Windermere weather in February

February in three words from a regular: "cold, grey, damp." On rain, the local formulation is hard to improve on — "if it isn't raining, it's probably just rained, or it's about to rain" — with the useful corollary that "rain is very likely, snow very unlikely." Figures quoted are a mean around 4°C, maxima near 5°C and minima near 2°C. The variable that actually decides how it feels is wind. Posters single out wind chill in "coastal and estuary areas like Liverpool," noting that on a blustery day with rain and a strong northerly even 13°C "seems irrelevant," and one describes the worst of it coming straight off the river. Our record is unusually emphatic on that point: February's average wind is 32.6 kph, turning 8.7°C days into a 4°C feels-like.

June in the Lake District is the long-evening month — light until 10 or half past — and the forum's argument for it is timing rather than weather: school holidays have not started, so it is quieter than July or August, with everything fresh and green for walking. The weather is the usual bargain. Windermere averages 17°C in June with rain on fifteen days, and regulars are blunt about why the place is so green. Their phrasing is that it cannot be planned around — hot and sunny or cold and wet from one week to the next — so bring clothes for all seasons. Quieter than the school holidays is not the same as quiet.