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My hometown is Saint-Petersburg.
Things which I like:
-low UV index year-round
-enough precipitation in summer
-fall is slightly wetter than spring
-long summer days
-short winter days
-no hurricanes/earthquakes
-good temperature range
Things which I don't like:
-cloudiness in winter
-few clouds in summer
-wet winter
-no thunderstorms
Long, dark, overcast winters are the worst - basically Nov. through March. I don't even mind the snow and cold when the sun is out bright...but that's fairly uncommon.
The best things are the months of Sep. and Oct. with cool dry air, lots of sun, and little rain. May can also be nice into mid June - starting to finally warm up and dry out from spring rains but not hot and humid.
I like NC, in the Raleigh metro. The weather is OKAY, summer is my favorite season because I love heat and humidity. The springs and falls are nice most of the time but I'm more partial to summer. The winters are "ehhh" at best though even though the winter isn't terribly long. I'm not into cold weather anyway but what bothers me about NC winters is the instability - temps jumping all over the place. I do get excited when we get winter warm spells but an intrusive cold front comes through and f*cks it all up for a few days minimum.
The winters are "ehhh" at best though even though the winter isn't terribly long. I'm not into cold weather anyway but what bothers me about NC winters is the instability - temps jumping all over the place. I do get excited when we get winter warm spells but an intrusive cold front comes through and f*cks it all up for a few days minimum.
That's the problem. Today in Houston, I'm watching as temps struggle to stay above 60°F. Meanwhile, the other side of the mountains in Hermosillo, Mexico, they are nearly having a 90°F day!
More and more, as I look into the weather patterns, I'm realizing the huge impact just simple jet stream pattern + surface feature combos have on the weather. You have, for example, a lot of days that are dreary with cold rain (or even winter precip), yet the upper level pattern suggests a mild or warm sunny day - that is what they call "overruning" and it happens often in Houston and the Gulf Coast, as well as the East Coast with "cold air damming." Every night, I check websites like TropicalTidbits to see the weather patterns being forecasted - I always hope for the runs that send the bad weather away!
That's the problem. Today in Houston, I'm watching as temps struggle to stay above 60°F. Meanwhile, the other side of the mountains in Hermosillo, Mexico, they are nearly having a 90°F day!
More and more, as I look into the weather patterns, I'm realizing the huge impact just simple jet stream pattern + surface feature combos have on the weather. You have, for example, a lot of days that are dreary with cold rain (or even winter precip), yet the upper level pattern suggests a mild or warm sunny day - that is what they call "overruning" and it happens often in Houston and the Gulf Coast, as well as the East Coast with "cold air damming." Every night, I check websites like TropicalTidbits to see the weather patterns being forecasted - I always hope for the runs that send the bad weather away!
That's interesting what you said about cold-air damming that is common in the Carolinas (especially north of the 35N parallel), VA, and the other mid-Atlantic states. I seen the forecasted jet stream pattern for January 23-24, and the jet stream is ABOVE NC but we are forecasted to be in the 40's with lows in the 30s or upper 20s - long story short, chillya$$ weather. You might as well be north of the jet stream if that's gonna be the case. I think this is one of things that irritate us warm and mild weather lovers when we live in this part of NC (even the cold weather fanatics are not too crazy about it because it don't usually come with much snow if any snow at all, at least in the NE piedmont). Our winters here in NC can be a little bit milder without that dynamic.
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That's the problem. Today in Houston, I'm watching as temps struggle to stay above 60°F. Meanwhile, the other side of the mountains in Hermosillo, Mexico, they are nearly having a 90°F day!
Yeah, the Rockies do the West Coast great with the weather. Since they are not subject to polar vortexes that limit what warm climate vegetation they can grow, the southern Pacific coast is seen as a paradise to many. This is why SoCal can grow tall washies and palm species found in Southern Brazil but NC, even along the SE coast, cannot. Even cities like Palmdale and Lancaster, which have avg Jan lows in the low 30s just like Raleigh, have established Washingtonia trees but Raleigh STRUGGLES to grow Sabal Palmettos (Sabal Birmingham seems feasible, but Cabbage palms, even the BHI variety, grows extremely slow east of I-95 and north of Fayetteville) and even we can only easily palm species that places way far north like NY can also grow easily (like Windmill palms and Needle palms that you can even grow in colder climates like Maryland, Southeast PA, southern Ohio, and NJ with incredible ease). Someone who loves subtropical and tropical vegetation, this is another thing that bothers me about living here in NC.
Even the PNW in lower elevations don't even get the extreme record lows we get in the Southeast since their winters are more stable. It's like we in the south for the new reason can't we can take advantage of the low latitude by having a consistently mild winter. Tom77Falcons was right about the winter in the inland south. Other regions on other continents at a similar latitude don't have the issue of having winter tempertures are that 30 degrees below average - if so, it's extremely rare.
I agree with that. The potential for cold air outliers is just far too high in the East even as you get quite far South. Looking at maps as a kid I would have imagined places like Georgia or Alabama are pleasant to warm all year...but then I saw that places like Atlanta or Birmingham can get significant snow events, and I was stunned.
I agree with that. The potential for cold air outliers is just far too high in the East even as you get quite far South. Looking at maps as a kid I would have imagined places like Georgia or Alabama are pleasant to warm all year...but then I saw that places like Atlanta or Birmingham can get significant snow events, and I was stunned.
Yeah the potential is there for those cities you mentioned, even though they average very little snow a year. I also thought the same thing you did as a small kid when I started studying weather - that the deep south at it's latitude should have at least a consistently mild winter - like other 'subtropical' or even warm temperate regions in other continents have. Many find this is to never be the case. Yes, states like AL, MS, GA, even the Carolinas most days are cool to mild but expect arctic blasts where temps drop below 20F EVERY year in the Southeast unless you are in Florida, deep southern TX, or the Gulf Coast or maybe the Southern Atlantic Coast from Charleston south (Charleston has hit below 20F quite a few times in the past, even below 10F in the 1980's - dropped to 6F in 1985).
Buenos Aires, which as at the 35S parallel like Raleigh is at the 35N parallel. Raleigh clearly has colder winters and is a huge target for arctic blasts where the temp will be at least 20 degrees below normal for a day or two minimum - even in a strong La Nina winter where a polar vortex doesn't even happen. Plus as others mentioned, cold air damming is a notorious event in NC. Buenos Aires rarely even has a freeze and can grow WAY more lush, evergreen vegetation than anywhere in Carolinas and places north of Central Florida can grow. This ain't fair man!
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