Weather WTF

[mongers]

Holy Shit it's 17.9C here, 30 mins after sunset.

[garbon]

Holy Shit it's 17.9C here, 30 mins after sunset.

We are continuing to heat up through the night so every hour is warmer.

[mongers]

Holy Shit it's 17.9C here, 30 mins after sunset.

We are continuing to heat up through the night so every hour is warmer.

Now can you understand the national obsession with "The Weather"? 

[garbon]

Holy Shit it's 17.9C here, 30 mins after sunset.

We are continuing to heat up through the night so every hour is warmer.

Now can you understand the national obsession with "The Weather"? 

Oh Kate Fox prepared me.

One of the first cultural phenomena Fox uncovers is the English obsession with the weather. She notes how conversations often begin with a discussion about the weather, serving as a social lubricant, and a way to establish common ground. She coins the term 'weather-speak' to describe this uniquely English practice.

[Sheilbh]

Social grooming - like monkeys cleaning each other

Weirdly a lot colder in my flat than outside

[HVC]

Isn't that a general Anglo-Saxon trait? We do it in canuckland too

[crazy canuck]

Uniquely English?

[Sheilbh]

From when Kate Fox was talking about it (I have spoken about the weather in the last 60 minutes)

According to recent research, 94% of British respondents admit to having conversed about the weather in the past six hours, while 38% say they have in the past 60 minutes. "This means at almost any moment in this country, at least a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or is about to do so," says social anthropologist Kate Fox, who performed the studies in 2010 for an update of her book Watching the English.

[Barrister]

From when Kate Fox was talking about it (I have spoken about the weather in the last 60 minutes)

According to recent research, 94% of British respondents admit to having conversed about the weather in the past six hours, while 38% say they have in the past 60 minutes. "This means at almost any moment in this country, at least a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or is about to do so," says social anthropologist Kate Fox, who performed the studies in 2010 for an update of her book Watching the English.

Those sort of numbers don't sound out of line for Canada - at least in winter.

(high of -19c today here in jolly 'ole Edmonton)

[crazy canuck]

Talking about the weather is how we do small talk here.

[Sheilbh]

That doesn't surprise me. I think same in Japan (which comes up a lot in her book because of similarities in polling on social attitudes/behaviour). But different than other cultures where it's okay to ask direct personal questions as small talk (that to British - and I assume Japanese or Canadian ears seem rude or a bit too personal). Definitely chatted to some Americans who had to calibrate their small talk living here (And no doubt the opposite would appeal in the other way as Americans wonder why we're wittering on about rain instead of showing an interest in the person we're talking to...)