>>> Maybe they just got out of England cos they were too miserable to stay, or cos they were hounded out.
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>>It was the rain, they couldn't stand it.
>
>I don't know what the weather was like back then but we've just had our dryest October on record (trad. a time when the winds howl and rain dashes). We're still under a hosepipe ban and water restrictions, in the South, after the longest, dryest summer on record, our reservoirs and sub-terranean aquefers were at a record low.
>
>Now then, I understand Vancouver is one of those "4 seasons in one day" type of places. From all TV clips I've seen it often seems to be windy, overcast or rainy, a lot like a similar conception of SF.

When I was in London in 1977 there was a drought ongoing then. The Thames looked like a stream compared to normal (as seen in pictures).

I don't think that San Francisco is as wet as Vancouver. I was there a total of 12 days over the last 2 months and had one real rainy day and one day of intermittent showers.