there is no bad weather essay

John Ruskin: 'There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.'

There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

In his insightful quote, John Ruskin challenges our perception of weather, asserting that there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. At first glance, this statement may seem paradoxical or even perplexing. After all, who hasn't grumbled about a rainy day or cursed the cold winds of winter? However, upon careful consideration, Ruskin's perspective invites us to embrace a more positive and accepting outlook towards the ever-changing atmospheric conditions that surround us.The underlying essence of Ruskin's quote lies in the idea that all weather conditions can hold something valuable and beautiful if we let go of our preconceived notions. This mindset encourages us to find the silver lining even in the most seemingly unfavorable weather. Instead of focusing solely on the inconvenience that rain may bring, we can appreciate the fresh scent it leaves behind or the vibrant colors that are somehow amplified under its drizzly embrace. Similarly, the biting chill of winter can be an opportunity to enjoy the crisp invigoration it brings and the cozy warmth of hot beverages shared with loved ones.To enhance our understanding of Ruskin's perspective, let us introduce an unexpected philosophical concept—situational relativism. This philosophical framework posits that our interpretation of reality is influenced by various contextual factors, including our cultural background, personal experiences, and even our immediate surroundings. When applied to Ruskin's quote, situational relativism allows us to see the weather not merely as an objective set of climatic conditions, but as a subjective experience that varies and transforms depending on our perspectives.Drawing upon situational relativism, we can delve into a deeper comparison and contrast of Ruskin's viewpoint. We can examine how different individuals, from various regions or walks of life, might perceive and categorize weather conditions in diverse ways. For instance, someone accustomed to living in a Mediterranean climate might associate rain with scarcity and therefore view it as bad weather, whereas a farmer in a dry region might celebrate its arrival as a vital blessing for their crops. Similarly, a person living in a tropical paradise might perceive a cloudy day as an anomaly and thus label it as bad weather, whereas someone in a colder climate might embrace the respite it provides from the scorching sun.By acknowledging the situational context and the varying perspectives people have towards different weather conditions, the concept of situational relativism adds depth and richness to Ruskin's quote. It emphasizes that our judgments about the weather are heavily influenced by our personal backgrounds, cultural conditioning, and immediate circumstances. Understanding this allows us to approach the quote with empathy, acknowledging that what may be perceived as good or bad weather is inherently subjective and fluid.Ultimately, John Ruskin's quote challenges our preconceived notions about weather and encourages us to adopt a more open and appreciative mindset. By recognizing that there are different kinds of good weather, we can begin to see beauty and meaning in every meteorological occurrence. Furthermore, by considering the concept of situational relativism, we gain insight into the multifaceted nature of weather perception, highlighting the importance of empathy and understanding when it comes to diverse perspectives. So, the next time the rain pours or the clouds gather, let us not hastily label it as bad weather, but rather view it as an opportunity to uncover a different kind of good weather, waiting to be appreciated.

John Ruskin: 'Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.'

John ruskin: 'when love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.'.

Quote Investigator®

Tracing Quotations

Quote Origin: There Is No Bad Weather, Only Inappropriate Clothing

Elisabeth woodbridge charlotte v. gulick ranulph fiennes alfred wainwright anonymous.

Question for Quote Investigator: With the proper clothing a person is capable of adapting to almost any type of weather. Here is an adage reflecting this attitude:

There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: This maxim is difficult to trace because it can be expressed in many ways. The earliest match known to QI appeared in an 1874 letter from German poet and novelist Berthold Auerbach who attributed the saying to German politician Heinrich Simon. An excerpt appears below followed by one possible translation into English. Boldface added to excerpts by QI : 1

„Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, es gibt nur gute Kleider,“ hat der im Wallensee ertrunkene großgesinnte Heinrich Simon im Sprichwort gehabt und das gilt auch mir. “There is no such thing as bad weather, there are only good clothes,” said the great-minded Heinrich Simon, who drowned in Lake Walen, and the same applies to me.

This above instance employed the phrase “good clothes” instead of “bad clothes”. The adage encouraged readers to wear carefully selected clothing attuned to the weather.

Here is an overview with dates

Precursor 1830: There is no such thing in nature as bad weather (John Wilson)

1874: Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, es gibt nur gute Kleider (Attributed to Heinrich Simon) Translation: There is no such thing as bad weather, there are only good clothes

1875: Es gibt eigentlich kein schlechtes Wetter, sondern nur gute Kleider (Attributed to Bogumil Goltz) Translation: There is actually no such thing as bad weather, only good clothes.

Variant 1883: There was no such thing as bad weather, but only different kinds of pleasant weather (John Ruskin)

1911: There is no such thing as bad weather, there is only good clothes (Anonymous attribution by Elisabeth Woodbridge)

1915: There is no such thing as bad weather if one is dressed properly (Charlotte V. Gulick of Camp Fire Girls)

1935: There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad dressing for the weather. (Anonymous attribution by Helen Johnson Keyes)

1941: There is no bad weather, only bad clothes (Anonymous attribution in Vogue)

1960: There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes (Anonymous attribution by Duchess of Windsor)

1962: There’s no bad weather, only unsuitable clothing (Margot Benary-Isbert)

1974: There is no bad weather for bikes, only bad clothing (Attributed to Swedes)

1977: There is no such thing as bad weather—only inadequate clothing (Comical attribution to Freud in Punch)

1978: There is no inclement weather, only inappropriate clothing (Anonymous attribution in Wisconsin State Journal)

1985: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing (Anonymous in Cruising World)

2006: There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing (Attribution to Ranulph Fiennes)

2009: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing (Attribution to Alfred Wainwright)

Below are selected citations with details in chronological order.

A separate Quote Investigator article discussing the 1830 and 1883 citation is available here .

In 1874 the saying was credited to Heinrich Simon as mentioned near the beginning of this article.

In 1875 a German book about railways attributed the saying to German humorist Bogumil Goltz: 2

Bogumil Goltz hat einmal gesagt: „Es gibt eigentlich kein schlechtes Wetter, sondern nur gute Kleider“. Bogumil Goltz once said: “There is actually no such thing as bad weather, only good clothes”.

In 1911 Elisabeth Woodbridge published a story in “The Outlook” magazine of New York. The author signaled that the saying was already in circulation, thus the ascription was anonymous. This was the first evidence in English: 3

“Don’t you think it’s rather poor weather for walking?” “This was what I had been waiting for, and I responded glibly, “Some one has said there is no such thing as bad weather, there is only good clothes.”

In 1912 Elisabeth Woodbridge published a novel titled “The Jonathan Papers” which included her 1911 story from “The Outlook”. Thus, the maxim achieved further distribution. 4

In 1915 Charlotte V. Gulick published “A Book of Symbols for Camp Fire Girls” which contained the following passage: 5

The beauty of the storm, the cool, refreshing rain, so necessary to growth, the preservation of life and the prevention of forest fires, make the Cloud Symbol, Yoki, an appealing one. Then, too, every Camp Fire Girl believes in being prepared for all weathers and knows there is no such thing as bad weather if one is dressed properly.

In 1935 “The Christian Science Monitor” printed an article about men’s fashion by Helen Johnson Keyes which included an instance of the saying: 6

It was a wise man who once said, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad dressing for the weather.” When this assertion was made, 20 and more years ago, there was a greater amount of bad dressing for the weather than there is today.

In 1940 the linkage to Elizabeth Woodbridge was recalled in a filler item printed in the mass-circulation magazine “The Reader’s Digest”: 7

There is no such thing as bad weather; there are only good clothes. —Elizabeth Woodbridge, The Jonathan Papers (Houghton Mifflin)

In 1941 fashion magazine “Vogue” printed the following: 8

There are the fashion maxims these days: beware of the cold, of the wind and the rain, for, as the English say, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes” ; don’t be conspicuous or look frivolous in the streets; do not display your valuable skins when others are freezing.

In 1960 the Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson) stated that one of her acquaintances used the expression: 9

After a long wet holiday in Europe this past summer, an acquaintance of mine came up with the observation that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. I was confounded by this remark at first, but in discussing it further, I soon realized she had a point and a very valid one.

In 1962 Margot Benary-Isbert published the novel “A Time To Love” which was translated from German to English by Joyce Emerson and the author. A character in the novel used the saying: 10

Dr. Schenker maintains there’s no bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. His main purpose in life seems to be to prevent us from becoming “soft.”

In 1974 the book “The Pedestrian Revolution; Streets Without Cars” contained a version of the saying tailored to bicycle riders: 11

What about bike use in winter? In Sweden, which has far more severe weather than most cities in the United States, the response to this is: “There is no bad weather for bikes, only bad clothing.” Bicycle use in Stockholm continues year-round . . .

In 1977 the London humor magazine “Punch” contained a piece which comically credited Freud: 12

Like Freud I believe that there is no such thing as bad weather—only inadequate clothing.

In 1978 the “Wisconsin State Journal” of Madison, Wisconsin published another version of the saying: 13

She had never been a winter person, but decided she would adapt. Taking the advice of a friend that “there is no inclement weather, only inappropriate clothing,” she assembled a proper winter wardrobe and took up cross country skiing.

In 1985 the magazine “Cruising World” printed a piece discussing Sweden which included the following: 14

Swedes don’t mind torrential rains and biting cold; they’ve got it and they’re used to it. (“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing,” is an often-heard axiom.)

In 1997 “Backpacker: The Magazine of Wilderness Travel” published an advertisement for Terramar Sports Worldwide with the following slogan: 15

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS BAD WEATHER, ONLY BAD CLOTHING

In 2006 the saying was ascribed to British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes in the book “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car”: 16

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” —SIR RANULPH FIENNES, EXPLORER

In 2009 “The Wit and Wisdom of the North” compiled by Rosemarie Jarski ascribed the saying to British guidebook author Alfred Wainwright: 17

There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. Alfred Wainwright

In 2011 “Preposterous Proverbs” compiled by Max Cryer included the following skeptical entry: 18

‘There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.’ (Sweden) Have they considered tornadoes, blizzards and floods?

In summary, this article presents a snapshot of current knowledge. The earliest citations are in German. Heinrich Simon received credit in 1874, and Bogumil Goltz received credit in 1875. The earliest citation in English was written by Elisabeth Woodbridge in 1911, but she disclaimed credit by using the phrase: “Some one has said”. The attributions to Ranulph Fiennes (born in 1944) and Alfred Wainwright (born in 1907) appeared very late. Neither of them originated the saying.

Image Notes: Silhouette of a person in golden sunlight from Javier Allegue Barros at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jane (twitter handle) and Simon Koppel whose inquiries provided encouragement for this research. Also, thanks to the “Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs” (2015) which contains a pertinent entry listing the 1883 Ruskin citation and the 1911 Woodbridge citation. Many thanks to Alan Crozier who told QI about the crucial German citations in 1874 and 1875. Crozier also mentioned German citations in 1907 and 1915. In addition, thanks to Amy West who suggested a change to the translation within the 1884 bibliographical note.

