Everybody Talks About the Weather

. . . but nobody does anything about it, said the19th-century American writer and editor, Charles Dudley Warner. This thought was often quoted by his friend and admirer, Mark Twain. 

The entire UK and Ireland have been plagued by winter storms, flooding, and high winds for this past month or more and it got me thinking—have I chosen the wettest place in the United Kingdom to live? Not hardly, it turns out. But it's wet enough. And the wind blowing in from the Irish Sea can knock a person over. I've seen it happen.

Liverpudlians, or Scousers, as the locals call themselves, don't seem to notice either the wind or the rain. Some people I pass on the street are, like me, wrapped up tight in hooded rainwear and watch caps. Others are trying to carry umbrellas in the wind. Are they tourists or newbies? Maybe. But even on the darkest, rainiest days, I see lots of people walking around in T-shirts. 

This unhappy young woman seems to be frozen on that stone bench. 



Nearby Leeds and Glasgow to the north are wetter towns. The truth is the climate in Liverpool is mild, mild all year-round. There are no subzero days, as in Canada, and none of those life-threatening 40-plus centigrade temperatures in summer that you might have to face in the rest of Europe. 

Below you see a dramatic low-hanging fog on the River Mersey. Sorry, but I don't take my cameras out in the rain. No way.



Famously, Seville is the hottest city in Europe, but I was lucky in the eight months that I lived there. It hit 40 centigrade the day before I arrived and again the day after I left. Perfect timing. 

I'll finish with a snap of one of Liverpool's most famous landmarks, the Three Graces, at dusk on a pleasant, almost-dry evening. We do get them sometimes.