鈥淓veryone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.鈥�

Those famous words about weather, likely from Charles Dudley Warner but usually attributed to Mark Twain, summarize the conversation in most homes, offices and gathering places these days. The Lower Mainland and much of the B.C. coast has been hit with an unending wave of cold fronts, wet weather and generally miserable conditions 鈥� particularly for the summer months.

While isn鈥檛 unusual in June and early July, there usually isn鈥檛 quite so much of it. And the temperatures are often substantially higher than they鈥檝e been. Afternoon temperatures often aren鈥檛 much different than they are in the mornings.

The evidence of this isn鈥檛 hard to find. Look at people鈥檚 gardens and farmers鈥� fields. Crops simply aren鈥檛 flourishing the way they usually are at this time of year.

We are told the weather is about to get better, and almost certainly most of us want to believe that. But the weather has been so miserable for so long, and a number of forecasts have missed the mark recently, so there are a lot of skeptics out there.

One of the great things about the comment on the weather is that it is so deadly accurate. Weather is a topic that almost everyone has an opinion on. People are willing to discuss it with others, even complete strangers. There are very few other topics that elicit so much comment.

That鈥檚 natural of course, because weather affects everyone. Even in this day and age where so many people make their living indoors, and weather is not vital to their economic security, it still affects their plans.

Where will they go on vacation? What will they do this evening? Is it worth putting shorts on?

So many of the decisions that each of us make each day are weather-related, even if we don鈥檛 really think so. It is built into our pattern of thinking.

One thing that the B.C. coast is known for in the summer months is moderate temperatures, usually with a fair bit of sun. But there are also cloudy days, and there are rainy days. There aren鈥檛 too many thunderstorms, and the temperatures rarely hit 30 degrees.

This year, there has been an unrelenting series of wet weather events with lower than usual temperatures, and that has everybody talking about the weather even more than usual.