Update History: On April 17, 2024 the 1874 and 1875 citations were added to the article. Also, the conclusion was updated. On April 18, 2024 the translation in the 1884 bibliographical note was changed

• 1884, Berthold Auerbach: Briefe an seinen Freund Jakob Auerbach: Ein biographisches Denkmal, (Letters to his friend Jakob Auerbach: A biographical memorial), Zweiter Band (Volume 2), Letter from: Berthold Auerbach, Letter Date: September 12, 1874, Quote Page 224, Literarische Anstalt Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt, Germany. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
• 1875, Die Individualisirung und Entwickelbarkeit der Eisenbahnen (The individualization and developability of railways) by M. M. Freih von Weber, Quote Page 3, Druck und Verlag Von B. G. Teubner, Leipzig. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
• 1911 April 29, The Outlook, In The Rain by Elisabeth Woodbridge, Start Page 974, Quote Page 975, The Outlook Company, New York, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
• 1912, The Jonathan Papers by Elisabeth Woodbridge, Chapter 11: In the Rain, Quote Page 144, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Internet Archive archive.org) link   ↩︎
• 1915, A Book of Symbols for Camp Fire Girls by  Charlotte V. Gulick, Symbol Number 104, Quote Page 54, The Camp Fire Outfitting Company, New York. (Internet Archive) link ↩︎
• 1935 July 17, The Christian Science Monitor, Summer Suits, Smart Accents by Helen Johnson Keyes (Special from The Christian Science Monitor Bureau), Quote Page 8, Column 1, Boston,. Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
• 1940 September, The Reader’s Digest, Volume 37, Number 221, (Filler item), Quote Page 102, The Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
• 1941 January 15, Vogue, Volume 97, Number 2, Germans over Paris, Start Page 60, Quote Page 95, Column 1, Condé Nast. New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
• 1960 November 24, The Atlanta Constitution, Duchess Says If Weather Is Bad–Plan a Costume With Distinction by the Duchess of Windsor, Quote Page 41A, Column 5, Atlanta, Georgia. (ProQuest) ↩︎
• 1962 Copyright, A Time To Love by Margot Benary-Isbert, Translated from the German by Joyce Emerson and the author, Chapter 11: Heiligenwald Christmas, Quote Page 136, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
• 1974, The Pedestrian Revolution; Streets Without Cars by Simon Breines and William J. Dean, Chapter 5: The Bicycle As Urban Transport, Quote Page 87, Vintage Books: A Division of Random House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
• 1977 August 10, Punch, Strictly Personal by Melvyn Bragg, Quote Page 240, Column 2, Punch Publications Limited, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
• 1978 December 3, Wisconsin State Journal, Southern influence takes over in kitchen by Ann Rundell (The State Journal), Section 7, Quote Page 18, Column 3, Madison, Wisconsin. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
• 1985 November, Cruising World, Volume 11, Number 11, Sailing’s Smorgasbord by Bernadette Brennan, Start Page 71, Quote Page 73, Column 1, Cruising World Publications, Newport, Rhode Island. (Google Books Full View) ↩︎
• 1997 September, Backpacker: The Magazine of Wilderness Travel, Advertisement: Terramar Sports Worldwide, Port Chester, New York, Quote Page 85, Rodale Press Inc., Emmaus, Pennsylvania. (Google Books Full View) ↩︎
• 2006, How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish, Chapter 15: Wardrobe, Appearance, and Grooming, (Quote occurs as chapter epigraph), Quote Page 140, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
• 2009, The Wit and Wisdom of the North, Compiled by Rosemarie Jarski, Topic: The Natural World, Quote Page 130, Ebury Press: A Random House Group Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
• 2011, Preposterous Proverbs: Why Fine Words Butter No Parsnips, Compiled by Max Cryer, Chapter: Weather and Gardens, Quote Page 229, Exisle Publishing, Auckland, New Zealand. (Verified with scans) ↩︎

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October 9, 2015, by Lucy

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”

Weather and wardrobe.

The quote that I’ve used for the title of this post is popularly attributed to fellwalker and guidebook author and illustrator Alfred Wainwright, who spent much of his time outdoors, in the weather. Walking the remote Lakeland Fells it’s essential to be prepared for the weather, which can of course change rather rapidly!

A couple of weeks ago statistician James Hind of Nottingham Trent University (and formerly Robin Hood at the now closed Tales of Robin Hood tourist attraction) unveiled his ‘Stocking Forecast’ to the BBC . Hind’s formula uses wind speed and temperature data to determine the thickness of tights required on any particular day.

Whether or not we have dedicated summer and winter wardrobes, most of us adjust our clothing seasonally, and in accordance with the weather (particularly temperature and rainfall) we expect on a daily basis. Our morning decision of what to wear is of course also influenced by our planned activities, whether we’ll be spending the majority of our time outside, or in climate-controlled buildings.

The issuing of the ‘Stocking Forecast’ got me thinking about references to clothing in the accounts of extreme weather I’ve been collecting in the archives. Many of our weather narratives were written by people who spent much of their days working outside, in the weather. The practices of travel too were previously much more exposed to the elements, and of course it was definitely a case of ‘put on another jumper’ rather than switch on the central heating when the temperature dropped. Our authors then perhaps had much closer relationships with, and knowledge of, the weather than many of us do today. Clothing, as protection against the weather, was tremendously important. Insufficient clothing could lead to serious suffering or even death.

Clothing as comfort

Although in general references to clothing are quite rare in the materials we’ve been working on, a small number of accounts from the archives use clothing to describe the unexpected nature of the weather, whether it be mild weather during winter, or very cold wet weather in summer. Here are a couple of examples:

John Clifton’s day book for 1782 (Northamptonshire Record Office, ZA8745)

• Sunday April 28th – One of the most piercing cold days as ever came since the beginning of the world & great coats & cloaks are in danger of being quite threadbare by wearing them constantly
• Wednesday May 1st – Piercing cold. Instead of the lads & lasses being frolicksome & capering about according to the old May Day custom here is nothing but great coats & cloaks & dismal winter looking faces; this year; the Lord help us
• Saturday May 4th – a dismal winter day again. My self a prisoner – – great coats in May
• Wednesday May 29th – a most dismal wet day. I never saw such a dismal cold wet 29th May in my life before & the roads are so bad every where that the wood carters come home battle up to the armpits in sludge & muck & the horses to the top of their backs & the milk girls go to the pasture in high pattens [protective overshoes] & mens great coats.
• Tuesday June 4th – a piercing cold air & cloaks & great coats in full fashion the same as at Christmas

Robert Lowe’s diary for 1816 (Nottinghamshire Archives, DD/SK/217/20)

• 6 June – drank tea at Mrs Pigots… walked on the green put on my great coat being very cold indeed, N by E

Clothing relief

We have several references to the distribution of clothing during episodes of extreme weather. These fall into two groups; donations given to the poor by the parish or by individuals (coats, boots and blankets) as relief during hard winters; and the collection and distribution of clothing immediately following an extreme weather event – for example after the East Coast floods of 1953.

Poor relief

Journal and accounts of the Rev. S. E. Hopkinson of Etton of charitable distributions by Earl Fitzwilliam (Northamptonshire Record Office, F(M) Misc Vols/136)

• Rec of L.F. Dec 24 1793 £20-0-0
• In hand from the preceding year £3
• Surplus of the last year £3
• Rec of L.F. Dec 28 1794 £20
• Bought of carpenter Smith of the Burrou of Southwark, the ostensible Patriot at that tie, a quantity of cloth wh was made up at Peterboro’ in vest-coats, inexpressibles &c for both sexes £13-10
• Rum, brandy, & gin for casual calls in sickness kept by a careful female in Etton 12s
• Carriage of goods from town 3s 6d
• An aged person of Maxey &c commended by Mr Bates 10s 6d
• This being a period of frost both as to severity & duration, I believe, unparalleled since the year 1739, I still further extended his Lordship’s good intentions to Etton & the vicinity in cloathing for the females cloaks & underlings £6 3s
• Occasional sick £2 1s 6d
• Potatoes for the gardens £2
• Bland at different times in the present, as well as in the preceding year £2
• Hill? ditto £1
• The aged female with the bad leg of 50 years as before £1
• A short coat for the parish shepherd continually expos’d to the weather at all times in the year & 7 days in the week over an upon Lordship 18s

Disaster relief

Papers of the Cadbury family (Birmingham City Archives, MS 466/41/5/18)

• The Bournville Works Magazine
• Vol LI, No 3, March, 1953, Price 3d
• BOURNVILLE AND THE FLOODS
• ‘While the people at home were collecting clothes and money to relieve the distress of the victims, our Representative and Display men in the affected areas, their wives and some of our Demonstrators and the girls in our offices in nearby towns were rallying to render direct aid on the spot.’
• THE FIRST CONTRIBUTION – CLOTHING
• Appeal to employees for donations – splendid response

Weather dependent wardrobes today?

Geographer Russell Hitchings has studied the changing relationship that many people have with the outside world, many office workers now ‘insulated from the experience of seasonal change’ (2010). He has also explored international variation in how people in different places handle outdoor climate (2011).

Do you consult the forecast before deciding what to wear? Are you looking forward to the weather tuning colder so that you can dig out your winter coat? As usual we’d love to hear from you if you have any clothing and weather stories.

Girl in snow, University park, Nottingham

• Hitchings 2010 Seasonal climate change and the indoor city worker Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(2): 282-298
• Hitchings 2011 Coping with the immediate experience of climate: regional variations and indoor trajectories Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2(2): 170-184
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Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Info

There’s no such thing as bad weather.

Everybody has heard the quote: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing.”

Whilst some people will tell you that the phrase derives from Billy Connolly or Ranulph Feinnes – and indeed they both have said it at some point – it wasn’t either of them who originally coined it. It was Alfred Wainwright – he of the many walking books – and his original wording, slightly different, was “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” His comment appeared in his 1973 book Coast to Coast , so is now 50 years old.

Back in Wainwright’s time (most of his walking was done from about 1950 – 1975) outdoor clothing was, needless to say, not what it is today. Although Gore-tex, for instance, was invented in 1969, patents were not taken out until the mid-1970s. Fell walkers of Wainwright’s era invariably wore tweed in all weathers; he swore by his Harris tweed jacket which was warm, tough, breathable and shower-proof. A cotton mac was sometimes carried in case of wind and rain, and in colder weather a woollen jumper could additionally be worn.

Today we are able to buy coats, leggings and boots, all with waterproof qualities, but let’s be honest, do they keep us dry after hours in the rain? I don’t actually know anybody who would say that their gear is totally waterproof, and anyway, some of the dampness on the inside comes from sweating, which just can’t escape very efficiently when it’s raining hard.

Gore-tex (other brands are available, of course) has come a long way since its inception, with multi-layered fabric and the likes of Gore-tex Pro, but there’ll still come a point where you’re going to get wet wearing it.

So did Wainwright really believe what he wrote? I’d suggest that he wasn’t being totally honest with us.

Having discovered the joys of walking in the Lake District in his twenties, in 1941, at the age of 34, he took a pay cut to move to Kendal, where he worked at the Borough Treasurer’s office, where he worked until his retirement in 1967. By this time he was aged 60, and had just completed his magnum opus – his seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells , published between 1955 and 1966.

This detail is pertinent, because were he retired he would have had a lot more opportunity to pick good weather for his walking. As it was, he was clearly limited to weekends and holidays and had to take what weather there was. And in the Lakes it rains a fair bit.

So did he stay dry because he avoided “unsuitable clothing”? Definitely not. He would have got home soaked through on many an occasion. He did, however, have a very positive outlook on life and walking, and he clearly chose to focus on the positives throughout his fair share of wet walks.

