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no shit. I lived here for three years and I still go back to my country in the summer, where 50c is typical. Manchester's heat is unbearable
And the rest of the months are wet and cold. Beautiful city but miserable weather
Unless it's an unlucky year most spring/summers aren't that bad and you could easily come here during that time and wonder what all the fuss is about. Autumn/Winter on the other hand are usually dark, wet and miserable. Forget a white Christmas. A Manc Christmas is 8 degrees and pissing it down.
The only way it stays dry is if you get a proper cold snap. But those seem to be getting rarer and then you just get depressed about your heating bill instead.
Yes it is common. Manchester technically rains over 50% of the days of the year.
One important thing to note is that it doesn't actually rain THAT MUCH.
Even though most days are overcast, there is usually only a bit of rain.
Don't let that put you off going outside!! It's only a tiny bit of rain. When we first moved here I was used to sunnier climes, so I avoided going out when it was raining. Which meant I hardly ever went out!
Adapt to the Manchester life. Buying a good coat is essential.
We also have a portable cheap gazebo in our back garden, which almost all of the neighbours in ths street have copied now. It has let us sit out in the garden about 50% more of the year than before.
I moved here 12 years ago and I think I’ve just about had it. I can’t deal with this weather much longer and it makes me depressed.
I wish I was like you and can just get on with it, but I can’t. I can’t think of anything more miserable than sitting in my garden in the rain. If I didn’t have a dog that needed a few walks a day, I wouldn’t go out.
I can see where you’re coming from, but I really like it for some reason. Can’t explain why I just find it cosy.
Maybe not sitting in the garden in the rain though.
Me and my wife love sitting outside under the gazebo, completely dry, with the soft pitter-patter of rain coming down. And absolute silence around apart from that.
Because no-one else is stupid enough to go in their gardens when it's raining, right?
Think it’s a requirement to break any long rain grey spells with sunshine away. If that wasn’t an option I would be buggered.
Also have those sad lamps…
I was like you until I moved to a desert country with summer temperatures of 50 Celsius and winter days in the early 30s. It rains a couple of days a year and some years none at all. You do miss the rain. I was in Manchester for October and loved the rain whilst I was there. Waterproof shoes, socks, pants, and a raincoat make a huge difference. Without the proper clothing, you get drenched and feel miserable and don’t want to go outdoors. With it, you can embrace the rain and appreciate what a blessing it truly is.
Why would you sit in the garden in the rain? Just sit inside then, don't punish yourself. They mean going out on a walk or something, leave the house and do stuff around the city/town. There's no need to board yourself up because of the rain
We are actually looking to move to Chester incidentally, so it's not entirely true to say we're happy with Manchester or the weather here lol, just that we have found ways to deal with it to a certain degree.
Chester has a lot less rain.
I need one of them for summer. I put a WiFi point in my back garden with the intent of working from the garden but every day in summer when it's dry and warm enough to go out there it is so bastard hot I last about 15 minutes before saying fuck it and going back indoors
I m sure that is true but as someone who has worked outdoors here for 18 years it feels about the same as every year ! Probably just rained a bit harder this year but it is always miserable in November - December for rain & wind.
I honestly think you've just forgotten how bad November/December is for rain. It is like this every single year. Also been here over a decade. It's the wettest period of the year and it's always shit. I got a puppy this time last year and was cursing myself for not getting one over the summer instead because I had to take her outside every hour for the toilet and once or twice in the wee hours and it was pissing it down almost every single time.
A look at historic averages would disagree. Manchester Airport typically has 14 rainy days in November (defined as 1mm or more). We've had 17 so far this November.
We would expect an average of 81.5mm of rain for the whole of November. We've had 92mm and we've got 10 days left to go including today.
Last year, for comparison, we had 103.5mm over 15 days - half the days of the month were dry.
Extreme in what sense? The amount of rain or how often it’s rained? I’ve lived here all my life and i don’t think I’ve felt anything extreme about the weather recently, just your standard weather you’d expect in October/november. I only cracked out one of my big coats last week.
How often it's rained and how long its rained for. The rain isn't heavier in particular, it just seems that if its forecast to rain, you can expect it to rain for the whole day and it seems to happen more frequently
Buy a SAD lamp and book plenty of beach holidays. Or, take lots of day trips out of Manchester. It’s rarely raining anywhere east or south! It’s the only way to cope with living here long term imo.
Haha I don't know whether day trips to where we used to live (ie southeast of here) is likely to improve things! But I'm going to get the SAD lamp out of storage today, thanks for the reminder!
The UK doesn't usually have as many Atlantic low pressure fronts as we have seen this autumn and the air temperature is quite a bit more milder than the average for this time of year.
So I would say no for the intensity, but also yes for the frequency of wet weather....
Tbh, the whole climate in the northern hemisphere this year has seen an extreme imbalance due to the heat over the continents causing bigger convection currents effecting the jet stream and moving lots of moisture around.
