I studied in Bangor ( North Wales) 20 years ago and experienced horizontal rain at least once!
I came out of my lecture at 6 pm, in my first term, it was dark, windy and rainy and I had to walk uphill back to my hall of residence! My umbrella turned inside-out in about 2 seconds and several spokes broke, and when I got back, everything below where my coat stopped was just completely sodden, my mascara had smeared all over my face and I ended up having a hot bath and soup.
I used to say that there were only three types of weather there: raining, just stopped raining or about to rain! Also, the postcards of the Uni etc must have been photoshopped, as the sky was never that blue or cloudless!