He confessed to always singing (quietly) as he walked, and he once wrote, “One can forget even a raging toothache on Haystacks.” (i.e. no matter how wet or miserable it is, or how wet I am, if I’m in a lovely place I’ll overlook it all).

When he wrote his classic phrase, he did so with his usual rose-tinted glasses on. Although he’d got wet plenty of times, it wasn’t something that bothered him or that he was even prepared to admit to.

But whatever his reasoning, we need more people like Wainwright.

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There’s no such thing as bad weather

Ellie Richold posted this in Children's play, health and wellbeing , Community , Play Streets on 30/11/2018

We first began Playing Out on our street in the springtime. Like excited little lambs – if lambs could stick two playful fingers up at rat-running traffic. We’d begun thinking about it the summer before but had put it off. The process had all seemed a bit daunting.

In fact, knocking on doors and chatting with neighbours I’d never met was of course a lovely thing to do. And when I explained why I was there, not one said they didn’t want to see kids playing in the street.

We reaped the rewards of our new concrete playground over the summer, wending up and down on bikes and scooters, aiming water guns at each other, sharing lollies and smiles…

Why we love playing on our street

Side effects have included meeting new friends , helping each other with all sorts of things from lending kitchen objects to babysitting swaps and moral support. And we’ve discovered mutual interests, friends and gripes. None of this would have happened if we weren’t playing out.

But as November kicks into gear, there’s no doubt that the road crew is getting a bit jittery about the idea of Shivering Out. The kids will be alright, but the grown ups are already finding it tougher.

That said, we never went into this with the intention of being ‘fair weather’ Players. It’s such an enjoyable, communal punctuation to our weeks that we’re determined to grit our teeth and make it through the challenging months.

Tips for winter street play and keeping warm…

Last weekend my neighbour brought out a secret weapon (not that we’re advocating getting through the whole of winter like this) – a cauldron of hot Pimms, spiced and steaming and full of pieces of fruit (warming, but not affecting our capabilities!) With a little booze jacket on, we were able to stay out for at least half an hour longer.

Keeping the blood moving worked a treat too. We chalked a start and finish line and were soon racing up and down, hopping and skipping with the kids.

Making the street into a safe space for children involves people stewarding at each end, so that only residents can drive in at walking pace. If you’ve always been the steward, winter is your chance to swap the role between the adults ( after an important briefing of course) , so you can all have turns to run up and down to keep warm.

…And the right clothing

Over steaming mugs we shared winter survival tips: fur lined leather gloves; five layers of wool; stories from previous lives in Canada and Scandinavia; and of course that old, much-debated chestnut about the importance of a hat, given that you lose a third of your body heat through your head …(or do you…?)

Wainwright was an evangelical fell walker, author and illustrator who devised the popular Coast to Coast walk in England and wrote the now famous guides to the Lakeland fells.  A shy and unhappy kid, Alfred hated to be inside. Even as a boy, he would walk up to 20 miles a day. And nearly 30 years after his death, his legacy continues to inspire children as young as 4 to get outside and ‘bag some fells’.

Making memories

Wainwright also said: “ The precious moments of life are too rare…we should hoard them as a miser hoards his gold, and bring them to light and rejoice over them often. We should all of us have a treasury of happy memories to sustain us …to be stars shining through the darkness .”

Playing out has proved itself to be one of the simplest and surest routes to making these kinds of memories for me. And perhaps if we don’t manage to make it out every single week in the cold and the wet, we can invite each other into our homes and remember some of the happy memories we’ve made together so far.

If you want to organise playing out sessions your street, have a look round our website, join our Facebook group where parents and residents are talking about what they’re doing, or get in touch by phone or email if you need any help 🙂

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playingout posted this in Play Streets on 04/06/2014

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What If We Stopped Pretending?

“There is infinite hope,” Kafka tells us, “only not for us.” This is a fittingly mystical epigram from a writer whose characters strive for ostensibly reachable goals and, tragically or amusingly, never manage to get any closer to them. But it seems to me, in our rapidly darkening world, that the converse of Kafka’s quip is equally true: There is no hope, except for us .

I’m talking, of course, about climate change. The struggle to rein in global carbon emissions and keep the planet from melting down has the feel of Kafka’s fiction. The goal has been clear for thirty years, and despite earnest efforts we’ve made essentially no progress toward reaching it. Today, the scientific evidence verges on irrefutable. If you’re younger than sixty, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth —massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought. If you’re under thirty, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.

If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.

Even at this late date, expressions of unrealistic hope continue to abound. Hardly a day seems to pass without my reading that it’s time to “roll up our sleeves” and “save the planet”; that the problem of climate change can be “solved” if we summon the collective will. Although this message was probably still true in 1988, when the science became fully clear, we’ve emitted as much atmospheric carbon in the past thirty years as we did in the previous two centuries of industrialization. The facts have changed, but somehow the message stays the same.

Psychologically, this denial makes sense. Despite the outrageous fact that I’ll soon be dead forever, I live in the present, not the future. Given a choice between an alarming abstraction (death) and the reassuring evidence of my senses (breakfast!), my mind prefers to focus on the latter. The planet, too, is still marvelously intact, still basically normal—seasons changing, another election year coming, new comedies on Netflix—and its impending collapse is even harder to wrap my mind around than death. Other kinds of apocalypse, whether religious or thermonuclear or asteroidal, at least have the binary neatness of dying: one moment the world is there, the next moment it’s gone forever. Climate apocalypse, by contrast, is messy. It will take the form of increasingly severe crises compounding chaotically until civilization begins to fray. Things will get very bad, but maybe not too soon, and maybe not for everyone. Maybe not for me.

Some of the denial, however, is more willful. The evil of the Republican Party’s position on climate science is well known, but denial is entrenched in progressive politics, too, or at least in its rhetoric. The Green New Deal , the blueprint for some of the most substantial proposals put forth on the issue, is still framed as our last chance to avert catastrophe and save the planet, by way of gargantuan renewable-energy projects. Many of the groups that support those proposals deploy the language of “stopping” climate change, or imply that there’s still time to prevent it. Unlike the political right, the left prides itself on listening to climate scientists, who do indeed allow that catastrophe is theoretically avertable. But not everyone seems to be listening carefully. The stress falls on the word theoretically .

Our atmosphere and oceans can absorb only so much heat before climate change, intensified by various feedback loops, spins completely out of control. Some scientists and policymakers fear that we’re in danger of passing this point of no return if the global mean temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius (maybe more, but also maybe less). The I.P.C.C.—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—tells us that, to limit the rise to less than two degrees, we not only need to reverse the trend of the past three decades. We need to approach zero net emissions, globally, in the next three decades.

This is, to say the least, a tall order. It also assumes that you trust the I.P.C.C.’s calculations. New research, described last month in Scientific American , demonstrates that climate scientists, far from exaggerating the threat of climate change, have underestimated its pace and severity. To project the rise in the global mean temperature, scientists rely on complicated atmospheric modelling. They take a host of variables and run them through supercomputers to generate, say, ten thousand different simulations for the coming century, in order to make a “best” prediction of the rise in temperature. When a scientist predicts a rise of two degrees Celsius, she’s merely naming a number about which she’s very confident: the rise will be at least two degrees. The rise might, in fact, be far higher.

As a non-scientist, I do my own kind of modelling. I run various future scenarios through my brain, apply the constraints of human psychology and political reality, take note of the relentless rise in global energy consumption (thus far, the carbon savings provided by renewable energy have been more than offset by consumer demand), and count the scenarios in which collective action averts catastrophe. The scenarios, which I draw from the prescriptions of policymakers and activists, share certain necessary conditions.

The first condition is that every one of the world’s major polluting countries institute draconian conservation measures, shut down much of its energy and transportation infrastructure, and completely retool its economy. According to a recent paper in Nature , the carbon emissions from existing global infrastructure, if operated through its normal lifetime, will exceed our entire emissions “allowance”—the further gigatons of carbon that can be released without crossing the threshold of catastrophe. (This estimate does not include the thousands of new energy and transportation projects already planned or under construction.) To stay within that allowance, a top-down intervention needs to happen not only in every country but throughout every country. Making New York City a green utopia will not avail if Texans keep pumping oil and driving pickup trucks.

The actions taken by these countries must also be the right ones. Vast sums of government money must be spent without wasting it and without lining the wrong pockets. Here it’s useful to recall the Kafkaesque joke of the European Union’s biofuel mandate, which served to accelerate the deforestation of Indonesia for palm-oil plantations, and the American subsidy of ethanol fuel, which turned out to benefit no one but corn farmers.

Finally, overwhelming numbers of human beings, including millions of government-hating Americans, need to accept high taxes and severe curtailment of their familiar life styles without revolting. They must accept the reality of climate change and have faith in the extreme measures taken to combat it. They can’t dismiss news they dislike as fake. They have to set aside nationalism and class and racial resentments. They have to make sacrifices for distant threatened nations and distant future generations. They have to be permanently terrified by hotter summers and more frequent natural disasters, rather than just getting used to them. Every day, instead of thinking about breakfast, they have to think about death.

Call me a pessimist or call me a humanist, but I don’t see human nature fundamentally changing anytime soon. I can run ten thousand scenarios through my model, and in not one of them do I see the two-degree target being met.

To judge from recent opinion polls, which show that a majority of Americans (many of them Republican) are pessimistic about the planet’s future, and from the success of a book like David Wallace-Wells’s harrowing “ The Uninhabitable Earth ,” which was released this year, I’m not alone in having reached this conclusion. But there continues to be a reluctance to broadcast it. Some climate activists argue that if we publicly admit that the problem can’t be solved, it will discourage people from taking any ameliorative action at all. This seems to me not only a patronizing calculation but an ineffectual one, given how little progress we have to show for it to date. The activists who make it remind me of the religious leaders who fear that, without the promise of eternal salvation, people won’t bother to behave well. In my experience, nonbelievers are no less loving of their neighbors than believers. And so I wonder what might happen if, instead of denying reality, we told ourselves the truth.

First of all, even if we can no longer hope to be saved from two degrees of warming, there’s still a strong practical and ethical case for reducing carbon emissions. In the long run, it probably makes no difference how badly we overshoot two degrees; once the point of no return is passed, the world will become self-transforming. In the shorter term, however, half measures are better than no measures. Halfway cutting our emissions would make the immediate effects of warming somewhat less severe, and it would somewhat postpone the point of no return. The most terrifying thing about climate change is the speed at which it’s advancing, the almost monthly shattering of temperature records. If collective action resulted in just one fewer devastating hurricane, just a few extra years of relative stability, it would be a goal worth pursuing.

In fact, it would be worth pursuing even if it had no effect at all. To fail to conserve a finite resource when conservation measures are available, to needlessly add carbon to the atmosphere when we know very well what carbon is doing to it, is simply wrong. Although the actions of one individual have zero effect on the climate, this doesn’t mean that they’re meaningless. Each of us has an ethical choice to make. During the Protestant Reformation, when “end times” was merely an idea, not the horribly concrete thing it is today, a key doctrinal question was whether you should perform good works because it will get you into Heaven, or whether you should perform them simply because they’re good—because, while Heaven is a question mark, you know that this world would be better if everyone performed them. I can respect the planet, and care about the people with whom I share it, without believing that it will save me.

