I'm Norwegian, and worked for a US company years and years ago. Three of us went to Santa Cruz to visit the rest of the team. First morning there the local news was all up in arms about a storm. We looked out: There was a light drizzle.
We walked to the office without umbrellas, in light clothes, and hardly got wet. It was well over 20 degrees celsius, and a pleasant enough 15 minute walk despite the light drizzle.
We got into the office to find people in what looked like full survival mode, with raincoats, and hairdryers to get dry and warm. These were people who had driven right up to the office door.
When they saw us they were horrified and worried we'd get pneumonia and wondered how we could have chosen to walk 15 minutes through the "storm". Of course it did rain slightly more some other places - causing mud slides that closed a couple of roads and cut off the gas supply for a couple of days. But for us it was all terribly amusing.
After we went swimming in "only" something like 22 degrees in the water the following weekend, they got equally shocked (some of them asked if we'd used wet suits). I pointed out the coldest water I've been swimming in was 12 degrees, but I'm not sure they believed me.
Eh, as an American who's visited several major US cities, I've observed a whole lot of variation in behavior during inclement weather, partly because the US is pretty big and hence pretty diverse in climate. The behavior you describe might be more common in southern California, where it doesn't rain all that often. When I was in Seattle (where it rains pretty much all the time), a lot of people didn't seem like they noticed it was raining.
I am not sure your anecdote illustrates anything interesting. Perhaps a very big rain storm had been expected but didn't materialize. Plenty of Americans that I have seen wear shorts when it's really cold out here in Chicago, I am not sure I would consider this a great idea or a badge of honor
We walked to the office without umbrellas, in light clothes, and hardly got wet. It was well over 20 degrees celsius, and a pleasant enough 15 minute walk despite the light drizzle.
We got into the office to find people in what looked like full survival mode, with raincoats, and hairdryers to get dry and warm. These were people who had driven right up to the office door.
When they saw us they were horrified and worried we'd get pneumonia and wondered how we could have chosen to walk 15 minutes through the "storm". Of course it did rain slightly more some other places - causing mud slides that closed a couple of roads and cut off the gas supply for a couple of days. But for us it was all terribly amusing.
After we went swimming in "only" something like 22 degrees in the water the following weekend, they got equally shocked (some of them asked if we'd used wet suits). I pointed out the coldest water I've been swimming in was 12 degrees, but I'm not sure they believed me.