The Lake District is a stunning place. Lakes, fells, waterfalls, forests, caves, pretty villages… the National Park has it all. But it wouldn’t look the way it did if wasn’t for one thing: rain! It rains a lot in the Lakes. In fact, the Scottish Highlands, Eryi in Wales (formerly known as Snowdonia) and the Lake District in England are the rainiest places in the UK. On average, there are 200 wet days per year in the Lake District (eek!) and twenty snowy ones and I’ve experienced both.
When I was in my late teens and twenties, my parents had a timeshare overlooking Windermere and I visited when college/work allowed. Their week was in early February and the weather could vary immensely from beautiful blue skies with a chill in the air to thick snow. I remember once visiting in the snow and wondering if I’d actually make it home. They had one week where they couldn’t go anywhere in the car because the snow lay so deep.
When I was in my mid-twenties, I went camping in the Lakes with a former boyfriend and it barely stopped raining. Stuck in a tent, we couldn’t get warmed up or dry our soggy clothes and ended up giving up early, taking the tent down in a downpour, bundling everything into the car, and leaving.
Between Christmas and New Year 2022/23, the hubby, daughter, dog and I went away to Keswick for a week and, my goodness, did it rain then too? We had showers or downpours every single day and had to dash out for a breath of fresh air in-between. There were a couple of days where it barely let up at all. I don’t mind a bit of wet weather if I’m able to get dry and warm later, but I have my limits and would rather stay inside when it’s bucketing it down. So we did that a lot over New Year, although that was nice as I rarely take time to completely relax.
On our final morning, the weather completely changed and we saw our first blue skies of the week… accompanied by a heavy frost and snow-capped fells! Beautiful.
We returned to the area over Easter and experienced four seasons across the fortnight including snow. This was in April so that certainly took us by surprise! Hubby and I were going to a Herdwick (sheep) Experience and we woke up to see snow flurries and the fells covered in snow. Cue panic to get there on time (over an hour away near Coniston) in case the roads were blocked. We’d have loved to stop and take photos but we’d definitely have been late if we’d done that. By the time we met the Herdwicks, the snow had pretty much gone from all but the highest ground. You can just see a sprinkling on the fells behind the sheep.
Hubby and I went back to the Lakes on our own in July and, once again, got a mixed bag of weather – hot with bright sunshine on one day and a thunderstorm on another. We managed to get caught in the latter on a visit to Grasmere. We’d had a wander round the village (in the sun) and drove on to a car park near the lake. The skies got darker and we knew the rain was coming but we thought the lake was closer than it really was and figured we had time to get there and back before the rain came. We didn’t! Grasmere came into view as thunder rumbled overhead and the first drops of rain hit us. The next moment, the heavens opened. We tried to shelter under the trees but the rain was so heavy, the leaves were weighted down and could give no cover. Hubby power-walked (long legs) and I ran (short legs) back to the car. Completely trashed my favourite pink sparkly trainers and we were both soaked through to the skin as you can see from the photo!
The weather – particularly rain – has already played an important part in The Start of Something Wonderful and it continues to be a character in its own right in A Breath of Fresh Air. Most of the action unfolds across January and February and there’s a lot of rain during that time as well as a thunderstorm which causes major turmoil for the residents of Willowdale Hall.
The third book in the series, out in the autumn, will be set in the cold weather again but at the back end rather than the start of the year. I’m very excited to be writing about the Lakes in the snow and, as I’ve got another couple of visits planned to the Lakes before then, I suspect I’ll experience those four seasons again.
Big hugs
Jessica xx