More than that, a false hope of salvation can be actively harmful. If you persist in believing that catastrophe can be averted, you commit yourself to tackling a problem so immense that it needs to be everyone’s overriding priority forever. One result, weirdly, is a kind of complacency: by voting for green candidates, riding a bicycle to work, avoiding air travel, you might feel that you’ve done everything you can for the only thing worth doing. Whereas, if you accept the reality that the planet will soon overheat to the point of threatening civilization, there’s a whole lot more you should be doing.

Our resources aren’t infinite. Even if we invest much of them in a longest-shot gamble, reducing carbon emissions in the hope that it will save us, it’s unwise to invest all of them. Every billion dollars spent on high-speed trains, which may or may not be suitable for North America, is a billion not banked for disaster preparedness, reparations to inundated countries, or future humanitarian relief. Every renewable-energy mega-project that destroys a living ecosystem—the “green” energy development now occurring in Kenya’s national parks , the giant hydroelectric projects in Brazil, the construction of solar farms in open spaces, rather than in settled areas—erodes the resilience of a natural world already fighting for its life. Soil and water depletion, overuse of pesticides, the devastation of world fisheries—collective will is needed for these problems, too, and, unlike the problem of carbon, they’re within our power to solve. As a bonus, many low-tech conservation actions (restoring forests, preserving grasslands, eating less meat) can reduce our carbon footprint as effectively as massive industrial changes.

All-out war on climate change made sense only as long as it was winnable. Once you accept that we’ve lost it, other kinds of action take on greater meaning. Preparing for fires and floods and refugees is a directly pertinent example. But the impending catastrophe heightens the urgency of almost any world-improving action. In times of increasing chaos, people seek protection in tribalism and armed force, rather than in the rule of law, and our best defense against this kind of dystopia is to maintain functioning democracies, functioning legal systems, functioning communities. In this respect, any movement toward a more just and civil society can now be considered a meaningful climate action. Securing fair elections is a climate action. Combatting extreme wealth inequality is a climate action. Shutting down the hate machines on social media is a climate action. Instituting humane immigration policy, advocating for racial and gender equality, promoting respect for laws and their enforcement, supporting a free and independent press, ridding the country of assault weapons—these are all meaningful climate actions. To survive rising temperatures, every system, whether of the natural world or of the human world, will need to be as strong and healthy as we can make it.

And then there’s the matter of hope. If your hope for the future depends on a wildly optimistic scenario, what will you do ten years from now, when the scenario becomes unworkable even in theory? Give up on the planet entirely? To borrow from the advice of financial planners, I might suggest a more balanced portfolio of hopes, some of them longer-term, most of them shorter. It’s fine to struggle against the constraints of human nature, hoping to mitigate the worst of what’s to come, but it’s just as important to fight smaller, more local battles that you have some realistic hope of winning. Keep doing the right thing for the planet, yes, but also keep trying to save what you love specifically —a community, an institution, a wild place, a species that’s in trouble—and take heart in your small successes. Any good thing you do now is arguably a hedge against the hotter future, but the really meaningful thing is that it’s good today. As long as you have something to love, you have something to hope for.

In Santa Cruz, where I live, there’s an organization called the Homeless Garden Project . On a small working farm at the west end of town, it offers employment, training, support, and a sense of community to members of the city’s homeless population. It can’t “solve” the problem of homelessness, but it’s been changing lives, one at a time, for nearly thirty years. Supporting itself in part by selling organic produce, it contributes more broadly to a revolution in how we think about people in need, the land we depend on, and the natural world around us. In the summer, as a member of its C.S.A. program, I enjoy its kale and strawberries, and in the fall, because the soil is alive and uncontaminated, small migratory birds find sustenance in its furrows.

There may come a time, sooner than any of us likes to think, when the systems of industrial agriculture and global trade break down and homeless people outnumber people with homes. At that point, traditional local farming and strong communities will no longer just be liberal buzzwords. Kindness to neighbors and respect for the land—nurturing healthy soil, wisely managing water, caring for pollinators—will be essential in a crisis and in whatever society survives it. A project like the Homeless Garden offers me the hope that the future, while undoubtedly worse than the present, might also, in some ways, be better. Most of all, though, it gives me hope for today.

A previous version of this article mischaracterized the scientific consensus around a “point of no return.”

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The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof

Definitive answers to the big questions.

Credit... Photo Illustration by Andrea D'Aquino

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By Julia Rosen

Ms. Rosen is a journalist with a Ph.D. in geology. Her research involved studying ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica to understand past climate changes.

• Published April 19, 2021 Updated Nov. 6, 2021

The science of climate change is more solid and widely agreed upon than you might think. But the scope of the topic, as well as rampant disinformation, can make it hard to separate fact from fiction. Here, we’ve done our best to present you with not only the most accurate scientific information, but also an explanation of how we know it.

How do we know climate change is really happening?

• How much agreement is there among scientists about climate change?
• Do we really only have 150 years of climate data? How is that enough to tell us about centuries of change?
• How do we know climate change is caused by humans?
• Since greenhouse gases occur naturally, how do we know they’re causing Earth’s temperature to rise?
• Why should we be worried that the planet has warmed 2°F since the 1800s?
• Is climate change a part of the planet’s natural warming and cooling cycles?
• How do we know global warming is not because of the sun or volcanoes?
• How can winters and certain places be getting colder if the planet is warming?
• Wildfires and bad weather have always happened. How do we know there’s a connection to climate change?
• How bad are the effects of climate change going to be?
• What will it cost to do something about climate change, versus doing nothing?

Climate change is often cast as a prediction made by complicated computer models. But the scientific basis for climate change is much broader, and models are actually only one part of it (and, for what it’s worth, they’re surprisingly accurate ).

For more than a century , scientists have understood the basic physics behind why greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide cause warming. These gases make up just a small fraction of the atmosphere but exert outsized control on Earth’s climate by trapping some of the planet’s heat before it escapes into space. This greenhouse effect is important: It’s why a planet so far from the sun has liquid water and life!

However, during the Industrial Revolution, people started burning coal and other fossil fuels to power factories, smelters and steam engines, which added more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Ever since, human activities have been heating the planet.

Where it was cooler or warmer in 2020 compared with the middle of the 20th century

Global average temperature compared with the middle of the 20th century

+0.75°C

–0.25°

30 billion metric tons

Carbon dioxide emitted worldwide 1850-2017

Rest of world

Other developed

European Union

Developed economies

Other countries

United States

E.U. and U.K.

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The learning network | what are your experiences with severe weather.

What Are Your Experiences With Severe Weather?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

• See all Student Opinion »

Tens of millions of people who live on the East Coast spent the weekend preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Were you and your family among them? If so, how did you get ready for the storm?

In “East Coast Prepares for Storm’s Arrival,” Michael Schwirtz describes the efforts to be as ready as possible for Hurricane Sandy:

Governors across the region have declared emergencies, and federal officials have issued urgent warnings for people to prepare. From Plymouth, Me., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., residents boarded up windows; stocked up on water, batteries and food; and prepared to hunker down. Airlines encouraged people with flights scheduled in the next few days to change their plans and waived cancellation fees. Though airports remained open, major airlines including Delta, United and American, announced that flights would be canceled. American Airlines said it canceled 140 flights on Sunday and would cancel an additional 1,431 flights from Monday through Wednesday. Amtrak has also shut down train service to parts of the East Coast, including between Washington and New York. At supply stores across the region, generators and other goods were snapped up in preparation for the possibility of extended power failures. Tens of thousands of people who live on the state’s densely populated barrier islands — from Sandy Hook to Cape May — were evacuating on Sunday in compliance with an order issued by Gov. Chris Christie. The evacuation included the 40,000 residents of Atlantic City, where the casinos closed at 3 p.m. on Sunday. All New Jersey Transit service, including buses and rail and light rail lines, were to be suspended starting at 4 p.m.

• If you live on the East Coast of the United States, is this the first time you ever prepared for a severe weather event?
• What have you and your family done to get ready for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy?

How were you feeling as you watched the news and tracked the storm’s path? How do you feel now?

• Regardless of where you live, have you experienced similar storms or other kinds of severe weather events in the past? When?
• What are your personal stories about experiencing and recovering from a significant weather event like a hurricane?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

Related: Our complete collection of hurricane resources , and our 6 Q’s About the News, Hurricane Sandy Versus the East Coast .

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Sandy’s winds is affecting Georgia severely. The weather is switching from cold to hot fronts. Im not sure how to dress for the weather because of the unexpected changes.

I live in Georgia, the only thing we have experienced from hurricane Sandy so far, is severe winds and cooler weather. The weather has been effected mostly,by temperature change.

I live in Georgia, our weather has been effected just by the rapid weather change from cold, windy mornings to hot, sunny afternoons and from hot to cold in the night.

This is the first time I have ever prepared for a severe weather event. Last year when the East coast was expecting Irene I didn’t think very much of it. Irene wasn’t even supposed to hit New Jersey as hard as Sandy. Sure, my mom did go to the supermarkets and buy bottles of water, but I wasn’t concerned. For hurricane Sandy, I really don’t know what to expect. If schools were closing all over the East coast, and New York transportation was shut down, Sandy must be colossal.

My family and I have done plenty to prepare for the hurricane. My mom got water and bought non perishable foods. She also got out the flashlights and extra batteries. I think we are going to fill up our bathtubs with water, so we can flush our toilets if we lose our water. I brought in the furniture from outside and put it in the garage, so they wouldn’t go flying. We don’t really know what Sandy is bringing our way.

I was feeling a little scared and excited at the same time when I saw where the storm was headed. When I saw that Sandy was headed towards central New Jersey, I was afraid because that’s where I live. However, I was excited because this was the first major storm I was in the middle of. I feel the same now, fearful and thrilled, because school was canceled, but it is looking very bad outside. Obama is saying we should take Sandy a little more serious and I think I need to.

I have experienced similar storms in the past. I experienced hurricane Irene. For our family, hurricane Irene wasn’t that bad, but we did have flooding in our basement. Our town had flooding and some roads were closed for a while, along with fallen trees and power lines. Having said that, I don’t know how bad Sandy will be this time.

When we had hurricane Irene before, we had flooding in our basement. When you went down there and walked into a particular corner, the water would ooze out of the carpet. Since there was nonstop rain, we had to find a way to soak up the water. My dad actually has a huge collection of newspapers that he saved. My mom wanted to get rid of the newspapers and she came up with a great idea. My mom and I, little by little, took the newspapers and laid them down where there was flooding. After forty-five minutes, we had to go down to the basement and replace the newspapers until the rain stopped.

Right before I came to US, it was a arrival of hurricane in my city, and it was really high signal warning number. What we have done was stay at home. Tape the big tapes to the windows, just case it doesn’t fall if it breaks. I did walk in the street after the warning number decreases a little bit. I felt the wind was moving me and even the trees around are almost dropped. I think school closed is a good idea because it is pretty dangerous to the students on their ways to go to school or home, but I don’t recommend people hang around during this bad weather. It makes accident happen easily.

I was living in Brooklyn last time when Hurricane Irene came. Actually, I not afraid Hurricane, in opposite, I so exciting, because we had a stimulate time. In New York City, bus and subway was close already. That’s a good choice for avoid accident, and the Government settle down a lot for homeless people. I think Government did a good job in this time. When Hurricane coming, the best idea is stay at home. In a general way, save some water and food indispensable. I hope everybody be safe in this time Hurricane.

