Seattle (WA) vs. Hamburg (GER); which city is the cloudiest?
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Hamburg has less sunshine than Seattle but you have to take hours of daylight into consideration.
Late December and January
Hamburg has about 6hr and 50min of daylight.
Seattle has about 9hr of daylight.
But the reverse is true in summer - Hamburg has longer days than Seattle during the high sun half of the year. They both have the same amount of daylight hours over the course of a year, it's just distributed differently.
Hamburg has less sunshine than Seattle but you have to take hours of daylight into consideration.
Late December and January
Hamburg has about 6hr and 50min of daylight.
Seattle has about 9hr of daylight.
Hmm Hamburg has a little more than this, on December 21st its 7 hours and 27 minutes, in Mid January its about 8 hours.
Also as some people already mentioned, long lying snow is not very common in Hamburg. Sure it does snow several times each winter and you will see settling snow at least for a few days to a week or (if you're lucky) two weeks, but usually it doesn't last for long since its climate is oceanic influenced and a thaw may come pretty quick. Also don't expect to see large amounts when it snows, its rare to see more than 10 cm (4 inches) on the ground.
Hmm Hamburg has a little more than this, on December 21st its 7 hours and 27 minutes, in Mid January its about 8 hours.
Also as some people already mentioned, long lying snow is not very common in Hamburg. Sure it does snow several times each winter and you will see settling snow at least for a few days to a week or (if you're lucky) two weeks, but usually it doesn't last for long since its climate is oceanic influenced and a thaw may come pretty quick. Also don't expect to see large amounts when it snows, its rare to see more than 10 cm (4 inches) on the ground.
It's gets more snow than Seattle or Vancouver but Berlin gets more snow than Hamburg because it's colder in winter.
Seattle barely gets any snow at all only 17 cm a year according to Wikipedia.
Vancouver gets 38 cm a year on wikipedia.
I defiantly prefer Hamburg over Seattle any day.
How much snow does Hamburg get in a year. Annual snowfall because I can't find the snow totals for Hamburg on Wikipedia.
Also I found somewhere in Germany with similar sunshine hours to Hamburg.
Southern France gets far more than 2170 hrs - up to 2900 in parts. Seattle's measuerements in non-US style would probabaly be aorund 1900 hrs, and still much sunnier than Hamburg.
So the "US style" sunshine hours are 200 hours extra than the "normal" figures?
So the "US style" sunshine hours are 200 hours extra than the "normal" figures?
All depends what equipment is being used. The US figures are from the Foster, while until recently most European figures are from the CS, so yes, there is about a 150-200 hour inflation between the two. On the other hand, many European cities have switched to e-sensors which have dramatically increased sunshine hours for those sites.
Our MDW airport site is one of the last remaining stations to actually record sunshine hours in the US. The observer uses both the Foster at 87Wm2, and the Kipp Zonnen at 120Wm2. Both equipment are superior in accuracy when compared with the CS.
The 1961-1991 values for the Foster were somewhere between 2500-2600. Through my correspondence with the Coop-observer that measures MDW sunshine, the Kipp Zonnen (recommended by the WMO) averages closer to 2400 hours though it's only been in operation for about 20 years. To demonstrate that it certainly does depend on the equipment being used, at the turn of the century the US weather bureau used the Marvin which records at 260Wm2 (but affected by both diffused and direct radiation), Chicago back then also recorded around 2600 hours annually.
Hmm although I prefer colder winters I will go with Seattle. Better sunshine, precipitation pattern. If Hamburg was colder and snowy I would go with Hamburg.
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