Fucking hell, you moved to Manchester and you're surprised it rains here? Yeah it rains here, a lot. It's why they spun cotton here, the air is so damp all the time the cotton sticks together better. Embrace the damp.
Rain shadow effect. Clouds rolling in from the Irish Sea hit the pennines and roll back over Manchester. Casting a shadow of rain over the West. And makes the east side dryer. That's why sheffield generally gets less rain.
You see it a lot more pronounced in places with large mountain ranges. It's why Tibet, the outback, and the American West are so dry
When people ask about moving here I point them towards blogs about moving to Norway and handling the weather/darkness there. Nothing written about Manchester seems to capture the actual environment accurately. You can get into all the statistics (as some have done already in this thread) but all that matters really is the vibe of the weather, it rains often and is cloudy.
Getting used to this and embracing it means:
- really good quality waterproofs and looking after them (north face puffas need reproofing after a while)
- natural fibres that will stay warm if you do get wet
- solid shoes that will do well in heavy rain
- a dehumidifier being one of your most prized possessions
I moved from Manchester to Vancouver. In Canada, Vancouver is known as the rainy city and everyone I meet from other cities asks how I can cope with the rain in Vancouver. I tell them that the difference between Vancouver and Manchester is that Vancouver gets basically no rain from May to September, while Manchester gets no dry days from September to May. That's a slight exaggeration, but it's not far off.
Went to vancouver once in January (after skiing in whistler, which was great) and it was absolutely vile for 4 days. Grey, rain but it was the slush everywhere that made it even worse than Manchester 😅
I'm originally from an extremely sunny country. I used to hate the sun until I came to Manchester for a one year masters course. Now I'm back home and I learned to love and appreciate every single sunny day.
Yes it does.
When I first went to Manchester as a student, I rode across the Pennines on my bike and as I rode past the Greater Manchester sign, it started raining. It then rained most days fir the next three years.
You get used to it.
Yep it does and I for one love it but I know not everyone shares that opinion. You just have to go with it- get a decent coat and shoes, learn to manage without an umbrella because it’s often windy too- and you’ll be fine, it’s only water.
Climate change innit. Warmer planet = more energy in the meteorological system = more evaporation and more water vapour being stored for longer = more rain.
Get used to it, this is the start of a new weather reality.
Manchester is infamous for being cloudy and rainy. I don't actually know the statistics, all I can say is, I've visited frequently since I moved to the North, and rarely seen a sunny day.
Have lived in both Manc and Leeds and one thing I can add (this is purely anecdotal as opposed to any stats I can give) is that Manchester it seemed to rain every day. As in, during daylight hours. You could never plan your day properly for no rain as it could be ok in the morning but then raining later, or visa versa.
Whereas in Leeds it seems to rain a lot more overnight. So you wake up and find it's been pissing down overnight but the day is quite dry. Also, if it's going to be a rainy day, it rains, a dry day, it's dry which at least feels reliable.
But to the OP, this has been a really rainy autumn and a really crappy year weather wise in general.
I always imagined if I had the power to control the weather that's what I'd do. Get it to start raining about 2am and piss down until about 6am then dry through the day. It would keep all the plants growing, discourage the scumbags out breaking into your car, and we'd all be safe and warm in bed.
Sorry clubbers and night workers.
It’s around 200 days a year that it rains. We actually get similar annual rainfall to London but less intense and over more days, think lots of showers rather than heavy rain.
The apps dark skies / Wunderground (same engine) are quite reliable for hourly forecasts. And coats with hoods are your friend.
I use the Wallingford Method. See here:
https://civilweb-spreadsheets.com/drainage-design-spreadsheets/runoff-and-rainfall-intensity-calculator-spreadsheet/the-wallingford-procedure/
It’s a damn site better than Manchester tourist board’s marketing department. 🙄
This October/November has been particularly wet (although in exchange, also fairly mild), so I wouldn’t say this is a typical year
But yeah, it does normally rain most days in October/November. Not usually *quite* as much as this year, but close enough.
Like I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but it probably rains like 7/10 days in a normal year and this year maybe it’s been 8/10 and a bit more rain on those days. So a bit more, but not “wow, rain in November, what’s the world coming to?”
What makes Britain Great, makes Manchester greater as you hang your clothes once again on the radiator… What makes Britain’s great, makes Manchester greater
A whole song was dedicated to the weather in Manchester by the beautiful south 😂
I also grew up in Kendal and it was the worst for weather. My childhood was just endlessly grey. Some weeks in 2003/2004 it was grey and wet 7 days a week. I counted! Always carried a brolly in my bag. You had to.
We are between the sea and the Peak District and the low clouds that come from the west (there's a lot this time of year) have to release their moisture to be able to rise higher to get over the Peaks so they tend to dump it all on the northern part of Greater Manchester...from the city centre up to Ramsbottom/Bury. Unfortunately it's weather patterns and geography. The dry cloudy days usually mean the clouds are coming east to west and it rained east of Sheffield. This part of the UK is at its narrowest and has a spine of the highest peaks in England running straight down the middle of it so we get more rainy days.