I do live on the east coast of the United States, and this is my first time preparing for a weather event. Same things me and my roommate have done already was food shopping bought flash light and put cardboard boxers around the windows just in case the wind picks up and blows out the windows . At first I was feeling kind of scared but then I got over it and said to myself this will be over before you know it. No I have not experienced anything like this storm or any other weather event like hurricane sandy. I don’t have any stories about experiencing and recovering from a significant weather event like a hurricane.

Last year Hurricane Irene and a tornado came through my town. In my home we lost our power. The whole building was lite by candles and flashlights. We kept all the kids on the first floor between two apartments. Grateful that my stove was gas I was able to cook for everyone. There wasn’t any water damage done to our building. Although a lot of our phones were out and took two to three day for them to be restored. This is now my third sever weather event. To get ready for Hurricane Sandy I’ve put new batteries in my flashlights and got my candles out. Medications are all in one spot, and also making sure that my phone is fully charged. As I looked up the news I was scared for my daughter to go to school. Her school is off a major road right next to the river. I now am still a little nerves knowing that I do live by the river and i could experience water damage or have to leave my home.

This will not be the first time for me in being prepared for a sever thunderstorm. Yet, we’ve always have items that we would need in case of a storm. In case the storm becomes more violent, my family and i have stocked up on firewood, to keep warm in case the power likes to go out on us. We Also, Stocked up on warm clothing and stocked up on food and water in case the roads are destroyed by the washouts from the rain. As i watch the weather warnings on the oncoming storm, and seeing the clouds turning darker be the minute, I feel like that there’s gonna be a massive corruption as I’ll be driving home in this storm. In addition to all the land that would be washed out, over the roads, homes destroyed, and lose of power. What i feel now is that the sooner the storm is over the better i would feel. Yet I have experienced violent storms that haven’t hit where i live; I’ve dealt with storms a few years ago by my old high school where I’ve seen many faces upside down because of the lose of homes friends and family. My personal experience of storms i would not like to talk about, However, the result of recovering from a hurricane, is very hard to forget about. But when you help others in need. Seeing the smiles they give back makes you forget the troubles that you feel after the storm has passed.

I live in New York city, our weather is usually affected by change in temperature. However, when I think of a time in which I’ve experienced severe weather, I find myself on the date of August 27, 2011. Me and my parents watched the news together, listening to mayor Bloomberg speak. The mayor, as well federal officials urged strong warnings to prepare for hurricaine Irene. I felt frightened and small and intimidated. I knew to expect the unexpected. My parents strongly felt that it was important to be well prepared. Therefore we drove to food places and supply stores. We stocked up on supplies for extended possibilities in power failures. When we boarded our windows, I felt a sense of more security. I was less scared, being assured that I was at least prepared for what was to come of hurricaine Irene.

Luckly my place was ok last year, however some people lost their place. I felt so bad for them because that was not the first time, and I clearly remember how much I was terrified of wild and a siren at that time. I learned about preparing such as food , flash lamp and clean water also safety place in my place. On the Sep 9th 2012 ,I was on the plan When the plan almost get to the JFK airport ,There was concerned about storms .so we had to lay over in hong – kong for 9 hours. I landed at midnight in the JFK airport. I had a fear and I had missed the train for Albany. It was hard for me ,I felt worn out with long flight and I had no Idea where should I stay until The cap driver take me to the motel. When I watched the news and tracked the storm’s path today, It made me think how weak I am. In addition, the news makes me pray for others, Hope everybody is ok.

This is the first time I have prepared for a storm,so needless to say this was quite the experience for me. My family and I went out to grocery,and other outlets to get what we needed.We purchased lots of water,perishables,and other necessities like batteries,candles, and fuel for our generator.When I first watched the news tracking the storm I really didn’t think that it would be this bad, but now that I’ve seen more of what going on ,and the alerts I’m a little bit more nervous about whats going to happen. In the past I have experienced others storms,however the most recent storm was hurricane Irene last year. My family and i were hit pretty bad with the flood. Our family business sits across from the river,so when the flood came we watched all the equipment,and saw all the damage it caused. As a result we had to go into our savings to get back all we lost. It was a devastating feeling,but we overcame it.

I actually remember one year this horrible hurricane came and the power was out for about a week and school was cancelled. It was the worst hurricane i experienced so far. Schools were cancelled and the power was out and everyone spent more time outside because it was just way too hot to be inside. Lots of people had water coming in through the windows and the water would leak through the roof. Eventually things started to get better and people were able to move on from the experience.

Everytime i turn on the news, the feeling that swoops over me is plain fear. Either it being fear of a national threat, such as the Taliban menacing the United States or something more local yet more disasastrous sch as a natural disaster. Currently, Hurricane Sandy has not only induced fear over me but over everybody in the East Coast because it has been predicted that Hurricane Sandy will create a disastrous aftermath.

I live in New Jersey, so yes, i am directly impacted by the storm. It’s not he first time I’ve had to prepare for a storm like this, because of last years’ hurricane irene. Irene was the first hurricane/storm I’ve ever been through and it was an important event, because it affected so many people, some more than others, and it’s terrible to see so many others left with almost nothing and i feel grateful to have what i need. Luckily, my family and friends were fine, but there were still many preparations that had to be made, just like this year. This year, we are making sure our windows won’t leak (which we learned the hard way last time) and have all supplies necessary in case there is a shortage of food, power, etc. hurricane sandy has caused all the schools in my district to close form monday to tuesday, but we still all have to be careful. As always, many supermarket shelves are empty and all shops have closed, leaving what is probably all of New Jersey indoors for at least 3-4 or more days, especially since sandy is passing by much more slowly than Irene did. The news is always on in my house, so I”m always informed with the latest reports on the conditions around us, what’s to expect and how to prepare. I’m glad to still have electricity, but it could go any moment, so i make sure everything is charged and ready, just in case. It’s always good to take advantage of what we have and use it well.

Since I live on the east coast I am not new to hurricanes. My family and I have prepared for hurricanes before hurricane Sandy. To get ready for hurricane Sandy my family and I went to the local drug store to get water and batteries . The batteries are used for keeping the flashlights running. When I was watching the news. When I was watching the news tracking Sandy I was a bit uneasy. I was wondering what might happen if we did not have electricity for long periods of time. Right now I am not to worried because now we have batteries, so if the power goes out then we can use flashlights. I have had storms like this in my area before. For example Hurricane Irene hit my town last summer. When large hurricanes rip through my town, such as Sandy I get nervous. Mainly because I hope nothing gets destroyed. After a hurricane everything goes back to normal. Unless I have to go find a garbage can that flew away.

This is my first time preparing for a severe weather event, like Hurricane Sandy. We have only gotten one other Hurricane since I have lived in New Jersey , and that was Hurricane Irene last summer. I didn’t actually think too much of Hurricane Irene since it was summer and I wasn’t watching the weather channel to much and no one really seemed to worry about Irene in my house. But Hurricane Sandy is so much different. My family watches the weather channel 24/7 now and we keep our selves informed of what’s coming our way. In addition to watching the weather channel, over the weekend my family went out and purchased items. We purchased non-perishable food, packs of water bottles, flashlights, and batteries.

Watching Hurricane Sandy’s path on the news worried me but also excited me. I was scared because I had never experienced a storm so severe before and I didn’t know what would happen. However I was also excited because my school district called school off for two days.

I have experienced severe weather events in the past (not as great and extreme as Sandy). When I was in third grade, one day New Jersey experienced heavy rain and severe thunderstorms. I remember it because I remember how the thunder had been louder than usual thunder and I also remember my choir concert being canceled because of it. Also one time in 2004 when I was returning from my trip from India there was a severe snowstorm. I remember having to sit in the airplane and circle the sky for an hour waiting for it to stop and then they had to clean the snow so that the plane could land safely.

Since I don’t live near a river and I don’t have a basement in my house I don’t really have any personal stories about recovering from a weather event like Hurricanes. However during the Severe Snow Storm I remember having to help shovel out the inches of snow that had piled near my door and on my car. I also remember when we had severe thunderstorms and rain a tree near my neighbor’s house had knocked over. We had all helped move it and later called the association to move it.

Here comes Sandy and yes,this is the first time that my family and I, have ever prepared for a severe weather event. We have been stocking up on goods and necessities like torches,batteries,water and food,mostly canned,to be prepared for possible power outages that we are told might last a week. As we went shopping, I saw panic shopping for the first time in my life. People were rushing around,wildly dashing through the rows of canned food and dumping whatever they could lay their hands on. It was surprising to see many shelves in shops like Walmart being empty. There were huge queues at the billing counters and large lines of cars with people rushing home. As the television channels and the newspapers were blaring out warning of the impending disaster, we did not panic initially, as many of these minor storms and hurricanes were known to pass through this area. But when we realized that it was going to cause some serious damage,we were scared,as this was our first experience with mother nature’s rage in this part of the world. But now,when we are in the middle of the storm, we are glad that our area has not been hit as badly as some of the unfortunate regions that have suffered great damage. Back in India, we only faced some heavy rains and cold winds, but nothing this severe. This certainly was a superstorm. We spent our time watching movies and we had no clue as to when the storm arrived and when it passed away. Now looking out the window I realize that in few hours time,it should be gone from here. This storm was very powerful,but very quick. This storm taught me how to be prepared for adversities. The sight of an uprooted tree in front of my house is devastating. This shows how vulnerable we humans are if we are not protected. Well ,I have something to say to Sandy “ Goodbye Sandy, Don’t come back”.

I live on the east coast and this has been the first time my family has prepared for a severe weather event. Last year, when Irene hit, we were not in the vicinity, so we didn’t have to worry about that hurricane.

To prepare for Hurricane Sandy, we went out to buy 3 crates of packaged water. We bought a couple of loaves of bread, some cartons of milk and eggs. We both many packs of batteries, bought a lamp that ran on solar power and made sure we knew where all our flashlights were. We also cleaned up the garage so we could park both our cars inside. We charged all our phones and iPads ahead of time. Finally, we filled up our bathtub with water so that if we lost power, we could still use the bathroom.

Throughout Sunday and Monday evening, as we were watching the news, I felt a little anxious, looking at all the live footage of the flooding, especially in the NYC Subways. I also felt excited though, because I had never been through a storm like this and it felt kind of exciting. After the storm passed though, I feel annoyed that Sandy had to cause so much damage because many people around our district lost power, and wont be getting it back until Monday, so school will be cancelled. Although it was nice not to go to school for a couple of days, it is also dreadfully boring, especially since you can’t go out anywhere. I also feel annoyed that we won’t be allowed to go out to trick-or-treat this year.

I have never been through another hurricane, but i have been through two heavy snowstorms in the past, sometime around the 2004-2005 timeframe.

When the two heavy snow storms hit, I remember school being cancelled for a very long time. I lived in an apartment then, so we didn’t have to shovel the snow. The day it finally stopped snowing, and paths were shoveled through the snow, my family went out to the nearest grocery store to buy food and other necessities. I’ve never had to recover from a hurricane though.

