Lovely weather, Isn’t it? But Are Brits Tiring of the Sun Already?

If there is one thing we British love to talk about, it is the weather. Whether it be lovely, gruesome, too hot or too cold, you can bet your bottom Great British Pound that you’ll hear someone mention it throughout your day.

So it came as no surprise to us at Brandwatch that during the past week our social networks have been inundated with updates about the hottest heatwave the UK has seen in seven years.

Of course, we’re as guilty as the next person, and have therefore decided to dedicate this whole blog post to discussing it as well (with a slight analytical edge, of course).

Where it began

Over the last couple of weeks the UK has had an average temperature of 28 degrees, with it reaching a scorching 33 in London on Wednesday.

We took a look back to when the hope of a bit of sunshine was starting to become a reality.

Since the 4th July there has been a staggering 384,000 mentions of the weather on Twitter alone, with a 26% increase in conversation compared to the week before.

Celebrities from singer Cheryl Cole to comedian Sarah Millican were getting involved with the weather hype, and even Nandos couldn’t let the sunny weather pass them by without a ‘cheeky’ tweet.

 

But what exactly are we talking about?

As expected, many of you have been basking in the sun and talking about water fights, sunbathing, parks and BBQs. And the conversation for the first week was predominantly positive:

 

 

But as the temperatures continued to rise and people returned to work, the topic of tweets turned to sleepless nights, sunburn and sticky offices.

The pie charts below demonstrate the dramatic change in topics of discussion, with the percentage of people talking about BBQs falling from 80% to 29% and those about work increasing from 13% to 46%.

Topics of conversation: 5th July 2013           Topics of conversation:18th July 2013

Who’s talking most?

According to our research, Londoners love to chat about the weather more than any other region in the UK. They’ve mentioned the weather 41,000 times since the suns first appearance, followed closely by the South East with 30,000 and the North West with 22,000.

Though these regions talk about the weather most frequently, it is the South West who talk most positively. And with popular hashtags being #beach, #sea and #sunshine, it’s not hard to explain why!

So there you have it; the South West is the happiest region when the sun shines, London is the most talkative and Cheryl Cole loves a BBQ.

But alas, nothing can keep us entertained for long, especially consistent weather, and it looks as if we are becoming fed up of the sleepless nights and humming office fans.

We say chin up, get that BBQ lit and make the most of it while you can. We all know how temperamental the British weather can be…