A couple of days ago, I heard a weather presenter cheerily announcing that by Thursday, “it will be hotter than Corfu” in parts of the UK and so it is. At the time of writing, using the most accurate weather stations I can find, Bristol is a staggering 1c hotter than Corfu. 11c at Bristol Airport and 10c at Corfu Airport. Corfu, what a scorcher, as someone once wrote. Why, then, would any of us bother to go to Greece given it’s actually warmer here? Answer, because it isn’t, obviously.
Even though it is warmer here, probably for one day only, climate change has not closed the gap between dear old maritime England and the Ionian islands. Enjoy it while you can although I doubt that you will be able to enjoy it that much because, as per usual, it’s pissing with rain in Bristol and, so far as I can see, from various webcams, Corfu is bright and sunny, with broken cloud and the word is it feels much warmer than 10c. I get that. When I was mishitting a golf ball around a local course earlier in the week, I removed my coat, so warm had it become. The sun had finally come out to play and it was a sizzling … er … 6c.
Doubtless, today’s one-off weather blip has been extensively reported in the red top newspapers, as is usually the case. In the not so olden days, the likes of The Sun would show us photos of bikini clad ‘beauties’ who would always be ‘flaunting’ their bodies in the unseasonable weather. I doubt that there will be many of them at Clevedon or Weston Super Mare this morning.
It seems to me that making a story about Bristol being hotter than Greece is to make us feel better. Instead of cursing the weather, which is our default position as Brits, we can feel smug that those pesky Greeks, who usually spend the year, or most of it, sizzling under a red hot sun can now freeze like we do. Seeing them suffer is supposed to make us feel better. Weirdly, I don’t see it like that.
I very much doubt that being hotter than Corfu, in the dog end days of winter, will persuade all that many Brits to not bother venturing overseas for a rather longer glimpse of the sun than we are likely to get in 2025. And while Corfu is no longer part of my summer plans – 25 visits since 1985 is probably enough and I really need to see a bit more of the Big Wide World before I shuffle off my mortal coil – an integral part of my normal year is a visit to somewhere that’s likely, certain even, to be hotter than it is here.
It’s likely Bristol will be hotter than Corfu yet again tomorrow so doubtless some geeky TV presenter will be pointing it out for us later on. From Saturday it all changes and from now until – oh let’s see – this time next year Corfu will be a scorcher, not downtown Bristol where it will be changeable. As the rain batters on the window of my man cave, I don’t feel that smug about the weather.
