Learning English

Just how bad is British Weather?

British weather is famous for being cold, wet and just not very nice. How true is this? Beth spoke to BBC Weather forecaster and presenter Simon King to find out. Watch this video to practise your listening skills and learn useful vocabulary to talk about British weather.

1. Comprehension quiz

Watch the video and answer the questions.

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More in this series: How we talk about weather

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2. Vocabulary quiz

Fill the gaps in this quiz to test yourself.

cloudy
describes weather where there are a lot of clouds

rainy
describes weather where this is a lot of rain

moisture
water

weather system
the movement of warm and cold air

pick up
take/get

rainfall
the amount of rain that falls

thunderstorm
electrical storms with thunder and lightning

drizzle
very light rain

bout
a short period of activity 

changeable
unstable, changes often

unpredictable
impossible to tell what will happen next

season
a period of the year with distinct weather, like spring, summer, autumn and winter

heatwave
consecutive days where the temperature is above a certain temperature

drought
a period with insufficient rainfall

flooding
where water spreads to land that is usually dry

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Beth
Wet, cold, windy. Just how bad is British weather? Let's ask an expert.

And I have found someone who knows all about the weather, meteorologist and BBC weather presenter, Simon King.

Simon King
Hello.

Beth
Welcome.

Simon King
Thank you.

Beth
So, I have a question for you, which is, does it really rain that much in Britain? Because that's what everyone thinks.

Simon King
And that's a very good myth. It is seen as quite a cloudy, rainy sort of country. Let me explain why, first of all, because we've got a big ocean to the west of us, the Atlantic, there's lots of moisture. And so, when you get weather systems coming across the Atlantic, it picks up all that moisture and it rains, particularly in northern and western parts of the UK. so that's quite rainy but as these weather systems move to the south-east it tends to get a bit drier so south-eastern areas of the UK aren't actually all that wet, and it doesn't get as much rainfall as you might think. You might be surprised to know that London actually gets less rainfall per year than Paris, Tokyo, New York, Sydney.

Beth
Sydney?

Simon King
Absolutely.

Beth
OK how does that work? Because that sounds crazy.

Simon King
So, in Sydney you might get really big thunderstorms that can deliver a lot of rainfall whereas in London you might get a day's worth of rain and it might be light rain and drizzle and not really amount to very much. So, overall you get more frequent bouts of rain so it might rain more often in London but the rainfall you get isn't as much.

Beth
Now British people love talking about the weather, why do you think that is?

Simon King
I think it's because where we are in the world, our weather is so changeable so it means we do get weather systems coming in, bringing rain but we also get sunshine, and it's famously British to talk about the weather - national conversation, and it's because I think it's something that connects all of us. Like, we might walk down the streets with an umbrella, it's raining, and you say to somebody in small talk "oh it's a wet day what's not very nice today, is it?" And because it changes so much in the UK, I think it just makes it quite interesting.

Beth
Yeah, it's so unpredictable, like you can… I often say when you go out for the day, you have to dress for all the seasons. You need a coat and an umbrella and maybe your sunglasses.

Simon King
Well again, we can have four seasons in one day which is a fairly typical British saying where say in spring the morning might be really cold, you need to wrap up warm, and then you might get a shower so then you get the rainfall, then the clouds clear because it's spring the Sun is a bit stronger. It's warm in the afternoon so you're taking all your layers off, taking the umbrella off. So, you do really experience the four seasons in one day.

Beth
Yeah, and that's exciting to talk about to British people.

Simon King
Absolutely, yes.

Beth
And how is climate change affecting the weather in the UK?

Simon King
I think the overall effect that many of us will see is extreme weather. So, the weather will just become more extreme, and what I mean by that is our heatwaves will become more frequent, they'll last longer and they'll be hotter so the temperature in them will be higher. We will therefore get droughts, so the summer is expected to be drier and hotter, but then in the winter, the UK is expected to become warmer and wetter. And that means that we could see more flooding. So, when we talk about extreme weather, we're talking about flooding, droughts, heatwaves, strong winds, so those are the sort of things that we in the UK might experience is more of in the future.

Beth
Well, thank you, Simon. That was all very interesting. I think the most surprising thing I've learned is that it rains more in Sydney, Australia than in London. It's crazy.

Simon King
I know, yep.

Beth
So, Britain doesn't get the most rain, but it can rain quite often, even if it's not that heavy. So, if you're coming here, don't forget to bring your umbrella.

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