It’s sunny outside and we’re in the final working day of the third hottest March since 1659 … oops there I go again: talking about the weather. It’s a national obsession and Community Igniter reveals the extent of our fixation with the British climate.

Of the 161 conversation topics we quantify on the research study, only our families, things going on in our friends’ lives and arranging to meet up with our friends are discussed by more people, more often.

So who talks about the weather? It gets more important as we get older: 55+s are twice as likely than twenty something’s to include it as one of their top conversations. If you’re female, life in Wales or East Anglia or are divorced or separated, you’re more likely to talk about the weather. However, social class does not divide people with ABs just as likely as DEs to talk about it regularly. Indeed high levels of education are no barrier to weather conversations as those with a doctorate are 30% more likely than the average to discuss the weather.

Community Igniter reveals the network profile of different conversations – how we are connected with the people we talk to. Compared to the average conversation we’re more likely to be sharing comments about the weather with our neighbours and far less likely to bond over a weather chat with people we’re connected with via an interest in a brand or product.

What specifically do these conversations include? After general comments – surely the lifeblood of any social connection between us Brits – it’s extreme or surprising weather (if we ever have such a thing…) and then the seemingly complex mathematical task of comparing this season’s weather to the average that dominate conversations.

Community Igniter is our new proprietary research programme and desktop application designed to inspire Human Experience planning. It does this by revealing who talks about what, to whom, and what media spaces inform these conversations.