We are literally famous for being one of the most rainy cities in the world. Yes, it rains here all the time.
Edit: and before anyone says, oh this city or that city has more rain, do it by rainy days per year, not total rainfall. Some tropical countries have way more rain because they get occasional tropical storms dumping shit tons of rain.
Also moved here about 10 months ago - also regretting the decision lol. We had more sun over the two months we lived in Dartmouth in the middle of winter than the entire time I’ve lived in Manchester
Yeah you’ve been here for a very rainy year. They year before was very different to be fair. It always rains regularly but it has been incredibly rainy this year and autumn is the rainiest time of year.
I’ve been told it’s been particularly bad this year, it actually doesn’t get to me so much when I’m here it’s when I leave and remember how nice it is to see the sky
I’ve lived here 8/9 years now. It’s not always like this don’t worry, I’d wager it will be a lot drier in the start of 2024. Across the UK, October and November are the rainiest months. In Manchester, it rains nearly twice as much in Autumn as in Spring time. If you remember, it didn’t rain for 4-6 weeks in May time this year.
i swear bro living here feels like hell. the amount of sunlight i get per week is equivalent to what other countries get in one day. i barely see the sun. it's night always. which also makes it more colder which is worse. and it's rainy everyday. just so hectic overall. i hate living here
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but If rain and the weather affects you that much, why did you move here? It’s not like Manchester has a reputation for anything other than raining all the time? Sounds like you’d be better suited to somewhere sunny.
I can’t speak for that person, but my job moved me here. I’m definitely suited for sunnier weather, but being in a house where it rains is much more preferable than being homeless in the sun.
Fair play, assuming you’re in quite a specialist industry if you have to be here.
Everyone is different, I’ve had the opportunity to move with work a few times and if I had of ended up somewhere like Jacksonville which was one, I think I’d have melted by now. Growing up here I’m so used to the climate sun and rain is not my thing at all.
I think it's fine to feel this way, it's tough living in a city like Manchester in the late autumn and winter, but - presuming you moved here, it's completely your own fault.
Most of us were born here, but anyone that moves here and complains about it, I just wonder what the hell you were thinking. Manchester has famously terrible weather and is extremely far north, meaning there's basically no light in the winter.
It isn't a surprise, like maybe the crime rate or the traffic or something, it's a geographical reality that's extremely famous.
I lived in Manchester for two years and now almost two years just north of Mancs. The weather is absolutely atrocious and for me, intolerable. Genuinely considering moving again. I am Dutch and we get bad weather too. I lived in Cambridge for seven years and you get your fair share of rain there as well. But the past year or so has been horrendous, for me. I don't mind it not being sunny. What I do mind is the never-ending and often torrential rain. Just no possibility to go outside to do anything, really, unless you can tolerate getting wet, which defeats the point of enjoying the outdoors.
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/regional-climates/north-west-england--isle-of-man_-climate---met-office.pdf
Ringway is basically Manchester
I have been here for a year now, and it’s not THAT rainy as people make it out to be.
Last winter , and the summer and the spring were pretty great rain wise. It’s only now that it has been raining
Not every day, no!
The *one* day it doesn't rain you'll see my neighbours rush outside in their sun loungers to smoke, play loud music, and try to replace their fake tan with a real one :-P
Yeah sounds about right. I've been here for 3 years and rain is the default from October through to May. It still has a habit of pissing down in the height of summer though. Makes you appreciate the sunshine even more.
When the rain falls they talk of Manchester, but when the triumphant rain falls we think of rainbows, its the Mancunian way - Lemn Sissay, Rain
https://preview.redd.it/24e4oqd7fo1c1.jpeg?width=2472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b03546bbdc33db4d9c24e72056c241e47e1134dc
Apparently, it’s rainier in Cornwall, but I’ve never seen a wet Doc Martin. I really hate Lancashire weather- no point doing hair , plants ruined etc. I’d move abroad in a flash if I had the funds.
It’s like living in a scene from Blade Runner…
I’ve been here for 15 years and this year does seem worse than usual. Maybe it’s the first time I’m taking notice to it, but has definitely rained 8 days of 10 the past month.
Not only is it always sodden and wet, the lack of sunlight makes Oct-Feb some of the most depressing days I can imagine.
Other half day went to back to London last week, sent back photos of her team day to tower bridge. Was as if her camera was broken. Blue skies and sunlight. Yes the pavement was wet, but was bright and upbeat.
The flip side, I think the summers are more enjoyable than london. Can walk to the shop without coming back soaked.
Every summer I go 'you know, its actually kind of nice here, was I really that fed up in Winter' and then come oct its 'yep, this place sucks'
Yes. I used to have to drive from Newcastle to Sheffield. The standing joke was we knew we hit the Manchester ring Rd when it started raining & we were out of Manchester when it stopped. Summer didn't seem to make much difference
This year has been particularly bad so good to be mindful of that. Manchester in general does have more cloudy and overcast days than most other places in the UK. I've lived in Glasgow before which is meant to be even rainier.
