The weather

In the eighteenth century, British author Samuel Johnson wrote 'When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather'. This observation has kept its validity through the centuries, and the weather is a common obsession for those living in northern Europe. After all, everyone likes sunny and dry weather, but the climate in northern Europe often implies the opposite. The weather tends to be very unsettled in that region because of the influence of the North Sea, and this leads to unavoidable frustrations.

Generally, winters in northern Europe are cold, with an average temperature around the freezing point. In the high north, the temperature is obviously much lower. In the Scandinavian countries, snow falls almost every year during winter, but in more southern countries such as Germany or the Netherlands, people often vainly look forward to a white winter. Some winters are ice-cold there, and lakes and even canals will freeze, but other winters are milder, and the lakes and canals hardly freeze or don¹t freeze at all. As a result, the 'Elfstedentocht', the famous skating race on Frisian canals in the north-west of the Netherlands, sometimes cannot be organised for periods as long as twenty years. Obviously, this race can only take place if the canals are covered with a thick layer of ice.

Summers in northern Europe are generally quite warm. The maximum temperatures can amount to 30 degrees Celsius. During sporadic heat waves they can even reach up to 40 degrees. Such exceptionally hot weather is generally succeeded by thunderstorms at night, and thunder and lightning often entail heavy showers. These sultry temperatures should definitely not be generalised. Firstly, this kind of weather seldom lasts a whole summer and furthermore, these countries often have four seasons in one day. Thus, in one day during any season, it is perfectly possible to experience successively periods of sun, rain, (with the accompanying rainbow), hail, warmth, cold, strong wind, a soft breeze and calm.

Despite the fact that everyone should be used to the unpredictability of the weather by now, many people faithfully watch the weather forecast every evening full of hope, only to find the next day that the prediction did not come true. Somehow, everybody keeps on hoping for a dry and sunny day, but unfortunately, especially in autumn, winter and spring, it is often overcast with many showers and only now and then sunny spells. During those seasons it may rain cats and dogs for days and the mornings are often foggy. But the unsettled weather can also have nice surprises in store. Occasionally, people in Flanders may enjoy the first sunbeams on pub terraces already in February. That is with their glass of beer in one hand and -just to be sure- an umbrella in the other, but such an unexpected moment of summer in the middle of winter makes up for dozens of drizzly days during summer.

Nothing is as unmanipulatable as the weather and the weather obsession is not restricted to northern Europe. Expressions such as 'April showers bring forth May flowers' and conventional wisdom such as 'when the swallows fly high, the weather will be nice' are spread world-wide. In Italy, a red sky at night means nice weather, while a red sky in the morning is an indicator of bad weather. In South Africa, people know that it will rain the day after the flying ants swarm out, and in Russia, the weather will be nice when many stars are visible in the sky at night. Furthermore, numerous books, films and songs concern the weather. Remember 'Chasing the Monsoon' by the author Alexander Frater, the Hollywood disaster film 'Twister', and the song 'Four Seasons in One Day' by the Australian group Crowded House.

The following extract from 'The Lost Continent' by American writer Bill Bryson will sound familiar to many northern-Europeans: 'Wet spring had merged imperceptibly into bleak autumn. For months the sky had remained a depthless grey. Sometimes it rained, but mostly it was just dull... It was like living inside Tupperware.'