I live on the east coast (this is post-sandy) and this is not the first time i have prepared for a severe storm. Last years Irene was also a severe storm. For the arrival of Sandy, me and my family have bought bottled water, flashlights, canned food, and batteries. We brought all of the outdoor furniture inside and made sure none of the windows had any leakages, because last year, one of the windows was cracked and there was rainwater seeping in. When i was watching the news, i did not feel afraid at all. Last year, when Irene struck, i was scared, becaus i heard that there would be major flooding. that was not my first hurricane, but it was the first severe hurricane i had been in. we had prepared alot for irene and nothing much happened. i was surprised when my neighbors trampoline did not blow away when irene was there. but this year was different. their trampoline did blow away and my dad was afraid it would crash into my house and break the windows. luckily, the trampoline got stuck in some evergreens, that later fell, and got bent out of shape. aslo, i read another article that said that people think that sandy will not b that bad. thats what i thought, since last year we lost power for only a few hours and it came back before it got dark again. but this time, we have no power and there is no internet connection. (im in the public library with the rest of the world trying to get internet connection). its awful and our power supposed to come back in 4 more days and we havent had power for the last 3 days. but there is no flodding, so thats good. The last severe strom was Irene, which i did not think was that bad except for the rivers flooding. Last year, there wasnt anything to recover from, but this year, there are a few fallen trees in my yard that i have to get rid of, but nothing severe except for the fact that there is no power in my neighborhood.

I live where just floods and torandoes. Ido not think a flood could get to my houe.So i just have to think about torandoes. Floods are realy dangerous.

Thankfully, living in Utah, I’m not physically affected by Hurricane Sandy; but, I do know people living on the East Coast and my thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by the hurricane. Living in Utah, we do have to deal with the hurricane in our area, but sometimes are hit with a snowstorm here and there, but nothing too severe in my lifetime; I’ve only had one snow day before. Witnessing and tracking Hurricane Sandy and it’s affects makes me anxious and worried for those on the East Coast of our country, and all those connected through family and friends.

I live in Georgia,the only thing I affected from hurricane Sandy was very strong winds and cool weather. I’ve never really been in bad weather the only thing was strong winds. It was in tennesse all the sign were falling down and rain pouring very strong.

I live in the Bronx where the damage wasn’t as bad as other boroughs. I was home most of the time and heard the tress moving from all the wind. I saw the news very often and saw the flooding, fires and damage in other boroughs like Queens. The pictures from the aftermath of the storm are so sad and they changed my view on the seriousness of hurricanes. I would like to help and i look forward to doing so with my school !

I live in New York and Hurricane Sandy affected us with severe Winds and rain most of us went days without electricity and hot water , in addition some of my family members who live in Brooklyn Suffered with a lot of flooding through out their neighborhood, it was very difficult for them to contact anyone and for them to leave their homes to get supplies. Most of us weren’t prepared for hurricane sandy because Irene didn’t really affect us as much.

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The Author Of “There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather” On Getting Kids Outdoors

Written by Aja Lake of Kids in Nature

Photography by Photographed by James Kicinski-McCoy for MOTHER

Thanks in large part to the screen-heavy nature of today’s world, studies reveal both children and adults are spending less time connected to nature . This, of course, despite numerous reports that show just how key exposure to the outdoors is when it comes to our physical and mental health. In her book, There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather , Swedish-American journalist, blogger, and mother of two, Linda Åkeson McGurk explores whether the nature-centric parenting philosophy of her native Scandinavia holds the key to healthier, happier lives for her children. Below, we caught up with the author (whose children are now 9 and 12) to hear about her own upbringing as well as how best to get kids outdoors…even in the dead of winter.

Why exactly is outdoor time so key for families? “The research that has come out in the past decade or so shows that nature can have a powerful impact on the physical and mental health of both children and adults. For example, there is evidence that spending time in nature can alleviate symptoms of ADHD, improve motor skills, help prevent obesity, and lower the risk of depression, heart disease, and nearsightedness. I could go on about all the scientific findings, but they all basically confirm what I think we already knew intuitively—that nature makes us feel good and is essential to our quality of life. This is why I believe that allowing enough time for kids to play freely outdoors is just as important as making sure that they eat healthy food and get enough sleep. It should be at the heart of childhood. Plus, I really believe that kids need to be in nature to appreciate it and learn to care for it. Besides the obvious physical and mental benefits, I think having one foot firmly planted in the natural world can help guide us on our parenting journey. Whether you’re avid hikers or skiers, or just enjoy watching the clouds from your back porch, all these little moments with nature help you bond as a family and form your family identity and culture. Knowing this really motivates me to get outside with my kids every day, regardless of the weather, and I hope those will be the stories and the lifestyle that they’ll pass down to their own children one day.”

How did your Scandinavian upbringing influence your own parenting? “When I had my first daughter in the U.S., I found it hard to navigate all the different parenting styles, so falling back on my Scandinavian upbringing came naturally to me. Scandinavian parenting culture is fairly uniform and dominated by a gentle, child-centered approach with a heavy dose of nature through friluftsliv and focus on the family through hygge . Friluftsliv loosely translates to open-air life and can be explained as seeking oneness with nature in everyday life, without a particular agenda. Foraging for mushrooms or berries in the woods or taking the kids for a picnic in the park are both examples of friluftsliv. Hygge is more about enjoying simple pleasures and having a cozy time together as a family, indoors as well as outdoors, but there’s a lot of overlap between the two. Sitting around a campfire in the woods, for example, is considered both friluftsliv and hygge. Both concepts are important building blocks of the culture and are passed down from generation to generation. As my kids have gotten older, I’ve continued to push these aspects of Scandinavian culture in my parenting, while at the same time embracing my favorite aspects of American parenting culture. That way, I’m hoping that they’ll get the best of both worlds.”

Kids can be known to protest: “It’s hot!” “It’s cold!” “It’s raining!” “It’s boring!” What do you say to parents and caregivers who want to get outside with kids without it feeling forced? “This is a great question, because I think we’ve all been there at some point. I think the number one way to prevent it from happening is to make being outside a part of your daily rhythm or routine. That way, your child knows what to expect and that it’s a normal part of the day. But I also think it’s important to be tuned into what piques your child’s interest when you are outside and nurture that instead of pushing your own agenda, especially with young children. As parents we may have one idea of what we’re going to do once we’re outside, but if we let our kids lead the way they’re more likely to embrace it. There will still be times when they resist going outside, but don’t be discouraged when they do. Try to reframe the situation and give them some different options for what you can do once you’re outside. If they’re complaining about rain, say, ‘Look at those fun puddles that the rain is creating! Would you like to go jump in a puddle or should we check if we can find any earthworms?’ If encouragement doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to be firm without losing your cool. I usually go with, ‘We’re going to go outside for 15 minutes and then we’ll see how we feel.’ More often than not, I find that the resistance melts away once we’re outside. And if it doesn’t, at least we got out for those 15 minutes!”

Any specific tips for playing outdoors in the cold winter months? “I usually advise people to look for outdoor gear that can keep out the weather as well as stand up against wear and tear. Good winter clothes for kids can be hard to find in regular department stores, since they tend to focus more on design than function. But the reality is that kids climb trees, crawl over rocks, and roll down hills regardless of the season, so they need outer layers with reinforced areas over knees and the seat, for example. I also favor coveralls and winter pants with snow locks at the leg openings and elastic bands that go under the foot, since those help tremendously when it comes to keeping kids’ feet dry. Integrated reflective trim is also super important for outdoor play after dark. As far as shoes go, look for boots that are both insulated and waterproof and pair them with wool socks on cold days. On really cold days, a good layering system is important for keeping kids warm. Start with a woolen or synthetic base layer, add an insulating mid layer—such as a fleece jacket and pants—and lastly add the wind and waterproof outer layer. When shopping, what you can’t find in local outdoors stores can be found online.”

What about the super-hot summer season? “Growing up in Scandinavia, excessive heat was never a problem that I had to deal with, but after moving to Indiana, which gets very hot and humid in the summer, I had to change my rhythm to better fit the climate. Now when it’s hot, the kids and I are a lot less physically active, especially midday when the temperature peaks. Instead, we try to get outside during the early morning hours on in the evening, and we seek out shade. More natural areas tend to be better than man-made ones in the heat, since tree canopies have a cooling effect, whereas asphalt and buildings tend to increase the temperature. And when you do go out in the heat, make sure to keep everybody well hydrated and try to incorporate water in other ways. If you can’t be by a lake or pool, improvise at home with buckets of water for the kids to play with. There are also a ton of fun things to do with ice that will help them keep cool, like freezing some toys in a container and letting the kids peck away at the clump of ice with some tools. Lastly, let young kids go nude if they want to! Diapers can become uncomfortable in the heat and most babies and toddlers enjoy the freedom of being in their birthday suit.”

Any other words on the importance of exposing kids to nature? “I have a holistic perspective on children’s health, which is why nature plays such a big part in our lives,  along with the obvious things that keep us physically healthy, like eating whole foods, exercising, and getting enough sleep. Nature hones all of our senses and we know that it has a therapeutic effect on both children and adults. It is the perfect place for us to step back and give our children the space and time to direct their own play and learning, something that I think is crucial if we want to raise kids who are healthy, independent, confident, and resilient. You don’t have to live in pristine wilderness to make unstructured outdoor play a priority—nature is everywhere, even in the cities. And it’s a much-needed antidote to the common tendency to overcomplicate, overschedule, and over-intervene in the lives of children. Call it hyperparenting, call it helicopter-parenting; I don’t care much for labels, but I do think these recent trends are stunting children’s personal growth, independence, and ability to handle setbacks. If there’s one point that I hope people take away from my book, it is that it’s OK for us parents to take a step back and simplify childhood by trusting our children’s ability to figure things out on their own. We don’t have to plan their every move and attempt to make everything ‘educational,’ we just need to let them play often. We need to let them get dirty and be a bit wild, so that they learn to self-regulate. We need to let them be bored, so they will learn how to tap into their own creativity. We need to let them test their boundaries and make mistakes. And we need to let them take risks, so that they will learn to make judgments and build their self-esteem.”

For more on the importance of outdoor time and the keys to raising healthier, resilient, and confident children, check out There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather . And for more articles on Scandinavian parenting, head over here .

Author Aja Lake is a family wellness consultant and writer specializing in nature immersion, environmental education, and natural parenting. She’s also the founder of Kids in Nature .

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For nature addicts – nature facts and tips on hiking with kids, book review – there’s no such thing as bad weather.

As parents the number one most important thing for us to get our kids outside more is to make sure we are motivated to do it. Some days I find it easy to motivate and get the troops out of the house. But, other days I have a much harder time finding the energy and motivation. This book does a great job giving me that extra motivation and I would recommend it to others.

Book Review Of There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather

An acquaintance of mine, Linda Akeson McGurk, recently wrote a new book, There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather . She asked me to read it over and then write a review, which I am more than happy to do as the topic of the book fits with this blog.  I hope you find this book review helpful.

Rating – 5 Out Of 5 Stars – You Should Read This!

I give this book a five out of five stars. McGurk does a fantastic job of combining her personal experiences and opinions with extensive research.  The topic is invaluable for all parents, but her unique perspective as a Scandinavian/American, is what makes it such a good read.

The questions that the author brings up in the book are questions that all parents have asked themselves at one time or another.  Are my kids spending too much time on devices?  How can I get them to want to play outside more?  Is it safe for them to play like that?

The author provides a ton of research, interviews, and personal anecdotes to make her case for the importance of getting kids outside in nature more. She covers everything from free range parenting to school testing, and from forest schools to letting kids walk to the park alone.

Personally, since I am already a firm believer in the importance of getting kids outside more I enjoyed the personal stories more than the extensive research. For others, the research may persuade them.

