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I've thought about having a climate battle between a sunny coastal mild California climate and a north-facing European-ish (incl Black Sea Turkey) for a while and have landed in San Francisco downtown vs Basque city Bilbao for the following reasons:
* The vast sunshine in San Francisco (3061 hours in spite of all that fog ), whilst retaining cool summer temps.
* The gloominess of Bilbao (1610 hours of sunshine), but with very warm summer days for its coastal latitude, along with more moderate nights than Samsun & Trabzon have.
* The similar winter avg highs, yet vastly different average and record low patterns. Frosts are extremely rare in SF, whereas Bilbao has recorded an -8C low.
* The low annual rainfall in SF, compared to the quite high one in Bilbao!
* Sea temps: Bilbao is solidly above 20 C during summer at the adjacent coast, whereas San Francisco is like a nightmare for bathing!
All in all, I think it should be an exciting battle this
Personally I'll choose Bilbao, because even though it lacks sun, San Francisco lacks a summer in its downtown. Also at the latitude Bilbao is, I think the gloomy summers actually help more than they harm. Less risk of wildfires (like the Oakland hills disaster) also plays into Bilbao's hands here!
I do however believe that Oakland beats Bilbao, so it's certainly a very tight battle for myself and just a degree here and there makes a massive difference!
Predicitions? Just like Moncton vs Bremen I feel this one may be too close to call!
Those sunshine hours from Bilbao don't correspond to the actual climate of the city. According to that, December has just 78h.
Search now in Google: Weather in Bilbao, according to the weather.com widget for the weather in Bilbao, for today and the next 7 days all the predictions are sunny or sunny with a few/some clouds... That's more than those 78h in just 8 days (today was clear too). I went to Bilbao in August and all the days were warm and sunny, with 28-29ºC maximums and all of the 3 days when I went there were totally clear, without a trace of a grey cloud (some few light clouds the last day). Anyways, Bilbao by far! SF climate is just too cool all year round. I only like Septembers from SF, but I prefer Bilbao's Septembers.
I went to Bilbao in August and all the days were warm and sunny, with 28-29ºC maximums and all of the 3 days when I went there were totally clear, without a trace of a grey cloud (some few light clouds the last day).
They're the official Aemet numbers though
Perhaps you were lucky, I mean we have similar sunshine numbers here and three clear days in a row during summer is common after all
this and also bear in mind that SF often gets wind chills under 10C in the height of summer despite being "frostproof".
It's a great shame that secondary polls aren't allowed in the same thread, but if it was one, what would you say on Oakland vs Bilbao considering Oakland's solid mid-70's temps all summer?
It's a great shame that secondary polls aren't allowed in the same thread, but if it was one, what would you say on Oakland vs Bilbao considering Oakland's solid mid-70's temps all summer?
Bilbao > Oakland and even warmer inland Bay Area climates just for the use of swimmable beaches and rain during the warm season.
This is really tough. Sam Francisco is way too monotonous, is too cool in summer, gets no storms, no rain at all in summer, and no variability or chance of cold. However, Bilbao is way too cloudy and wet and while it is "better" on the aspects I mentioned being problematic with Sam Fran, it is still far from good on those.
I'm gonna give the slight edge to San Fran. Much better and very good sunshine hours. They are both too wet in winter but Sam Francisco gets less winter rain and more winter sun. It is drier the rest of the year. Bilbao may be more variable and more seasonal, but it is still quite stable and mild, making that a small advantage. The lack of summer warmth is an issue, but there are still some heatwaves and Bilbao is still lacking in that area.
Comes down to a few big advantages over a lot of small advantages.
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), whilst retaining cool summer temps.
