Mention to a New Yorker that you are from London and their line of small talk will inevitably turn rapidly to their perception of Britain's inclement weather. It never ever stops raining in London, so they will say. They watch Wimbledon every year. "How do you poor people cope? It must SUCK!"
There is a kernel of truth to this: GB has a tame Maritime climate; and the price Britons pay for innocuous winters are cool lame summers, where it tends to rain, steadily.
That being said - and London's rubbish weather notwithstanding - I think it worth pointing out the fact many people find surprising. London has less than HALF the annual precipitation New York has.
According to Wikipedia, 22.95 inches of precipitation fall each year on London, while on average, in NYC, it is 49.7 inches. That is a big lead. Indeed, New York has more rain/snow than Glasgow. Counter-intuitive?
The reason for this is that in New York it tends to come down all at once. In Winter, large "Nor'Easter" blizzards dump their Mid-western load with feet of NY snow. In the Summer, heavy heavy rainstorms (often jazzed up with thunder and lightning) conclude long periods of intense humid heat. In the UK it is far less dramatic and exciting, rain hangs around all year. It IS probably more boring - BUT, all being said, in London it does not rain as much.
This year has actually been a very extreme of this...New York has had one of the wettest June's in its recorded history whilst London began its first decent heatwave in quite a few summers.
...So Britons and Americans both use Umbrellas to shield themselves from the elements. There is a vernacular difference though. Americans don't recognise the term "Brolly". Not a big difference, I guess, but I do feel they miss out on the most appropriate term. This is also further evidence that British-English speakers use the language in a fuller, flexible more alacritous fashion than Americans, who merely seek to ape it.
There is a kernel of truth to this: GB has a tame Maritime climate; and the price Britons pay for innocuous winters are cool lame summers, where it tends to rain, steadily.
That being said - and London's rubbish weather notwithstanding - I think it worth pointing out the fact many people find surprising. London has less than HALF the annual precipitation New York has.
According to Wikipedia, 22.95 inches of precipitation fall each year on London, while on average, in NYC, it is 49.7 inches. That is a big lead. Indeed, New York has more rain/snow than Glasgow. Counter-intuitive?
The reason for this is that in New York it tends to come down all at once. In Winter, large "Nor'Easter" blizzards dump their Mid-western load with feet of NY snow. In the Summer, heavy heavy rainstorms (often jazzed up with thunder and lightning) conclude long periods of intense humid heat. In the UK it is far less dramatic and exciting, rain hangs around all year. It IS probably more boring - BUT, all being said, in London it does not rain as much.
This year has actually been a very extreme of this...New York has had one of the wettest June's in its recorded history whilst London began its first decent heatwave in quite a few summers.
...So Britons and Americans both use Umbrellas to shield themselves from the elements. There is a vernacular difference though. Americans don't recognise the term "Brolly". Not a big difference, I guess, but I do feel they miss out on the most appropriate term. This is also further evidence that British-English speakers use the language in a fuller, flexible more alacritous fashion than Americans, who merely seek to ape it.
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