About There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather

The author, born in Sweden, lives in the USA and is disenchanted with the lack of time children spend outdoors in nature in the USA, including during school. She takes her children to live for 6 months back where she grew up in Sweden. While there she remarks on the major differences between cultural attitudes towards schooling and parenting in Scandinavian countries and the USA.

However, this book is not just another doom and gloom book, lamenting over too much time spent inside on devices. It goes beyond that to offer Scandinavian parenting tips to help parents get their kids outside more. Those Scandinavian parenting tips are what motivated me to get my kids outside more in order to let them play and be kids.

About The Author – Linda Akeson McGurk

Linda Åkeson McGurk is a Swedish-American freelance journalist, author and blogger. A nature lover and mother of two daughters, she believes that the best childhood memories are created outside, while jumping in puddles, digging in dirt, catching bugs, and climbing trees.

McGurk is a regular contributor to Outdoor Families Magazine, and her writings about natural parenting, outdoor play and green living have appeared in a wide range of publications and online outlets, including Green Child Magazine, Mother Nature Network, The Green Mama, Childhood 101, Preschool Inspirations and the Children and Nature Network. In 2013, she started the blog Rain or Shine Mamma to inspire outdoor play and adventure every day, regardless of the weather.

Short & Long Essay on Nature Has No Bad Weather

Table of Contents

Nature Has No Bad Weather Essay

Title: the beauty of nature: there is no bad weather, introduction:.

Nature is a vast and magnificent entity that surrounds us all. It presents us with a myriad of awe-inspiring sights, whether it be the gentle whisper of a breeze or the powerful roar of a storm. In contemplating the concept of bad weather, we must shift our perspective and recognize that nature has no such thing; every weather condition serves a purpose and holds its own unique beauty.

Weather as a Cyclical Process:

Weather is an essential part of the Earth’s natural cycle. It encompasses a wide range of conditions, such as sunshine, rain, wind, snow, and thunderstorms. Each of these weather phenomena has its own importance and contributes to the overall balance of our planet. Rain, for example, nourishes plants, replenishes rivers and lakes and sustains life. Wind helps in dispersing seeds and controlling temperature, while snow brings about a transformative beauty to the landscape.

The Beauty of Rain:

Many people view rain as a nuisance, associating it with inconvenience or hindrance. However, rain holds immense significance in shaping ecosystems and sustaining life on Earth. It provides vital nourishment to plants, fills reservoirs, and supports agricultural activities. Furthermore, the sound of raindrops falling gently or the sight of rainbows that often follow a rainstorm can bring a sense of tranquility and wonder.

The Majesty of Storms:

Storms, despite their intimidating nature, possess a captivating beauty. Thunder and lightning dancing across the sky can inspire awe and a sense of grandeur. Thunderstorms also play a crucial role in the nitrogen cycle, producing nitrogen compounds that fertilize the soil. Additionally, storms have a cleansing effect on the atmosphere, purifying the air we breathe.

The Power of Wind:

Even a seemingly harsh weather condition like strong winds carries its own inherent beauty. Wind sculpts landforms, disperses seeds for plant reproduction, and helps regulate temperatures. The rustling of leaves in the breeze and the dance of windmills are all testaments to the charm of wind, showcasing its multifaceted role in nature’s symphony.

The Serenity of Snow:

During winter, snow blankets the landscape, inviting serenity and tranquility. The sight of glistening snowflakes falling gently can be magical. Snow also acts as an insulator, providing protection and insulation for plants, animals, and even the soil beneath.

Conclusion:

While some might label certain weather conditions as “bad,” it is essential to recognize the intrinsic value and beauty in all aspects of nature. Instead of viewing weather through a lens of inconvenience and discomfort, we should appreciate the diverse manifestations and purposes it serves. Rain, storms, wind, and snow all contribute to our ecological systems, sustaining life and providing a magnificent backdrop to our existence. Perhaps it is time we embrace and celebrate nature’s every weather condition, with a newfound understanding that there truly is no bad weather.

Nature Has No Bad Weather Short Essay

Nature Has No Bad Weather Nature is a powerful force that can often be unpredictable. With its wide range of weather conditions, it may be easy for some to label certain conditions as “bad.” However, a closer look reveals that nature has no bad weather; instead, each weather condition serves a purpose and possesses its own unique beauty. Rain, for instance, has been mistakenly categorized as a negative weather occurrence. People often associate it with inconvenience and gloom. However, rain is an essential part of the Earth’s natural cycle and plays a crucial role in sustaining life. It nourishes plants, fills rivers and lakes, and supports the growth of crops. The rhythmic sound of raindrops falling on leaves and the earth can even bring a sense of tranquility and peace. Similarly, storms are often feared and seen as destructive. Yet, storms hold a certain majesty and power. Thunder and lightning dancing across the sky can inspire awe and wonder. These thunderstorms also play a vital role in the nitrogen cycle, producing nitrogen compounds that fertilize the soil. Additionally, storms cleanse the air, purifying it for us to breathe in. Wind, another weather phenomenon often viewed as a nuisance, is, in fact, an essential element of nature. Wind sculpts landforms, disperses seeds for plant reproduction, and helps regulate temperatures. The rustling of leaves in the breeze and the dance of windmills are all testaments to the charm of wind, showcasing its role in nature’s symphony. Even snow, which some may consider an inconvenience during winter, possesses its own inherent beauty. The sight of glistening snowflakes falling gracefully can create a sense of serenity and tranquility. Snow also acts as an insulator, protecting plants, animals, and the soil beneath, allowing life to thrive even in colder climates. In conclusion, nature has no bad weather; instead, it offers a diverse range of weather conditions, each with its own significance and purpose. Rain, storms, wind, and snow all contribute to the delicate balance of our ecological systems and bring beauty to the world. By shifting our perspective and appreciating the beauty and importance of every weather condition, we can truly embrace and celebrate the magnificence of nature.

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There Is No Bad Weather–Only Inadequate Clothing

W hen faced with a short growing season, you have two choices: bemoan your fate or suck it up and deal with it. I’ve discovered it’s much easier to deal with it if you’re wearing appropriate clothing–clothing you might not immediately think of as gardening duds.

In mid-November I had a bunch of shrubs I had gotten for 75% off and about 350 bulbs that somehow didn’t get planted in October. The very first week in November it had been shirt-sleeve warm, but the weather suddenly turned wintry and I was faced with 38°F (3°C) on my gardening day. With no precipitation predicted and no wind to speak of, that’s often as good as it gets in November. No waiting for better weather . Furthermore, the soil was damp and–most importantly–not frozen.

As for the other layers, I wore a camisole underneath a long-sleeved tee shirt. I could have bumped it up to a long-underwear top or a thin sweater over the tee, but I didn’t need to. In fact, I was unzipping my jacket before I was done.

About the title

“There is no bad weather–only inadequate clothing” is a Finnish proverb that I first came across in the Sydney Morning Herald , of all places. According to this map , parts of Finland get as cold as USDA hardiness zones 2b, so they should know.

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Tagged as: fleece , gardening clothes , gloves , hat , snowpants

About the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy .

In its own way, frost may be one of the most beautiful things to happen in your garden all year . . . Don’t miss it. Like all true beauty, it is fleeting. It will grace your garden for but a short while this morning. . . . For this moment, embrace frost as the beautiful gift that it is.

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This is my first visit to your blog, Kathy, since you kindly visited mine. As a cold-weather gardener (Pocono Mountains of PA) I love the title of this posting. So true. Unfortunately, as I age, I find it hard to be motivated to go outdoors. I prefer to be near the fireplace writing or reading about gardening. I’m going to spend time now reading some of the blogs on your list. P. x

I believe I have been to your blog before yesterday, but perhaps I didn’t leave a comment. Glad to have you visit!

Great post Kathy. I didn’t know about those gloves. Although we don’t get as cold as you do as fast, it’s 29 here today. Thanks so much.~~Dee

Thank you for this column! It reminds me that I really have no excuse for staying inside as long as it’s light out. There are still clay pots I need to empty, a couple little sections of lawn I want to turn over to expand my garden so they will be easier to dig in the spring, lots of clean-up, throwing some celosia seeds in one area that a friend gave me and hoping some will take, etc. etc. It feels so good to get outside, too.

Kathy – This is a great post – because I have been struggling with gardening in town. Somehow I feel I have to look slightly more respectable than when working out in my country garden. I especially appreciate the info about pants! Thank you!

I have been gardening as well little by little right through December now as the ground is not frozen. And I agree just need to bundle up properly so thanks for some of these ideas/products. I walk in all weather too so gardening in ‘bad’ weather does not bother me any more.

This sounds like what I would wear when out during winter. I wear a different style hat though. I find that these kinds of hats soon wiggle off my head. Maybe I am too much of a conehead?? tee hee…

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Does bad weather affect student performance in school?

Academic in Health and Physical Education, Southern Cross University

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All schools in south-east Queensland , and many in northern New South Wales , have been closed following tropical cyclone Debbie, which hit the area this week causing large-scale destruction.

An increase in extreme and unpredictable weather events in Australia continues to occur, which often disrupts students’ attendance at school.

In July 2015, over 40 schools were closed in the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands of NSW due to a snowstorm .

In June 2016, around 12 schools closed in New South Wales due to a weekend of storms .

Power outages due to severe weather in South Australia in September 2016 forced schools to shut.

Bushfires across southern Western Australia in November 2016 caused several schools to close.

In Tasmania, schools have even had to close due to high winds and heavy rainfall .

Despite these examples, there is little statistical information on the number of unplanned closures that take place in Australian schools.

So are students losing out from school closures?

It’s obvious, but to get the most out of education , students should go to school every day. In cases of extreme weather, students don’t always have that option.

However, research shows that authorised absences from school (such as during extreme weather) are less problematic for students than absences that are not authorised (no explanation or reasoning).

This is because unauthorised absences tend to reflect patterns and behaviours of student disengagement, or the possible negative attitudes of parents towards education that students adopt and carry with them through schooling.

The level of impact on students’ educational performance is all to do with the length of time that a student is absent from school and how regularly this occurs.

Missing school on a regular basis is a problem though

Research shows that absence from school on a regular basis has a negative impact on numeracy, reading and writing performance.

Students who miss more than 10% of school days across a school year or 10 days per term are at risk of poorer academic achievement.

In New South Wales, the average absence rate for public school students in 2013 was approximately 7% , which suggests that additional days off can be placing students at educational risk.

Little research on impact of unplanned school closures

Until 2014, there had been little international evidence of the frequency, causes, and characteristics of unplanned school closures , despite the impact of extreme weather events on students and their school communities.

The research that investigated school closures was largely based around the prevention of contagious illnesses such as influenza.

In the US from 2011 to 2013, it was revealed that there were almost 21,000 unplanned school closures – 16,000 of these resulting from extreme weather (this affected around 27 million students).

And reports show that state-wide assessment results in the US tended to be lower in areas where schools had to make unplanned closures to snowfall, compared to other years when schools didn’t have to close.

Wet weather

Even if the weather isn’t bad enough to spark closures, it can still disrupt the school day.

Wet weather, in particular, means that students are less likely to take part in or enjoy , physical education and recess time activities, for example.

If such weather occurs on a regular basis, it makes it harder for school students to meet the national physical activity guidelines , which are designed to ensure kids are keeping sufficiently active.

