What summer?

I’ve just returned from a lunchtime break with my shirt soaked by heavy rainfall. Yes, it’s July and, rather than the warm, sunny days we hope for at this time of year, normal service has resumed and it’s wet, wet, wet.

The Met office has today revised its prediction of a barbecue summer and says that August will be unsettled. It seems the week-long heatwave at the back end of June was the closest to summer we’re getting this year.

We Brits love to make small talk about the weather – mostly how bad it is… too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. We’re never happy! But for the majority of us, it never really inconveniences us or stops us doing what we want.

Spare a thought though for those living in desperately poor conditions who must deal with really extreme weather which doesn’t just mean they’ve got to stick on a pair of wellies or put up a brolly – floods, drought, freezing conditions affect their health, homes and livelihoods.

Then we’d have reason to grumble.

Photo credit: Hamed Parham