What's your biggest weather pet peeve?

In the mid-90s I had the chance to listen to a guest speaker who talked about human behaviours - in particular stresses in the work place and stresses in relationships. One key message that came through was that whether it's at home or in the office - it's usually the smallest things that stress us out most.

With relationships it might be our partner leaving toothpaste marks on the sink...or putting the toilet paper on the wrong way around...or leaving a wet towel on the bedroom floor. With work it might be that one person who puts dirty dishes in the dish washer with the clean ones...or who doesn't replace the ink cartridge when empty... or overwhelms you with annoying emails throughout the day.

So when it comes to weather, it's not a big surprise that quite often it's the little things that bug us. Out of the complaints that WeatherWatch receives I would say 90% of them are about really small things. For example, predicting a high of 16 degrees when it only made it to 15. Or forecasting an easterly wind when it's actually an ESE wind. The minor details can be what make us love or hate something.

In life small things that bug the heck out of me are things like people who don't wave at you when you've slowed to let them in on the motorway. Or, notes in our kitchens at work saying "please clean your dishes". At home it's maybe my dog walking on the wooden floors when I'm trying to sleep...tappity tappity tappity down the hallway...drives me insane!

With weather, there isn't too much that really stresses me out - but again, it is the small things that do.

I'm sure you've read the comments posted in some of our stories by regular contributor SW (short for South Westerly if you hadn't guessed that already). His pet hate is quite clearly - south westerlies! It drives him nuts when the wind howls from the south west and blows sharp pine needles all over the place.

With me one of my pet hates is condensation. I don't know why but I hate it so much I'll go as far as leaving a fan on a very low speed in my room just to stop the windows fogging up. If I've ever been on a bus I hate it even more...knowing that it's partially caused by people's breath. Gross!

In summer the part of Auckland I live in is under the convergence zone between the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean sea breezes...that might sound very lovely but actually it creates a nice big cloud above my house that can significantly lower the temperature. Even worse when I look west or east and see blue skies. Another pet hate!

So what about you? Is there anything that especially irritates you with the weather? Or with weather forecasts? Post a comment below - we'd love to read them!

Pictured above: Condensation - one of Philip Duncan's pet peeves. Photo / Janna Dixon