It’s important, then, for the schools to cater for these situations and provide spacious, well equipped indoor school spaces to ensure kids can still take part in physical education and recess time activities.

Wet weather can also be stressful for teachers in primary schools who have to keep children safe while they play outside on slippery surfaces.

Learn at home instead?

Similar to the online learning platforms used for rural/distance teaching programs in Australia, there are online school learning programs in place in the US for students to learn at home during school closures.

During this time, teachers can communicate with students and parents and provide them with updates, and also set students work to do.

• Extreme weather
• Attainment gap
• School absence
• Cyclone Debbie
• School closures

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Should We Have Weather Cancellation Days?

Should students keep on learning, whatever the weather?

• R.1, R.2, R.6, R.8, W.1, W.4, W.10, SL.1, SL.3
• Grades 2-3 1a, 1c, 1d, 5a, 6b, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 9e, 11a, 11b, 11c, 12b
• Lesson Plan

Presentation View

Picture this: You wake up and see big blobs of snow falling outside your window. You know what this means—snow day! 

You race down the stairs, excited about the snowman you’re about to build. But before you get outside, your dad calls, “School’s about to start!” 

Wait—you still have school? That’s right. Some schools are now skipping weather cancellation days. If there’s a snowstorm, a heat wave, or a heavy rainstorm, these schools don’t cancel classes. Instead, students turn on their computers and continue to learn from home. But should kids still have these days off?

The Learning Continues

Debate Photos Courtesy Of Families 

For some schools, the answer is no. New York City public schools ditched snow days this year. Students there keep on learning, whatever the weather. School leaders say that remote learning keeps students from falling behind. 

Third-grader Khloe Abbott also points out that kids can still have fun while taking classes at home. “You can play and build a snowman at break time or after class is over,” she explains.

Best of all, missed days won’t get added to the end of the year. So students get their full summer break. Who wants to be in school when you could be at the pool?

Tough to Learn

But plenty of people think schools should still close for bad weather. They argue that kids need a break from school once in a while. Snow days let kids sleep in and have fun. Students come back to school refreshed and ready to learn.

Many students also experience technical problems, like bad internet access. This can make it tough to learn at home. That access could be worse during a storm. “I don’t learn as much at home, because my Wi-Fi keeps going out and my computer keeps freezing,” says third-grader Aubrielle Jackson.

Besides, many schools already include extra days on their calendars. So a few cancellation days won’t make summer break shorter. But they will make the school year more fun for a lot of kids.

Snow is falling, and it’s time to decide: remote learning or a relaxing day off?

Should we have weather cancellation days?

What do you think?

Go back to the article and write down reasons to support each side of the argument. Then study the points on both sides. State your opinion in one sentence, which can be the introduction to an opinion paragraph.

Have your students weigh in on other school decisions: “ Should Chocolate Milk Be Banned From Your School? ” from our September 2017 issue, and “ Should Recess Be Longer? ” from May/June 2022.

Share Nikki Giovanni’s delightful “ Winter Poem ” with your students, which describes the joys of being outside on a winter day.

For a look at a very different type of “snow day,” pair the debate with this issue’s fiction story “ The Snow Day Without Snow .”

1. PREPARING TO READ

Have students preview the text features. ask: what is the topic of the debate ( students can use the debate title and subhead as clues. ) what do you think the two sides of the issue are, 2. reading the debate, read the debate as a class or in small groups. have students read the debate a second time. prompt them to mark the types of support the author presents to back up each side, including: facts and statistics (f/s) quotes from experts (q)  stories or examples (ex)    , 3. discussing, as a class or in groups, have students discuss: what is your opinion what evidence do you find the most convincing for more-advanced students : do you think the author agrees with one point of view more than  the other on this issue what is your evidence, 4. culminating activity, distribute the “ opinion writing kit ” skill builder which guides students to write a three- paragraph essay on the debate topic.   or stage a classroom debate, offering students practice speaking in front of a group. for more-advanced students : have each side conduct additional research for the debate., 5. check comprehension, have students complete the comprehension quiz., 6. participate in the online poll, students can vote for which side they support and see what other storyworks 3 readers think in our online poll at storyworks 3 digital., common core state standard, ri.1, ri.2, ri.6, ri.8, w.1, w.4, w.10, sl.1.

English Solutions

Search this blog, extreme weather experience essay | what happened shocked me.

"After Surviving A Hurricane, What Happened Next Shocked Me!"

• Describe a bad weather experience : What was the bad weather? When did it happen? Where were you? How did it affect you?
• An extreme weather experience essay : How I survived a hurricane
• Examples of extreme/bad weather

A Bad Weather Experience

I can remember one occasion when I had to visit a customer in a city in the north of the country. It was in the middle of winter and I had to drive through the mountains to get to where I needed to go. There had been a little snow during the week where I lived, but I didn't really think about the cold weather much before I set of on the trip that cold winter morning.

I started off early in the morning because I wanted to drive on the roads while they were quiet and free of traffic as much as possible so as to not lose time. My destination was about three and a half hours away and I allowed a litle time for a stop to relax and stretch my legs along the way.

The first part of the journey was fine, without any problems. However, as I got further and further north and closer to my destination the cold weather became worse. It started to snow and I became a little concerned that the ice and steep slopes might become too dangerous to continue. After a while though I realized that it would be ok, although I had to drive slower than normally just to be safe.

Finally, I arrived at the customer's location just before the scheduled time for the meeting and was happy that there had been no problems during the journey. I met with the customer and after about an hour and a half I had finished what I had to do there. I decided to eat something before starting back on the journey home. I drove a little way to a restaurant I had seen when I arrived and had some lunch.

Once I started to drive home everything seemed okay like before. It was still snowing a little but it was still possible to drive without too much trouble. Suddenly the cold weather began to get much worse though and the snowfall was much heavier than earlier in the day. I continued driving, but was becoming worried about what to do if the conditions worsened. By this time I was driving through the mountains, well away from the city and there were almost no cars on the road at all.

What happened next took me totally by surprise. I was driving round a bend and the rear of my car began to slide out ... I tried to control it but the car started to slide out of control and drifted across the road and into a field which was next to the road.

The snow was very deep there and I couldn't simply drive the car out of it. Fortunately there was no great impact, and I didn't suffer any injuries. I sat there for a few minutes and thought about what to do. There were no other cars or traffic passing by which I could stop and ask for help.

Then I had an idea. I called the customer I had just visited on my mobile phone and explained to him what had happened. He wasn't surprised and told me the same thing had happened to him last year in the winter. He told me to stay in the car and he would send someone to help me.

About an hour later a tow truck arrived and the guy hooked the cable onto the back of my car and hauled it out of the field and back onto the road. He had a quick look underneath the car to make sure there was no visible damage to anything and then warned me to stay there until the snow died down a bit.

I was relieved that I had a thick winter coat with me! About forty five minutes later, the snow stopped and soon after that I saw some more cars driving past, very slowly, and decided it was time to continue the drive home. I had to drive very slowly for about an hour until I reached lower ground away from the mountains, and then the road was almost clear of snow and I could eventually drive normally again.

This extreme weather experience was a bit scary and in the end it took me a lot longer to get home than I had planned! Thankfully my car wasn't damaged, I had it checked over when I got home, because I'm sure the incident could have been much worse if I had been trying to drive faster in such bad weather.

Extreme Weather Experience Essay

You may have seen the headlines, "A Hurricane of magnitude 7 is coming" when the news anchors talk about a supposedly imminent hurricane.

When we were in our home watching the bad weather reports every hour on TV with uncertainty looming over the future, it was hard not to worry. But some moments made me feel like we were going to be OK. It was reassuring when my neighbor brought over some supplies for our family: water bottles, canned goods, duct tape (to seal windows), flashlights, and batteries—a big relief in case the power went out!

The storm finally hit around midnight. For the first few hours, it was terrorizing because of how loud and intense everything was. It sounded like bombs going off all around us. But then, at about three in the morning, as I lay there listening to the wind shaking the walls, something profound happened to me. Something changed from within; my heart opened up, and a tremendous feeling of peace came over me. The air felt still and calm, even though outside there was so much noise and destruction happening.

I sat on my bed for a while before going into the living room to check on my family (my mom, dad, and little sister). When I got there I told them that we should thank God for how safe we were during the hurricane. Our extreme weather experience was a strange night for us – we were all scared and shaking, but at the same time feeling a deep sense of peace and optimism as we felt the hurricane passing.

Extreme weather seems to be becoming a more frequent event in many parts of the world. Conditions can have an immense impact on many aspects of the weather, resulting in extreme fires, extreme floods, and extreme storms. The damage costs are very high - my parents have had to rebuild their home two times because of extreme weather conditions.

The danger from extreme bad weather events is rising now that climate change has been established as a reality by the scientific community. Climate change can contribute to extreme heatwaves, droughts, or heavy rain, which can cause extreme flooding and landslides and other climate disasters and dangerous weather conditions. These extreme weather events are happening more frequently than ever before and they make me feel anxious about our future and the future of other people around the world who don't have the resources we do to recover quickly from such destructive events.

Extremely damaging floods in Europe have killed hundreds of people and devastated the lives of thousands of families over the past few years. I feel so sad about what happened and wish those people could have been better prepared to survive such devastating events.

The other day, a meteorologist at our local television station predicted the possibility of another major hurricane striking my city in the next 48 hours, so it's not a distant threat anymore - it is impending! The last time we had an extreme weather experience was a major hurricane in 2004 when Hurricane Frances swept through Florida leaving first us but then also Louisiana devastated by floods of biblical proportions (I think everyone remembers those heavily televised pictures).

My extreme weather experience helped me realize that life is too short to worry about what other people say and do. You must live your own truth! Learn from your failures and successes and don't be afraid to live in the moment.

How would you write a bad weather experience essay?

Examples of Extreme/Bad Weather

A tornado is a violent, funnel-shaped storm that can destroy everything in its path. Dark clouds, strong wind, rain, and hail are possible signs of a twister or cyclone .

A hurricane or cyclone is a severe wind and heavy rainstorm.

Winter blizzard : extreme snow, ice, and extreme temperatures are typical.

Dust storm : winds of high strength and a hostile environment are ideal conditions.

Flood : heavy rain, excessive rain that natural drainage systems cannot disperse.

Hail storm : cold temperatures, rain, or ice (hailstones).

Ice storm : freezing rain.

Thunderstorm : often caused by the collision of hot and cold air, which results in lightning.

Snowstorm : usually starts with rain or sleet before turning quickly to snow.

Extreme fog : occurs when warm, moist air comes into contact with a colder surface (ground). In foggy weather , there is too much fog and visibility may reduce to less than 50 meters.

Lightning storm : occurs when there are severe disturbances in the electric current of the atmosphere, causing positively charged particles to collect near the ground and negatively charged particles to rise into the cloud. The result is lightning bolts.

Tropical storm : a tropical storm/cyclone has a wind speed of between 118 km/h (74 mph) and 153 km / h (95 mph). A hurricane is an intense tropical storm.

Drought : a long period of below-average rainfall.

Windy/blustery/gale force winds : often caused by frontal systems or troughs.

Hail/hailstones : Precipitation in the form of balls or irregular lumps of ice, often associated with thunderstorms.

Heatwave : a period of extreme temperatures, often harmful to people and crops.

Have you ever had a memorable bad weather adventure or a terrifying extreme weather experience?

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