For you, where is the most fascinating weather in the world? (recorded, temperatures)

[Can't think of username]

Originally Posted by hunters1212

Initially I think the southeast US too, but I think Europe as a whole is more fascinating. It has much higher temperatures for its latitude than anywhere else on the planet. It's quite the Anamoly. No wonder so many early civilizations developed in the region.

I guess Europe is good for those who want the higher temperatures for the latitude. For my monitoring tastes it just comes up so ridiculously short, Paris/London/Berlin/etc have nowhere near the monitoring variability and fun of the Southeast US that ranges from mild weather to a bit cold weather to straight up hot weather and everything in between in mid-winter.



You can see why European places come up so short here.

[Paddy234]

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

I guess Europe is good for those who want the higher temperatures for the latitude. For my monitoring tastes it just comes up so ridiculously short, Paris/London/Berlin/etc have nowhere near the monitoring variability and fun of the Southeast US that ranges from mild weather to a bit cold weather to straight up hot weather and everything in between in mid-winter.



You can see why European places come up so short here.

Northern Europe yes will always come up short compared to most of the US but Southern Europe is a better contender

[Can't think of username]

Originally Posted by Paddy234

Northern Europe yes will always come up short compared to most of the US but Southern Europe is a better contender

So Southern Europe has the same normal 30-35C hot-cold range between winter month maxima and minima Dallas and Archbold do?

[Paddy234]

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

So Southern Europe has the same normal 30-35C hot-cold range between winter month maxima and minima Dallas and Archbold do?

Not the hot cold range as that is unappealing to most Europeans but certainly can get as hot and hotter which is impressive for it's latitude. I do love the seasonal diversity in the US however. Makes it truly interesting

[Can't think of username]

Some other places I forgot to add are the Northwoods and such: that is, GraniteStater's ideal climates in the US, subarctic climates in Canada's boreal forest, etc. I was so focused on the cream-of-the-crop Southeast US that I forgot these: they are number 2.
I am so fascinated by them because of my visits to Huntsville and Algonquin Park when I was young that had me enthralled, and this (copypasted from another thread):

They are among the very first ones I re-entered climatology with back in June 2021, and therefore I was rather impressionable to the Wikipedia climate boxes, not having much grasp on how much they really could deviate from them and give me a big hurrah. The 2 primary impressions I got from the Wikipedia climate boxes and text were that the summers were relatively cool often due to lake moderation, and that the freeze free period was quite short, but despite my impressionability I was quite curious to see if those trends could be bucked - boy did I ever see!

As the 2021 climate boxes will indicate, June 2021 was the absolute best time to see those trends bucked. Up until then the freeze and heat trends were pretty adherent to the Wikipedia boxes, but from June-August 2021 they saw quite a few days of mid-high 30s Celsius heat that was hotter than the box maxima, much more frequent, and ended up giving them warmest months almost hot enough to be hot summer Dfa humid continental climates instead of solid warm summer Dfb humid continental climates.

This continued straight into late summer (September), getting to the window of the part I was most focused on - freeze monitoring. Yet completely contrary to Wikipedia once more, there were no September freezes - the place that most stood out was International Falls, which has a normal -3 Celsius September minimum, and I was having a seriously hard time believing those weather forecasts.
I certainly wasn't complaining though! The warmth carried on throughout October, with the absolute earliest outlier first freeze being October 1, all others being October 17 or later that ended up setting all time latest first freeze records, and 2 even carrying on to the beginning of November - to this day, I consider it the best welcome back gift I have ever been gifted by climatology!
Years like 2021 are the kind of Northwoods monitoring I live for. This is Duluth and it performed of course spectacularly both relative to my expectations and the Wikipedia 1991-2020 normals.


The reason they aren't cream-of-the-crop as the Southeast US is is that they are much more similar to where I live, so I need rely less on monitoring them (far less difference between here and Duluth or Thunder Bay than here and Dallas or Cape Hatteras). Plus they have less fun monitoring time - the summer and fall heat monitoring is not as rewarding relative to the averages as Southeast US winter heat monitoring, and the late summer/frost monitoring is only 2-2 1/2 months to 5 full months for the Southeast US - both have general weather monitoring tacked in too, where of course the Southeast US excels.

