trousers seem to be made out of a special non drying material. My lad often wear’s other clothes to cycle in and changes at school. This is technically against the rules even if it’s raining.

I think theres a Nordic saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choice.

Wasn’t that Billy Connolly?

I think in the UK we rarely have a consistent run of any particular kind of weather. It sometimes seems like the clothes people are wearing today are the ones they wish they’d put on yesterday. During the spring and autumn whatever you put on at 8am is the wrong clothes by about 11.30

What catches me  out is consistently hot, sunny weather. During lockdown when it seemed to be sunny and dry for weeks on end I realised that I didn’t have enough ‘lovely sunny weather’ clothing in my wardrobe to go for more than 3 or 4 days on the trot without having to do some laundry

I am not judging i am genuinely curious as to why.

Like i sometimes step outside and think, “i got this wrong” and go and adjust the wardrobe du jour. It even necessarily bad weather. I also sometimes get it wrong, and i definitely get caught out occasionally.

But on a rainy day at a bus stop the number of actual waterproofs and umbrellas in this country is notably low.

Putting aside poverty and other genuine issues. It only takes one absolute drenching in down jacket to realise its a bad idea to step out the house in actual rain in one.

Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder

It’s been around long enough that my in-laws had it drilled into them by their parents (and grandparents). Probably predates Billy Connolly. Even seen antique shops selling stuff with it carved/painted on.

Funny thing used to be all the newcomers to the country complaining about how their expensive “winter” clothes weren’t keeping them warm. You know, wool coats with effectively zero wind protection, ideal for the mean streets of central London, not ideal for a coastal scandinavian city. Even the winter gear they sell in the local supermarket is more effective!

It absolutely does my head in seeing people incredibly overdressed on warm sunny days. E.g. wearing a hat, down jacket on a day where I’m in shorts and T shirt. I have no idea why it annoys me quite so much as it does – it really shouldn’t!

See also, wearing wellies when the ground is bone dry everywhere.

I’m not so bothered about people being under dressed for some reason I can’t fathom.

You should work in a school. A bit of rain and there’s hunners of drenched bairns in hoodies and puffers squelching about

You’re going to see a lot of it this morning! Went from a lovely day yesterday to steady – but sideways – rain this morning here. It’s amazing how wet they can get on the 50mtr shuffle from the car/kerbside into the school.

Mrs a11y still doesn’t prepare well. Perhaps I go the other way, but I don’t arrive looking like a drowned rat. If I’m not weraring a waterproof then I’ll always have a packable and/or small folding umbrella in my bag. Made sure the mini a11ys have the same in their school bags: both walk to school regardless of weather as it’s just over a mile or so, so a wee bit of ‘being prepared’ makes it more pleasant.

You’ve essentially proved my point.

Thanks.

The answer to your question is other people don’t care about it as much as you do.  If I go out in a t shirt and it gets a bit colder then I just get a bit colder.  If it is raining a little bit and I can’t be bothered to take a coat (as I have to put it somewhere when I get to where I am going) then I may get a bit wet.

And because I don’t care I don’t notice what other people are up to.

My daughter’s primary school has a real good knack of keeping the gates shut for an extra 2-3 minutes when it’s raining, just to make sure everyone (kids and parents) gets a thorough soaking before the day starts ?

I think people above have covered it.

1. People don’t care that much.

2. People don’t really have much interaction with the weather. The extend they’ll feel it will be a short walk to the bus stop or to their car, then a similar distance to their place of work at the end of the day. If you’re outside for 10 mins max all day they you can pretty much wear anything.

Back in my tree cutting days my boss’ favourite phrase was, if you want to see what the weather is, look at someone who works in an office.

At work I either pull on my big boy pants and accept I’m getting soaked knowing that I have a full change in my van for the drive home or I chuck on my full waterproofs and wellies.

As for puffer jackets in the rain. It feels like it should be waterproof, so chuck it on.

I think many folk now, as said above, don’t do outdoors unless they have tocand are more focussed on their fashion perceptions.

But on a rainy day at a bus stop the number of actual waterproofs and umbrellas in this country is notably low.

That would have been me sheltering from the rain at a bus stop yesterday, but I travel around various building sites and don’t have a place to hang any extra clothing & already have a bag of equipment & PPE to carry, plus my skin is waterproof.

I must admit that I have noticed people wearing North Face puffa style jacket in the pissing rain. I can only assume that because it’s an outdoor brand they assume it will be waterproof.

That being said I was wondering to the shops yesterday evening around 6pm, so still pretty warm here, around 22 degrees, and there was a teenage lad wondering around with his North Face puffa jacket on. Must have been sweating something rotten.

Lots of kids at the secondary school don’t wear waterproof jackets when it’s pissing down. Our two are a few of the exceptions that do.

So probably kids not thinking about it and just wearing whatever and like MOAB says I think lots of people are just out of touch with nature and the weather.

And just to prove my point, that’s eldest mini a11y walking to school in the pissing rain with her (good) waterproof jacket, but doesn’t want to use her umbrella “because it looks silly”. Gonna get soaked.

Probably predates Billy Connolly.

Ahh – BC – Before Connolly, before 1942. As opposed to the modern BCE – Before Chris Evans, ie before breakfast.