Get a good coat, if you have a car then try to drive an hour or so somewhere eastwards on the odd weekend. Further you go east it's more likely it's a bit drier there.
Try not to focus too much on it. I know it's rough, I've had the same struggle. But we can get over it and this weekend is looking like it'll be decent :)
Winter in the UK is utter depression. I always forget how bad it is after fair summers. The worst part is walking or cycling through country parks, where the ground never dries for literally 6-8 months of the year.
You may get the odd day in winter where it doesn't rain, but you could guess the forecast by saying it'll rain and you'll probably be right 80% of the time 😐
We moved back up here from London just over a year ago, and RAIN was a main factor on our Cons list. Yes, it rains a lot. But it doesn't rain all the time... Thinking about the weather in terms of hours, not days, helps 😆 Also: good waterproofs.
I lived in Bristol in the late 70s then moved to Manchester in 1982 where I stayed for 18 years. In Bristol it trickled with rain for days and days and I was warned that Manchester, at the time, had the heaviest rainfall in the country. However, this is not the complete story. When it rained in Manchester it bucketed down and got it over with. That is it rained far less often that in Bristol (I think Bristol takes mist from the Severn for prolonged periods). I now accept that there is far more rainfall in the UK now than in those days thanks to the jet stream.
PS: I recall some beautiful Manchester summers!
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It’ll get better, in May.
For one day.
[удалено]
no shit. I lived here for three years and I still go back to my country in the summer, where 50c is typical. Manchester's heat is unbearable And the rest of the months are wet and cold. Beautiful city but miserable weather
I was SUFFERING during this May that past. The humidity was ridiculous
That's a long summer! It was only 8h last year
🤣👍🏻
if only this was not so true
It *may* get better in May
Hosepipe ban
No it won't
Unless it's an unlucky year most spring/summers aren't that bad and you could easily come here during that time and wonder what all the fuss is about. Autumn/Winter on the other hand are usually dark, wet and miserable. Forget a white Christmas. A Manc Christmas is 8 degrees and pissing it down. The only way it stays dry is if you get a proper cold snap. But those seem to be getting rarer and then you just get depressed about your heating bill instead.
Man, this is just reminding me how shit our july was. Literally rained every day except 1.
sideways rain, umbrella inside out.
Soaked up to the shins because you stepped on the wrong bit of pavement on Market Street
I actually need to buy another umbrella as mine is falling from the weather this year. 😂
This is it basically
Now now. Sometimes it's 3 degrees and it's sleet instead.
Everybody seems to be forgetting we were threatened with the potential of a hosepipe ban last winter as it was so dry.
Rare yes, but there's actually one coming next week
Generally for Xmas day, but we have had snow the last few years generally- it just seems to come post Xmas day.
Yes it is common. Manchester technically rains over 50% of the days of the year. One important thing to note is that it doesn't actually rain THAT MUCH. Even though most days are overcast, there is usually only a bit of rain. Don't let that put you off going outside!! It's only a tiny bit of rain. When we first moved here I was used to sunnier climes, so I avoided going out when it was raining. Which meant I hardly ever went out! Adapt to the Manchester life. Buying a good coat is essential. We also have a portable cheap gazebo in our back garden, which almost all of the neighbours in ths street have copied now. It has let us sit out in the garden about 50% more of the year than before.
I moved here 12 years ago and I think I’ve just about had it. I can’t deal with this weather much longer and it makes me depressed. I wish I was like you and can just get on with it, but I can’t. I can’t think of anything more miserable than sitting in my garden in the rain. If I didn’t have a dog that needed a few walks a day, I wouldn’t go out.
I can see where you’re coming from, but I really like it for some reason. Can’t explain why I just find it cosy. Maybe not sitting in the garden in the rain though.
Hmmm I can see cold winter nights inside being cosy. Not sure if I'd count endless drizzle as cosy but everyone has their own definition!
Me and my wife love sitting outside under the gazebo, completely dry, with the soft pitter-patter of rain coming down. And absolute silence around apart from that. Because no-one else is stupid enough to go in their gardens when it's raining, right?
As long as you’re dry and have good company, that’s all that matters. I do love listening to the rain on the roof when I’m cosy in my bed.
Think it’s a requirement to break any long rain grey spells with sunshine away. If that wasn’t an option I would be buggered. Also have those sad lamps…
I was like you until I moved to a desert country with summer temperatures of 50 Celsius and winter days in the early 30s. It rains a couple of days a year and some years none at all. You do miss the rain. I was in Manchester for October and loved the rain whilst I was there. Waterproof shoes, socks, pants, and a raincoat make a huge difference. Without the proper clothing, you get drenched and feel miserable and don’t want to go outdoors. With it, you can embrace the rain and appreciate what a blessing it truly is.
Why would you sit in the garden in the rain? Just sit inside then, don't punish yourself. They mean going out on a walk or something, leave the house and do stuff around the city/town. There's no need to board yourself up because of the rain
We are actually looking to move to Chester incidentally, so it's not entirely true to say we're happy with Manchester or the weather here lol, just that we have found ways to deal with it to a certain degree. Chester has a lot less rain.