I also like to monitor Newfoundland to dispel the stereotype that it is always very cold there that I used to believe. It isn't (the winters are just like you would want in the quintessential 4 season climate), and the strong seasonal lag ensures excellent first frost monitoring that easily outdoes the rest of the Northwoods on average and can even overlap with the Southeast US as it goes into November!
Making this even more fun is the backloaded spring frosts that are regular. Only in a place like Gander will you be looking at a June 1-October 16 frost free season.

[Nikau Palm]

Tornado Alley USA, the weather can go from clear skies to the most severe thunderstorms on earth developing in very short time.

[Nikau Palm]

Originally Posted by gordo

It has got to be the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Just the incredible amounts of rain that they get, not to mention the fact that it's a Oceanic climate that's on the warmer side. Also I find it fascinating that despite being on the west coast there has been severe weather including tornadoes in the region previously.

Come to think of it I find all of New Zealand to be one of the most fascinating countries for weather with the country being a mixture of Oceanic and Subtropical.

Crazy the amount of rain Auckland just got with some areas over 200mm in one day. The airport even got flooded.

The reason Auckland airport got flooded was it received 131mm in two hrs, this on the back of an already wet day, 258mm for the day.

[greysrigging]

When one can see these storms sweeping over the City of Darwin at the end of the season. These storms are known locally as 'knock 'em downs', as in gusty winds and torrential rain knock down the seeded and curing Spear Grass.
( pics by Damo )




( This pic by Paul Nicholls )

( and a couple by Leanne Griffin )

[Pincho-toot]

Northwest Japan. Intense snow coupled with mild cold

[Can't think of username]

This thread was bumped at literally the perfect time for making a couple of list updates to reflect what the 2022-23 winter taught me about the places on it.

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

-Dallas. Makes my list because it is the quintessential subtropical climate and has remarkably good weather monitoring.

I should specify what I mean. Not only does Dallas obviously have great first and last frost monitoring, it has what I would say is the very best wintertime heat monitoring in the Southeast US relative to averages.
From December 21-March 20 the normal monthly maxima are 24.8C/15C to 29.9C/18C - whereas the averages for those days are 14.3C/3.3C to 21.8C/10.4C. Don't know of anywhere else in the Southeast US that averages this.

It also means monitoring treats here and now even in averages months. This February was close to normal but had a monthly maximum 4.1C above the usual of 26.9C that was sure fun to see firsthand.

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

-Charleston. Dallas' coastal and same latitude counterpart, the 2 were made to be compared.

I'm starting to like Charleston a bit more compared to Dallas. Dallas Love Field losing its contest with Charleston Int'l is not always a bad thing as this year taught me, as that can end up meaning extra good for both.
This year Charleston Int'l got January 28 to February 18 for Dallas Love Field. It may be a technical lose, but unlike the previous first frost season where Charleston Int'l got desirable December 23 to Dallas Love Field's undesirable November 20, it's a win win in terms of good dates for both, and January 28 is a great date in general for Charleston Int'l too.

[quote=Can't think of username;64782366]-Outer Banks. Even-more-remarkably good monitoring time given their averages and especially latitude, with frostless winters occasionally being possible for the ultimate monitoring treat.

There are times when they can handle advective cold much better than their latitude would suggest. This past Christmas cold front is a very good example, they only got slightly below the usual coldest seasonal low (-6C vs -5.2C) compared to many other places from the Carolinas to Texas and everywhere in between that got off WAY worse, and for this they get the obligatory rank increase.

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

-Tallahassee. As good as FSU Tallahassee is for weather monitoring, it's not the reason Tallahassee makes the list - rather because I became fascinated by its weather upon learning it holds Florida's state record low, before I knew FSU Tallahassee weather station existed. And what got me interested, the cold hole airport, can from time to time perform pretty damn well which is well worth watching out for.

