Young people in particular have some surprising preferences
Everybody knows that we Brits like to talk about the weather – from moaning about another day of drizzle to hoping we get a glimpse of sunlight at the weekend. With things being so changeable recently, pivoting seamlessly from unseasonably mild rainy days to brief but hot sunny spells, there’s certainly been a lot to talk about.
But there always seems to be an assumption that the British public uniformly favour certain weather types – any tabloid can tell you that Brits love a scorcher, while few forecasters talk about torrential downpours being something to look forward to. But what do the public themselves think? A recent YouGov survey asked the Brits to tell us how much they like each of 15 different weather types, with some being more popular than you might have thought.
Unsurprisingly, Britons do like the sun, with ‘warm and sunny’ being overwhelmingly popular. Nine in ten (88%) of us ‘like’ or ‘love’ warm and sunny weather, with only 5% saying they ‘dislike’ or even ‘hate’ it. It is also the only weather type outright loved by half (50%) the public.
While ‘hot and sunny’ is still popular, it is only liked by two-thirds (67%) – about the same as like it being cold and sunny (70%), although more people outright love it being hot and sunny (31% vs 19%). Additionally, while few (8%) dislike a cold and sunny day, more than one in five (22%) Brits don’t like it being too hot.
Some form of sunshine might be popular virtually across the board, but it’s by no means the only weather type enjoyed by the majority of the public. Most (53%) like or love snow, while 51% of Brits are partial to a bit of thunder and lightning. But aside from sun, snow and storms, no other weather type manages to generate a positive emotion from even a quarter of Britons.
Cloudy and overcast days seem to generate mainly apathy, with around half (49-53%) neither liking or disliking them. Light rain and showers similarly fail to excite much strong feeling in either direction, lacking a majority in favour or against them. By contrast, fog, wind, drizzle and hail sit firmly in the ‘unpopular’ column, liked by only 12-15% of Britons and disliked by a clear majority (57-68%).
For the title of nation’s least favourite weather type, it’s a little open to interpretation. Heavy rain has the most outright haters of any weather (29%), but it’s not universal and somewhat divisive in its unpopularity, attracting support from one in five (20%) Britons. It is sleet, however, that is overall the least popular when considering all views – only 7% like or love it, while 75% dislike or even hate it – significantly more than the 65% who dislike heavy rain.
Younger Britons get more of a kick out of snow and light rain than their elders
One of the most intriguing findings is the clear age curve that seemingly exists in terms of attitudes towards many weather types. Younger Brits are less likely to say they enjoy sunny weather than middle-aged or older Britons, but more likely to say they like or love every other type of weather, including rain, fog, hail and even being overcast.
Snow is one of the most startling examples – twice as many 18-24 year olds (71%) say they feel positively towards it than over 65s (36%), with it being the second most popular weather type among 18-24s after ‘sunny and warm’, ahead of both ‘sunny and cold’ and ‘sunny and hot’.
Light rain is another stand out case. Despite being liked by less than a quarter (23%) of all Brits, nearly half (46%) of 18-24 year olds say they like or love it.
What is the public’s ideal outdoor temperature?
Of course, whether it is raining, sunny or something else is only a part of the weather, with temperature also something that can spark a lot of discussion. As we’ve seen Brits express a preference for warm and sunny over either cold and sunny or hot and sunny, it’s not surprising that their ideal outdoor temperature sits somewhere in the low-20s.
The most common individual response is 20°C, which is the ideal temperature of 15% of Britons, but the median answer is 21°C. Overall, half (49%) of Brits say their favourite temperature is between 20°C and 23°C, with just one in nine (11%) favouring anything below 18°C and only 6% saying something above 25°C.
Again, there is some age variation here – 37% of 18-24s say their ideal temperature is between 20°C and 23°C, compared to six in ten over 65s (60%). Instead, 36% of younger people say they prefer a cooler temperature, something true of just one in five (20%) over 65s.
Regional variation is also noticeable – particularly between Scotland and London. Four in ten Scots (40%) favour a temperature below 20°C, compared to just 15% of Londoners, while only 18% of Scottish people say their ideal heat is more than 23°C, against more than a third (35%) of those who live in London. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the median ideal temperature gets gradually warmer as you travel south – being 20°C in Scotland, 21°C in the North, Midlands and Wales, 22°C in the South and 23°C in London.
See the full results here
What do you feel about the temperature, the weather in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
