How shocking is the weather in UK England for foreigners?

I was born in Romania and came to UK from Marseille France and the weather was a complete shock for us here. Even though we were warned by our friend who lives here, and despite the fact that we came to visit ahead of relocation to scout the place, we were still hit hard by it. Remarkably during our visit here, it didn’t rain once, so whoever was working on the sales pitch up there, did a very good job.

So basically this is winter in UK:

It’s not freezing temperature or anything, but temperature still hover around 6 degrees C (43 F) , add to that the unforgiving wind and cold rain and it feels more like 2 deg C (36 F). And it stays like this for a very long time. Imagine waking up every day to rain and grey skies, gets depressing right? …well it kind of is, and official British government stats confirm it.

And then one day, it changes to this:

Winter months of January and February are the best in UK in my opinion. It’s usually sunny and mild. This is the only time when the weather here is usually better than in my home country Romania. Even if I don’t miss the brutal freezing wind that leaves scratches on your face, I do miss however the snow. In my home city of Constanta, we rarely get snow due to the proximity of the Black Sea, but every once in a while you get this magical landscape:

And even if there is no snow in our city, there is always just 4 hours away the Prahova Valley which is packed with top Ski Resorts:

But let’s get back to the UK. The winter sun doesn’t usually last long, and soon goes back to this:

Add to that grey dark landscape the fact that in in the North of England, during the winter months the sun comes up at 9 AM and it’s already dark by 4 PM. Good times right?

Spring came, that was simply beautiful. Almost a whole full month without rain and grey skies. But hey, summer is just around the corner. This was the beginning of our last summer here:

But after a few bad summer weeks, finally some good weather came our way. By some God like miracle, there were almost 2 months of sunshine last year with average temperatures of 18 to 22 deg C (64 to 72 F). And due to a heat wave , we got 2 weeks of more than 25 deg C temperatures! (77 F) Can you imagine that? A whole 2 weeks of actual summer temperatures, there was even one day when it spiked to 30 deg C (86 F). Amazing right? ….but like all good things, by the middle of August it went back to this :

That there in the photo above is my neighbor’s inflatable kids pool, filled with big chunky pieces of ice called hail. These August phenomenon is not a strange occurrence here from what my British colleagues told me. I do admire the British people, they are very resilient and though. For us, summer means from 30 to 40 degrees C (86 to 104 F). Here when we are shacking due to the cold with a thick winter jacket on us, some of the locals are still in shorts and short sleeve enjoying the day out.

September and October were kind of nice I guess, it was a more or less 50–50 ratio of rainy days vs not rainy days. We even had a BBQ in October despite the ugly depressive weather.

Now comparing that to France or my home country Romania, just makes me seriously consider why would anyone (including me) would ever relocate to this wet depressive island? I’m joking , I know why (£££). This was me in our vacation to our home country Romania on the 20th of September same year by the way:

So was the weather in UK a shock for us as foreigners used to going to the beach at the end of September? …yes, very much so

What do you think, did I miss anything? I am waiting for your opinions in the comments section or on the Fb page GarciaCalavera.com. You can also drop a like there to subscribe to future articles. Thank you.

Check out other expat lifestyle articles:

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• How is cycling in UK? Is the bicycle a reliable transport option here?
• What is something that you can do in Romania that a person in the United Kingdom can not do?
• How shocking is the weather in UK England for foreigners like us?
• What are the most shocking facts about UK?
• UK Point Based Immigration System 2021 – How does it work?
• Memories from my first voyage on the Albatros school ship
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• What do the Romanians in UK think about Brexit – their lives here and is it still worth coming to the UK? 
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• Bucharest weekends 2014 , 
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How the other half lives :  Karachi ,  Guayaquil  , Lagos