Scratch this statement to an extent both ways. As I've said in other threads it turns out the Tallahassee airport is essentially just a colder artificial Archbold Station, and delegated appropriately to an afterthought that will only be monitored on cloudy/windy/very very very mild winters.
It is artificial because the cause is artificial deforestation where the weather station is, this increases soil drainage and radiational cooling WAY past what the natural environment would have. All airports in the Southeast US have this problem but Tallahassee's is unbelievably disproportionate as Elsner et al. 1996 and 1998 have found.

The other way is FSU Tallahassee that I am making some normals for, it is similar to other warm Interstate 10 sites like Houston Hobby Airport and New Orleans but for a completely different reason to both. This has me even more interested in it than I was interested in the airport when I made this thread.

Unlike Houston Hobby and New Orleans, downtown Tallahassee is inland and does not have a very big heat island despite its fantastic performance - its good performance has pretty unique causes. The soil is wet clay which is considerably less prone to radiational cooling than the well drained sandy soil of the airport,
and the FSU station is at an elevation of 48m above its lowest surroundings in a hilly area, giving it 48m worth of cold air drainage (for perspective 2m is enough for a 2-3C increase in radiational cooling lows).
And to top it all off, where they are located gets almost entirely radiational cooling which allows what they have going for them to shine almost all the time.

The result? Since the station started recording in June 2014, the only month to record frost with any kind of regularity is January and there has even been a winter without a frost, very similar of course to the 2 sites mentioned above.
Relative to the airport it's mind blowing. The most common discrepancy between them on those radiational cooling nights is easily 5-6C, and I have seen differences of up to 9C, but never a difference under 4C.

Last but not least the wet clay soil actually makes FSU colder than the airport with regards to winter heat despite the way warmer lows. Most hot winter days are sunny, allowing the sand to heat up much more than the clay and create fascinating-both-ways discrepancies when comparing the full monthly data.

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

-Gainesville. The airport performs surprisingly well relative to its averages and coastal areas.

This winter was proof of that. Despite being a cold hole the airport is not as prone to radiational cooling as other cold holes for some glorious reason, and its low latitude means that despite its inland location it can get off easy from advective cold.

For example, during the advective Christmas cold the Gainesville airport got to -5C, pretty much exactly as cold as would be expected for the season (usual -5.1C). This is considerably better than the much closer to the coast Jacksonville airport that is around 1 1/2 degrees latitude further north and would be expected to do better on paper, it got to -7C which was 2.3C below the usual coldest of the season.
And on the 16th and 21st of this month during large radiational cooling events, they only got to 1-2C instead of getting frost like one might expect. This means their last frost this season is a fabulous January 28.

Originally Posted by Can't think of username

-Augusta Daniel Field and downtown. 9a-9b areas with a usual monitoring time from late February-early December, 180km inland and over 33N latitude, is a real treat.

Daniel Field performed poorly this season for both of those categories, and downtown Augusta had a freak 8a winter instead of a 9b winter as would be expected, but downtown had an AMAZING last frost compared to Daniel Field which was unexpected.
Daniel Field got a dumb March 20 last frost this season while downtown was lucky enough to get January 14 with 1C misses this month and a VERY lucky 0.1C near miss last February. Looks like they were literally the perfect amount warmer than Daniel Field to perform well.

Last but not least, there's something more that would be relevant to what hunters1212 said.
Because Louisiana had dumb very backloaded last frosts this year on the equinox that just so happened to also be the time a user from Chemnitz Germany commented on the last frost thread about a possible March 16 last frost, I held a Germany/Louisiana contest for last frost to make some fun out of the dumb backload, and will continue to do so during later seasons, hopefully good ones for Louisiana.
Now Germany is still very boring to monitor compared to the Southeast US such as Louisiana of course, but this is directly dealing with Europe and the Southeast US like was mentioned and does add some funny variety to a well timed comment.

The Louisiana place I wouldn't mind losing, by the way, is Minden to Minden Germany.