Unpopular opinion: the weather in London is great.

Maybe it’s a particularly nice year? Maybe it’s climate change? Maybe I’m from Boston, which has actual shit weather, and so by comparison London is a sunny paradise? Maybe crappy London weather is a myth spread to keep out the tourists? (Sorry Londoners, but as long as there’s a monarchy and castles and British literature, you’ll still have plenty of tourists.) Maybe Londoners, so stiff-upper-lipped about their personal problems and desperately reliant on small talk, can’t resist the opportunity to be really big WHINGERS on this one topic as a substitute for all the rest of their unexpressed inner angst?

In any case, the coldest it got this winter was about 35 degrees and windy for a period of three days tops, and I laughed out loud when I overheard a woman say to her friends, in the hoity-toitiest of posh accents, “I’ve nevah been so COLD in my enti-ah LIFE!” Here’s a tip to start, London: if you’re that cold, you might want to sell actual winter coats in your stores, not just long shapeless pieces of felt.

Sure, it’s a bit damp here, but a rainy-day forecast usually just means it will be chilly and overcast with a periodic misting. I’d say the sun is out at least 65% of the time. This statement makes me feel like I must be taking crazy pills when I think about how I constantly hear “the weather in London is crap.” So I’ve asked the Google Machine, and it does appear that my observation holds water (har har): Boston gets almost 44 inches of precipitation a year. New York gets about the same amount. London? 22. I KNEW IT. I’M NOT “MAD,” ENGLAND, YOU ARE! A quick survey of other comparable cities reveals that London appears to have nicer weather than most.

Ask a Londoner how he’s doing, and he’ll probably say “fine thanks” even as the life bleeds out of him from a fatal gunshot wound under his jacket. Ask a Londoner how the weather’s been lately, however, and I can almost guarantee you’ll hear a rather wimpier tune.

I offer the above pieces of admittedly circumstantial evidence– for more, check out my Instagram. I’d also like to say that the David Cameron featured image (credit: REX/Shutterstock via mirror.co.uk) was the first thing that came up when I Google-image-searched “sad british person.”