How weather affects the US psyche – and the UK’s too

At time of writing, Hurricanes Helene and Milton have had significant impact on parts of America.

The regularity of natural events like this (the ubiquitous insurance moniker ‘Acts of God’) is surprising for those who grew up in the more placid weather patterns of the UK. Yes, hurricanes can hit there too – I remember the one that (as the joke was) turned leafy Sevenoaks into ‘One oak’. I actually slept through that hurricane, awakening to the sound of other teenagers rushing around with hilarity at the mild effects of broken glass and the like where our dormitories were.

But in America the weather comes with a vengeance, and with surprising, to me at least, frequency. Also at time of writing, there’s another hurricane on its way about to blast through bits of Florida. I don’t live in hurricane country, but I do live vaguely near tornado country, and there are tornadoes that hit Chicagoland on occasion. One knocked off one of the steeples of the church where I serve. Afterwards, with all the media fanfare that this created, I sanguinely wondered out loud that if I had known that having a bit of the church knocked down was the way for our church to get on national news, I might have spent our marketing dollars in a different way.