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We love to talk about, and the worse it gets, the more it dominates our conversation. We are rarely ready for its extremes, and we usually get caught out by it... The British Weather

Usually we have what climate experts call a temperate climate, with extremes of weather being rare and the summers being warm and the winters fairly mild. That said, we do get the odd extreme conditions, such as the strong winds of 1987, which were the worst winds to hit Southern England since 1703 and the scorching summer of 1976.

Winter of 2009/2010 was also a good example with freezing weather and heavy snow coming over from Russia and the Arctic. In fact, this particular article was written in early January 2010 and was prompted by the fact that most schools in the Samuel Whitbread pyramid were closed and the author was snowed in.

Aside from the extremes, what makes our weather so interesting is its unpredictability. Even with satellites and computers, forecasts can still struggle to work out how the day’s weather will unfold and if the sunglasses or the umbrella is the thing you really should take out with you.

Plan for our climate

There are many websites to help you at least try to predict the weather on your day out. Here are a few good ones:

Metcheck is a really good weather site, especially so for children as it is so user friendly. Not only do you get regular written updates on the weather, in the form of articles written by forecasters, it also lets you put in your post code and provides you with a series of three hourly forecasts for your area, which are usually very accurate. The site also has access to satellite views, charts and sections covering storms, snow and the likelihood of heavy rain.

AccuWeather.com is another very good site which is American based so you have to click on the main site banner to select the UK. Good predictions (usually) and easy to use.

Finally, there is the Met Office website itself and the BBC Weather, both offering free forecasting information.