‘Street Fashion’ has never been ‘Practical’ in the sense of being useful for weather.

Many will feel a nylon puffy jacket and think “nylon = waterproof”

As several people have already alluded to, people see puffy (down) clothing in the shop and think “Oooh, I’ve seen pics of climbers wearing this sort of thing on mountains, it must be great for keeping warm in anything” without the foggiest notion about high altitude conditions. Or any concept of how poorly nylon keeps rain at bay. Or what happens to the down/feathers when they get wet. Plus, a lot of it is branded by names with a mountain heritage of some sort (North Face, Patagonia, Rab, Berghaus, ME etc) so the association is reinforced that way.

Ugg boots? Never understood those, full stop.

Back in my tree cutting days my boss’ favourite phrase was, if you want to see what the weather is, look at someone who works in an office.

Doing that from a tree makes you look like a peeping tom.

warm and wet here in South Lanarkshire, morning dog walk attire was t shirt, shorts, waterproof overtrousers and shell jacket, wellies (Barbour of course 🙂 )

Was just right, not to hot or cold and perfectly dry. The number of folks I encountered either in no waterproofs complaining about the rain, or full winter waterproof kit complaining about the heat….

Dog was in his Equafleece and he was dry and too hot.. 🙂

I regularly see people dressed in clothing more appropriate for hot dry desert weather, even in the depth of winter.

“a Gentleman always carries an umbrella” 🙂

and a handkerchief 🙂

I am always a bit Baden Powell* so rarely get ambushed by changeable weather. However,it does mean that I pack/carry around a load of ‘stuff’.

*be prepared that is, not creepy old scout leader 😉

I regularly see people dressed in clothing more appropriate for hot dry desert weather, even in the depth of winter.

Blinkin students 🙂

We’ve been having an extension done since march. The builders have been working in all weathers, in particular absolute pissing rain for most of the spring. Not a single one has been wearing a waterproof jacket, and these are people who work outside every day of the week, Hollie and Jean’s were appropriate. Perhaps some people aren’t as soft as others?

For a while, I was working in an “outdoors” shop.

Customer: I’d like to buy a North Face jacket.

Me; Sure. Are you looking for a waterproof, fleece or down?

Customer; blank face. One like that (pointing to a big down puffa).

FWIW, The North Face clothing was always displayed to be the first thing visible on entering the store.

Meh, lots of self righteous ‘weather knowers‘ on STW aren’t there…

Personally rather than ascribe it to various character flaws to those without the right jacket or an umbrella, I think it might have more to do with the accuracy and detail of the weather forecasts they typically use

I’m forever asking Alexa for weather information, checking on.my phone or PC, and there’s inevitably a rain shower at least once every couple of weeks that wasn’t shown on the forecast until the very morning it strikes. An afternoon forecast as ‘cloudy’ for several days ahead can easily go either way and become ‘sunny’ or ‘intermittent showers’ without much notice.

I think it might have more to do with the accuracy and detail of the weather forecasts they typically use

I think there may be an assumption there, my experience is that an awful lot of people (stw aside of course..) never consider consulting a weather forecast !

Some people are just colder than others – my wife and her family are like this. It drives me silently nuts when we are in an ostensibly warm restaurant or something, and her parents are sitting there in bodywarmers trying to decide if they can feel a chill or not. Similarly my wife will wear bed socks on a 21 degree summer night and complain if the window is open that it’s chilly. But I guess that’s just their biology.

People do have issues with dressing for weather though. I see on my city’s Reddit page all the time people asking “What should I bring for rain I am visiting from Hull” or similar. It’s not that hard to figure out is it?

Psychological reasons too. Some people have always worn what they wear and to wear anything else doesn’t feel right. There’s also body shame about exposing, for instance some men never wear shorts, or remove their t shirt on the beach (I was one of these until I took up cycling and other exercise and stopped being so skinny).

For the average urban dweller, there’s a lot of protection from the rain. Going from home to work, in and out of vehicles (car or bus), one shop to another. How long are they actually out in the rain?

If you are wearing two layers on the torso, even better if the upper one has a hood, short exposure to rain is tolerable especially in the summer months. Dressing for the temperature (or percieved/effective temperature allowing for moisture and wind) is more important.

On the bus there are three people with drenched down jackets someone wearin a pair of soggy uggs.

Were they kids?  I have 2 teenage daughters, there’s no amount of telling them how inappropriate their clothing is for the current weather / activity, let alone the weather which may come along later in the day!

I must admit that I have noticed people wearing North Face puffa style jacket in the pissing rain. I can only assume that because it’s an outdoor brand they assume it will be waterproof.

North Face is an outdoor brand, it is now also a fashion brand.  The puffa wearers have usually bought it solely as a fashion brand, all they have seen / are interested in is the label, function / association with the outdoors often has zero bearing on the purchase decision.

The mistake you made was: being on a bus, the bottom of the public transport pecking order (speaking as someone who went carless 20 months ago). Were they also vaping and playing tik tok videos out loud? There’s your answer.

Also, what others have said about people being detached from the natural environment. If someone can’t think to check the weather and sunset times before, say, going up Helvellyn, are they going to do it when they walk to the shops?

People are idiots.  The sooner you realise this and stop worrying about things that don’t affect you then the happier you will be.