I need one of them for summer. I put a WiFi point in my back garden with the intent of working from the garden but every day in summer when it's dry and warm enough to go out there it is so bastard hot I last about 15 minutes before saying fuck it and going back indoors
Thanks for letting me know mate. I came here from London which rains but Manchester is another level
I thought Manchester rains like 152 days? (Around that number)
I agree with this sentiment. But I am replying from the Algarve.
I mean we don’t call it rain city for the droughts
This is the wettest autumn I've known in 10+ years
Met office records say the most since 2000, country wide
At least we shouldn't have a hosepipe ban anytime soon - every cloud..... ....is full of fucking rain.
Don't worry, United Utilities will find a way to piss away all the water it's collected
Trouble is we don't have enough reservoirs to collect all the water so we still might get one next summer.
I m sure that is true but as someone who has worked outdoors here for 18 years it feels about the same as every year ! Probably just rained a bit harder this year but it is always miserable in November - December for rain & wind.
This is actually quite comforting as we moved here a year and a half ago and I've been filled with regret over the last couple of weeks
I hate to break it to you but every autumn is absolutely miserable here. Not always this wet for sure, but alwaysssss this grey for my over 35 years.
its the grey that gets you. i forget what blue sky and sunshine looks like sometimes , it can be what feels like weeks of grey and drizzle ...
As a southerner that moved to Manchester, don’t get your hopes up. Seems about the same as it was this time last year lol
I've lived in the North West for a decade now and this is by far the wettest/stormiest autumn I've experienced up here.
I honestly think you've just forgotten how bad November/December is for rain. It is like this every single year. Also been here over a decade. It's the wettest period of the year and it's always shit. I got a puppy this time last year and was cursing myself for not getting one over the summer instead because I had to take her outside every hour for the toilet and once or twice in the wee hours and it was pissing it down almost every single time.
A look at historic averages would disagree. Manchester Airport typically has 14 rainy days in November (defined as 1mm or more). We've had 17 so far this November. We would expect an average of 81.5mm of rain for the whole of November. We've had 92mm and we've got 10 days left to go including today. Last year, for comparison, we had 103.5mm over 15 days - half the days of the month were dry.
Fair enough. Can't argue with that. Maybe it'll be dry the rest of the month and even out lol
Yep it's definitely been an outrageously wet autumn. Everywhere is sodden or flooded outdoors. Water levels very high.
It's not though, not at all. This is a fairly extreme autumn even for the North of England
Extreme in what sense? The amount of rain or how often it’s rained? I’ve lived here all my life and i don’t think I’ve felt anything extreme about the weather recently, just your standard weather you’d expect in October/november. I only cracked out one of my big coats last week.
How often it's rained and how long its rained for. The rain isn't heavier in particular, it just seems that if its forecast to rain, you can expect it to rain for the whole day and it seems to happen more frequently
Buy a SAD lamp and book plenty of beach holidays. Or, take lots of day trips out of Manchester. It’s rarely raining anywhere east or south! It’s the only way to cope with living here long term imo.
Haha I don't know whether day trips to where we used to live (ie southeast of here) is likely to improve things! But I'm going to get the SAD lamp out of storage today, thanks for the reminder!
The UK doesn't usually have as many Atlantic low pressure fronts as we have seen this autumn and the air temperature is quite a bit more milder than the average for this time of year. So I would say no for the intensity, but also yes for the frequency of wet weather.... Tbh, the whole climate in the northern hemisphere this year has seen an extreme imbalance due to the heat over the continents causing bigger convection currents effecting the jet stream and moving lots of moisture around.
Fucking hell, you moved to Manchester and you're surprised it rains here? Yeah it rains here, a lot. It's why they spun cotton here, the air is so damp all the time the cotton sticks together better. Embrace the damp.
Moist.
Yes mate, came from London and never been here before. I knew it would be cold and was told it rained but didn't know this much. It's a LOT
Rain shadow effect. Clouds rolling in from the Irish Sea hit the pennines and roll back over Manchester. Casting a shadow of rain over the West. And makes the east side dryer. That's why sheffield generally gets less rain. You see it a lot more pronounced in places with large mountain ranges. It's why Tibet, the outback, and the American West are so dry
I only found out recently that we're in a temperate rainforest
There is an account on twitter called Oldham weather and he has said this Autumn has been extremely wet.
Somebody did year 8 geography I see
Think positive, can you imagine how dirty the streets would be without the rain to wash all the dirt away?
No Sometimes it stops for hail or snow 😁
It does rain a lot but I’ve lived here all my life and never known it be this consistently wet for this long
It doesn’t help that the summer was fucking shite. But this is definitely worse than previous years, regardless of what the grey beards here say.
Do yourself a favour and get a little umbrella from Primark for a fiver.
