The British Climate

Generally speaking, the British Isles have a temperate climate, not an extreme one. The prevailing winds over Britain are southwesterly ones. The weather from day to day is variable, because it is controlled by depressions from the Atlantic Ocean which, moving in a northeasterly or easterly direction, pass over or near the British Isles. Occasionally during winter months, between early December and the middle of March, northern winds may sometimes prevail, bringing cold weather and snowfalls which may last for several days or even 2 or 3 weeks, but seldom more than that. The English spring is very changeable, with warm and cold days in between until June. After the first week of May, you can take off your overcoats once and for all until the middle of October. But you certainly have to keep your raincoats and umbrellas close at hand, in any case.

There is always plenty of rain in Britain the whole year round. As a rule, the month with the least rainfall is July. At best, out of the 31 days of July, you might get 21 days of dry weather and sunshine. In July of 1973, London did not see a single drop of rain, but that was a rare exception. At that time, foreign tourists kept on asking the British where they had "imported" their sunshine from. Throughout the British Isles there is an annual rainfall of about 110 centimeters. England alone gets 89 centimeters annually of that British total. On an average, May to July are the driest months in England, and November to early March the wettest. A period of as long as 3 weeks without rain is exceptional and normally confined to limited areas like the coasts of southwest England, Wales and the west coast of Scotland. June and July are the months of longest sunlight: from about 4:30 am to 10:00 pm.