Webb says he and his family faced what they considered harsh weather when they came to D.C., including two small tornados, a hurricane, cicadas, snow, and intense heat. "No wonder Americans are a bit rough around the edges 鈥� you need to be," he wrote. "Life is not as precarious as it was for the Pilgrim Fathers or indeed the Native Americans who already lived here, but a measure of the harshness they faced is still very much a part of local American experience. You need to point that out and those who cover America for European news organisations need to repeat it. There are no hurricanes in Europe. No tornados. The heat is less intense and less sapping. The cold is less bone numbing."
