Study Abroad: The Weather.

When you study abroad through the Study Abroad program at St. Mike's you will almost certainly experience weather different from that you experience at St. Mike's and, perhaps, your home. There will be hot and cold, dry and wet, humid and arid and a mixture of just about everything. What will be most markedly different will be the weather patterns. In other words, how will your daily life be affected, or not, by the weather?

This picture taken by Prof. Jeff Ayers this week shows the Winooski river in major flood mode; a result of large amounts of rain falling over a very short space of time. This happens frequently in Vermont during the Spring just as we get significant snowfall in the winter. The weather in Vermont is also predictable because we have more of a continental climate.

In the UK, the climate is a maritime climate which means that it's quite often difficult to say exactly what the weather will be like during any 24hr period. When it's windy like it's been for the past three days it goes from bright sun to cloud to steady downpour to 'drizzle' and back to bright sun all in the space of twenty minutes. It can then cycle through this sequence for a whole day every twenty minutes especially if it is windy.

So you do what the British do which is to grin and bear it, keep a "stiff upper lip" and carry a brolly if you are going anywhere important. If not, just get a little wet and dry out during the sunny periods. The other picture above is of a camper van rally I went to this weekend in southern Scotland. There were over 500 families with their VW camper vans in the almost constant rain having an incredible time.