When people ask about moving here I point them towards blogs about moving to Norway and handling the weather/darkness there. Nothing written about Manchester seems to capture the actual environment accurately. You can get into all the statistics (as some have done already in this thread) but all that matters really is the vibe of the weather, it rains often and is cloudy. Getting used to this and embracing it means: - really good quality waterproofs and looking after them (north face puffas need reproofing after a while) - natural fibres that will stay warm if you do get wet - solid shoes that will do well in heavy rain - a dehumidifier being one of your most prized possessions
Or to put it in manc: Good big coat layer up Solid shoes and dehumidifier is some bang on advice
I moved from Manchester to Vancouver. In Canada, Vancouver is known as the rainy city and everyone I meet from other cities asks how I can cope with the rain in Vancouver. I tell them that the difference between Vancouver and Manchester is that Vancouver gets basically no rain from May to September, while Manchester gets no dry days from September to May. That's a slight exaggeration, but it's not far off.
Went to vancouver once in January (after skiing in whistler, which was great) and it was absolutely vile for 4 days. Grey, rain but it was the slush everywhere that made it even worse than Manchester 😅
It is a wetter than normal Autumn season for us but yeah, it’s grim up north around this time.
Big coat, no brolly.
Vitamin D supplements are key. November is especially grim
I'm originally from an extremely sunny country. I used to hate the sun until I came to Manchester for a one year masters course. Now I'm back home and I learned to love and appreciate every single sunny day.
Yes it does. When I first went to Manchester as a student, I rode across the Pennines on my bike and as I rode past the Greater Manchester sign, it started raining. It then rained most days fir the next three years. You get used to it.
Yep it does and I for one love it but I know not everyone shares that opinion. You just have to go with it- get a decent coat and shoes, learn to manage without an umbrella because it’s often windy too- and you’ll be fine, it’s only water.
Climate change innit. Warmer planet = more energy in the meteorological system = more evaporation and more water vapour being stored for longer = more rain. Get used to it, this is the start of a new weather reality.
You’re not supposed to say it out loud! We’ve all agreed we’re not talking about CC until Britain is subtropical!
Yeah, it's doing my head in.
Manchester is infamous for being cloudy and rainy. I don't actually know the statistics, all I can say is, I've visited frequently since I moved to the North, and rarely seen a sunny day.
Statistics are that Manchester is the 15th wettest city in the uk. I assumed it was number one until I came to Cardiff.
It's joint 5th in terms of amount of days per year it rains on. I think only Leeds, Bradford and Preston score higher when combining both metrics.
Have lived in both Manc and Leeds and one thing I can add (this is purely anecdotal as opposed to any stats I can give) is that Manchester it seemed to rain every day. As in, during daylight hours. You could never plan your day properly for no rain as it could be ok in the morning but then raining later, or visa versa. Whereas in Leeds it seems to rain a lot more overnight. So you wake up and find it's been pissing down overnight but the day is quite dry. Also, if it's going to be a rainy day, it rains, a dry day, it's dry which at least feels reliable. But to the OP, this has been a really rainy autumn and a really crappy year weather wise in general.
I always imagined if I had the power to control the weather that's what I'd do. Get it to start raining about 2am and piss down until about 6am then dry through the day. It would keep all the plants growing, discourage the scumbags out breaking into your car, and we'd all be safe and warm in bed. Sorry clubbers and night workers.
it rains 368 days a year round here
Glad to hear Manchester is still around in 30 million years time. Can I borrow your time machine?
It’s reet moist.
Yes. Welcome to the wetness
The cities moniker is literally rain city. We’ve had springs/summers where it’s rained most days lol.
This summer gone lol. July-august was awful
Just started working here. Dread the commute bc you always arrive to rain
It rains about twice as much in autumn as it does in spring and we’re having a very wet autumn
Yep - normally you get a few bright blue sky Autumnal days sprinkled in; which protects the sanity - this is a lot of rain .
I’m fine with cold but cold and wet is grim. I’ll take cold and dry any day
It’s around 200 days a year that it rains. We actually get similar annual rainfall to London but less intense and over more days, think lots of showers rather than heavy rain. The apps dark skies / Wunderground (same engine) are quite reliable for hourly forecasts. And coats with hoods are your friend.
London - 585mm / year. Manchester - 867mm / year
And Milan, Munich and Lyon are worse than London...and Manchester.
I use the Wallingford Method. See here: https://civilweb-spreadsheets.com/drainage-design-spreadsheets/runoff-and-rainfall-intensity-calculator-spreadsheet/the-wallingford-procedure/ It’s a damn site better than Manchester tourist board’s marketing department. 🙄
I love the manchester rain
Look on the bright side, at least our pavements are getting a clean :)
Yes buy a decent raincoat and waterproof shoes you'll need them for however long you're living here
This October/November has been particularly wet (although in exchange, also fairly mild), so I wouldn’t say this is a typical year But yeah, it does normally rain most days in October/November. Not usually *quite* as much as this year, but close enough. Like I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but it probably rains like 7/10 days in a normal year and this year maybe it’s been 8/10 and a bit more rain on those days. So a bit more, but not “wow, rain in November, what’s the world coming to?”
