British people talk a lot about the weather. It’s official! In a recent survey carried out in England, 38 per cent of participants said they had talked about the weather in the past hour, and an extraordinary 94 per cent had talked about the weather in the previous six hours. So, why do we do it? And what are the characteristics of a British-style weather conversation?
UNPREDICTABLE
To be fair, British weather is famously unpredictable. A single day can pass from sunshine and showers, through thick cloud and strong winds, and back to sunshine. It makes it difficult to choose what clothes to put on in the morning: sundress... scarf… Wellington boots? You might need all of them.
It’s the geographical position of the British Isles that causes our changeable and potentially interesting weather. Being right on the edge of the Atlantic and caught in the Gulf stream really interferes with Britain’s weather patterns. But, even so, is British weather really that interesting? After all, we rarely experience extreme weather phenomena, such as tornadoes or monsoons. Can so much time spent on weather talk really be justified?
Social ritual
Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, argues in her excellent book Watching the English, that the obsession with talking about the weather is actually less about weather and more about social interaction. When a stranger waiting at a bus stop in England says, “Chilly, isn’t it?” do they really want a conversation about the weather? No, they don’t! Fox argues that the question is not about the weather at all, but is in fact part of an important social ritual. It is a way of greeting another person.
Chilly, isn’t it?
When someone asks, “How are you?” they expect you to say, “Fine, thanks!” and do not expect to hear a comprehensive list of your medical conditions. And, it’s the same with weather questions. An appropriate response to “Chilly, isn’t it?” might be “Yes, freezing!” or “Ooh, terrible!” or simply “Mmm!”
Fox compares English weather conversations to the practice of grooming among primates. Chimpanzees, for example, will sit and clean the fur of other chimpanzees, not because the fur is particularly dirty, but to build social relationships. In a similar way, simple weather conversations are a way of building social cohesion.
50 words for rain
Although any type of weather is a possible topic for the UK weather conversation, rain is probably the most common phenomenon. So, just as it is claimed that the Inuit have fifty words for snow, there are plenty of words and phrases in English for describing the precise nature of rain. Note that although there is a lot of rain in the UK it’s usually moderate, so expressions to describe very light rain are particularly useful.
“It’s drizzling”
“It’s mizzling”
“It’s spitting”
“It’s pouring”
“It’s pelting”
“It’s bucketing”
"The heavens have opened”
“Lovely weather for ducks!”
“It’s raining cats and dogs!”
