Weather competition: London vs. Paris vs. New York City vs. Hong Kong vs. Shanghai (temperature, rainfall)

[MrMarbles]

Originally Posted by nei

18.95 inches in August 2011.

Record Wet and Dry Years and Months at CPK

about 6.9 of it was from Irene.

Interesting. I guess there is a very high variability with respect to rainfall in NYC (and eastern US in general). Still, it says something that a freakishly wet month in New York (and I consider NYC a fairly wet city) is just par for the course in HK.

[dean york]

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

Lol - really. I don't know about that

This past summer I was in NYC most of July - the daily highs between July 16th and July 24th never dropped below 90 F (30 C) and the over night lows were in the 70's (21 - 25 C)...and on several days the highs were over 100 F/37 C. Add in the RH and the THI was like 110 F. That's not hot - lol.

I've spent a summer month in the deserts of southern CA and cities like New Orleans and Miami and I didn't feel that hot.

That is hot yes, but thats much hotter than usual obviously!!! I could use examples of hot weeks in london where it hasn't dropped below 90f but that's not a true example is it!!

Also having worked in Southern Florida, its much hotter and much more humid.

[Weatherfan2]

Originally Posted by MrMarbles

May-Sep it's a freaking swamp, though. I cannot imagine what it's like to have 17.5 inches of precipitation in a single month. That is just 6 less than London gets in an entire year.

I enjoy the torrential thunderstorm downpours, it probably doesn't spend nearly as much actual time raining there in the wet months as it does in Buxton.

[wavehunter007]

Originally Posted by dean york

That is hot yes, but thats much hotter than usual obviously!!! I could use examples of hot weeks in london where it hasn't dropped below 90f but that's not a true example is it!!

Also having worked in Southern Florida, its much hotter and much more humid.

True, that those upper 90’s and low 100’s are above "normal" for NYC in summer. However, the normal (or mean) high in the summer months in NYC is 85 F at most of the NWS area stations…add in the typical dew points of 65 – 66 F – and the THI is very often near 90 F. That’s a far cry from the typical cool/overcast summer weather in London where the temp struggles to reach 75 F – lol. London is nothing like NYC in the hot season!

As to Florida, I too have worked/lived in Florida, and at least in terms of the coastal cities it's a "great myth" that cities like Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Melbourne…etc are "sooo much hotter" than the cities further up the Atlantic coast in summer like Washington DC or NYC. The normal (or mean) high in July in many of the East Coast Florida cities is in the 88 – 91 F range…just a few degrees different than the normal 85 – 88 F range in the Middle Atlantic (Washington to NYC). Average dew points/RH are higher in Florida, however, dew points could hardly be called low in the Middle Atlantic in deep summer - lol.

The big difference between the heat in Florida and further up the coast is duration. The hot season is much much longer in Florida, and of course there is no winter.

[dunno what to put here]

I'd say London was warm in summer, not cool.

[ilovemycomputer90]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

I'd say London was warm in summer, not cool.

Cool by American standards. I would describe that warmth in London as benign and gentle, though there are certainly days that could be subjectively described as 'cool'.

[Kaul]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

I'd say London was warm in summer, not cool.

you're right.
cool to me is 50-69
warm is 70-80.

when sitting in the car with the sun up or inside my well-insulated house, ugh..., an outdoor temp. of 60 still feels rather hot and a full blasting a/c is needed to cool me down.

[dunno what to put here]

Sitting in a car with the sun shining right in can make the car feel boiling that's for sure, even if it's only 60

[MrMarbles]

A car is basically a green house. Here in NYC at 40N latitude the sun can be strong enough that even 45-50F will feel warm in a car. This is not a good yardstick. Why would you even care what temperature it is outside if you are in car in the first place?

A much better yardstick is if you are in the shade or if it is cloudy or at night(*). Pretend you are waiting for a bus or something. 60F will not feel warm at all. Even 70F will feel uncomfortable for most people if there is even a little breeze. By most people I mean those without extremely high metabolism and not grossly overweight.

(*) If the location is such that it usually receives a lot of sunshine, then it is ok to assume sunshine in trying to assess how it will feel. For example, normally San Francisco is fairly cool even in the summer. However, given that it is a fairly sunny city (3000+ sunshine hours per year IIRC), you can assume that on most days it will feel warmer than recorded temperatures would indicate.

[dunno what to put here]

70F at night is virtually unheard of here, but 59F feels really comfortable outside at night, without a breeze obviously but even with a breeze it still feels warm to me