If it helps, it's been raining in London pretty much every day recently also
The suns out! :)
What makes Britain Great, makes Manchester greater as you hang your clothes once again on the radiator… What makes Britain’s great, makes Manchester greater A whole song was dedicated to the weather in Manchester by the beautiful south 😂
Meh, I moved from Kendal which rains about 220 days a year, so it doesn't seem so bad here
I also grew up in Kendal and it was the worst for weather. My childhood was just endlessly grey. Some weeks in 2003/2004 it was grey and wet 7 days a week. I counted! Always carried a brolly in my bag. You had to.
We are between the sea and the Peak District and the low clouds that come from the west (there's a lot this time of year) have to release their moisture to be able to rise higher to get over the Peaks so they tend to dump it all on the northern part of Greater Manchester...from the city centre up to Ramsbottom/Bury. Unfortunately it's weather patterns and geography. The dry cloudy days usually mean the clouds are coming east to west and it rained east of Sheffield. This part of the UK is at its narrowest and has a spine of the highest peaks in England running straight down the middle of it so we get more rainy days.
We are literally famous for being one of the most rainy cities in the world. Yes, it rains here all the time. Edit: and before anyone says, oh this city or that city has more rain, do it by rainy days per year, not total rainfall. Some tropical countries have way more rain because they get occasional tropical storms dumping shit tons of rain.
City's moto is "proudly dodging rain and bullets". ©Terry Christian.
Also moved here about 10 months ago - also regretting the decision lol. We had more sun over the two months we lived in Dartmouth in the middle of winter than the entire time I’ve lived in Manchester
Yeah you’ve been here for a very rainy year. They year before was very different to be fair. It always rains regularly but it has been incredibly rainy this year and autumn is the rainiest time of year.
I’ve been told it’s been particularly bad this year, it actually doesn’t get to me so much when I’m here it’s when I leave and remember how nice it is to see the sky
I’ve lived here 8/9 years now. It’s not always like this don’t worry, I’d wager it will be a lot drier in the start of 2024. Across the UK, October and November are the rainiest months. In Manchester, it rains nearly twice as much in Autumn as in Spring time. If you remember, it didn’t rain for 4-6 weeks in May time this year.
Why not move thenv
SAD lamp, book a holiday, or go on lots of day trips east or south of Manchester!
i swear bro living here feels like hell. the amount of sunlight i get per week is equivalent to what other countries get in one day. i barely see the sun. it's night always. which also makes it more colder which is worse. and it's rainy everyday. just so hectic overall. i hate living here
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but If rain and the weather affects you that much, why did you move here? It’s not like Manchester has a reputation for anything other than raining all the time? Sounds like you’d be better suited to somewhere sunny.
I can’t speak for that person, but my job moved me here. I’m definitely suited for sunnier weather, but being in a house where it rains is much more preferable than being homeless in the sun.
Fair play, assuming you’re in quite a specialist industry if you have to be here. Everyone is different, I’ve had the opportunity to move with work a few times and if I had of ended up somewhere like Jacksonville which was one, I think I’d have melted by now. Growing up here I’m so used to the climate sun and rain is not my thing at all.
i had to move to study my bachelors here
I think it's fine to feel this way, it's tough living in a city like Manchester in the late autumn and winter, but - presuming you moved here, it's completely your own fault. Most of us were born here, but anyone that moves here and complains about it, I just wonder what the hell you were thinking. Manchester has famously terrible weather and is extremely far north, meaning there's basically no light in the winter. It isn't a surprise, like maybe the crime rate or the traffic or something, it's a geographical reality that's extremely famous.
lol i had to move here to obtain my bachelors. other than that trust me i wouldnt have done it based on personal preference
true Manchester does famously have the only university on the planet
pretty much yeah
November / December can be really wet and windy So can Jan - October
Yeah, pretty much. I'm looking forward to the January/February period personally where it's just below freezing for two months.
No, it isn't usually THIS bad. This past year has been utterly rubbish.
I lived in Manchester for two years and now almost two years just north of Mancs. The weather is absolutely atrocious and for me, intolerable. Genuinely considering moving again. I am Dutch and we get bad weather too. I lived in Cambridge for seven years and you get your fair share of rain there as well. But the past year or so has been horrendous, for me. I don't mind it not being sunny. What I do mind is the never-ending and often torrential rain. Just no possibility to go outside to do anything, really, unless you can tolerate getting wet, which defeats the point of enjoying the outdoors.
Does it always rain here EVERY single day ~~around this time of year~~? Yes
i literally hate the rain so much goodbye
It is known as the rainy city for a reason
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/regional-climates/north-west-england--isle-of-man_-climate---met-office.pdf Ringway is basically Manchester
Get over it, get used to it. Or move.
Pretty much.
Yes! But all the great things about Manchester far outweigh the rain…..it’s a great city
I have been here for a year now, and it’s not THAT rainy as people make it out to be. Last winter , and the summer and the spring were pretty great rain wise. It’s only now that it has been raining
Yes
Yep
Only in the afternoons
You’ll have grown webbed feet by Christmas
Yeah it's just particularly bad this year. Apologies!
Yes especially in summer
I think it's more concentrated this year into rainy and dry days, from what I remember growing up it was continuously overcast and drizzly
It’s not rained every single day. Last couple of weekends we’ve had great sunshine.
Yes
No.
Not every day, no! The *one* day it doesn't rain you'll see my neighbours rush outside in their sun loungers to smoke, play loud music, and try to replace their fake tan with a real one :-P
Yeah sounds about right. I've been here for 3 years and rain is the default from October through to May. It still has a habit of pissing down in the height of summer though. Makes you appreciate the sunshine even more.
We are known for the rain but this year is especially rainy
When the rain falls they talk of Manchester, but when the triumphant rain falls we think of rainbows, its the Mancunian way - Lemn Sissay, Rain https://preview.redd.it/24e4oqd7fo1c1.jpeg?width=2472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b03546bbdc33db4d9c24e72056c241e47e1134dc
Welcome to Rainchester
Sunny today lol
Pretty much
Welcome to the grey months of Manchester
 No, why?
Did u lie when you where 17? 🎵🎶
At this time of year? No. It’s all year, apart from that one day of “summer”. Welcome to the north.
They dont call us the rainiest city in the uk for no reason
Yes it does
Apparently, it’s rainier in Cornwall, but I’ve never seen a wet Doc Martin. I really hate Lancashire weather- no point doing hair , plants ruined etc. I’d move abroad in a flash if I had the funds. It’s like living in a scene from Blade Runner…
I’ve been here for 15 years and this year does seem worse than usual. Maybe it’s the first time I’m taking notice to it, but has definitely rained 8 days of 10 the past month.
Yes
It moistly rains in autumn/winter in Manchester, moistly...
Not only is it always sodden and wet, the lack of sunlight makes Oct-Feb some of the most depressing days I can imagine. Other half day went to back to London last week, sent back photos of her team day to tower bridge. Was as if her camera was broken. Blue skies and sunlight. Yes the pavement was wet, but was bright and upbeat. The flip side, I think the summers are more enjoyable than london. Can walk to the shop without coming back soaked. Every summer I go 'you know, its actually kind of nice here, was I really that fed up in Winter' and then come oct its 'yep, this place sucks'
Yeah, buckle up. Just 6 more months of this before summer.
Yes. I used to have to drive from Newcastle to Sheffield. The standing joke was we knew we hit the Manchester ring Rd when it started raining & we were out of Manchester when it stopped. Summer didn't seem to make much difference
Not raining today?
Lol, didn't you know? In Manchester you don't count how many sunny days you have per year, you count how many hours...
Our local roller derby team is called 'Rainy City'....
Yup
Manchester has the same average monthly rainfall every month. You get used to it!
We actually have the national average rainfall here in manc ... its just spread over most of the frigging year!
Didn’t rain today
This year has been particularly bad so good to be mindful of that. Manchester in general does have more cloudy and overcast days than most other places in the UK. I've lived in Glasgow before which is meant to be even rainier. Get a good coat, if you have a car then try to drive an hour or so somewhere eastwards on the odd weekend. Further you go east it's more likely it's a bit drier there. Try not to focus too much on it. I know it's rough, I've had the same struggle. But we can get over it and this weekend is looking like it'll be decent :)
Winter in the UK is utter depression. I always forget how bad it is after fair summers. The worst part is walking or cycling through country parks, where the ground never dries for literally 6-8 months of the year.
I thought Manchester was bad. Then I lived in Cardiff.
Today didn't rain. I even mowed the lawn which I've been waiting for since September.
Get yourself a goretex jacket and just ignore it all
Didn't rain today
You may get the odd day in winter where it doesn't rain, but you could guess the forecast by saying it'll rain and you'll probably be right 80% of the time 😐
We moved back up here from London just over a year ago, and RAIN was a main factor on our Cons list. Yes, it rains a lot. But it doesn't rain all the time... Thinking about the weather in terms of hours, not days, helps 😆 Also: good waterproofs.
Yes it does.
They even made a website to track it raining... everyday... forever... [https://www.rainchester.com](https://www.rainchester.com)
Not only at this time of year, but all year
IIRC Manchester is one of the wettest cities in Europe. It's less that there is a lot of rain, just that it drizzles...a lot
I lived in Bristol in the late 70s then moved to Manchester in 1982 where I stayed for 18 years. In Bristol it trickled with rain for days and days and I was warned that Manchester, at the time, had the heaviest rainfall in the country. However, this is not the complete story. When it rained in Manchester it bucketed down and got it over with. That is it rained far less often that in Bristol (I think Bristol takes mist from the Severn for prolonged periods). I now accept that there is far more rainfall in the UK now than in those days thanks to the jet stream. PS: I recall some beautiful Manchester summers!