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What I didn't like about Seattle in winter, was the type of cloud, as well just the cloudy conditions. It was like a uniform grey blanket, and it felt heavy. Winter skies should be changeable, dramatic,interesting and uplifting in my opinion.
I should say, I only spent a few weeks there 25 years ago, but I still remember the heaviness of the cloud. People told me the summers were fantastic.
Chongqing's climate would be great to experience for a few days. It seems very sleepy and relaxing, more of a vacation getaway from the sun. BUT, I can't imagine how people stay productive there... the climate is downright dreadful. But, if you like to sleep and sit around all day, it might be great. If I had to choose where to live, definitely Phoenix. The sun means energy, productivity, and happiness (IMO). Chongqing seems soul-crushing and rough, more like the Debbie Downer Capital of the World and I thought Seattle and Scranton, PA were dreary!
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I've actually been to Chongqing. It was early December and temperature-wise it felt like Melbourne in winter. The one upside to the climate is it's unusually warm due to the mountains to the north shielding it. Despite being at a similar latitude and deep inland winter's are milder than Shanghai.
I've always thought the 1,000 hours were suspiciously low for Chongqing. I think a lot of it is pollution, as I witnessed first hand, but it is also a unique sort of sub-tropical cloud forest climate with lots of mist/fog/low cloud.
When I went I definitely experienced the city's reputation for pollution firsthand. It was both cloudy and very smoggy, that it looked like there was a constant haze in the air. We were actually advised not to stay out in the streets for more than half an hour! Lots of people wore those masks. I was almost coughing from all the soot in the air. Sichuan is China's most populous province and is dotted with factories making lots of stuff that is probably in your house or on your back. We were in Chongqing mainly as a starting off point for a cruise of the Yangtze River.
Despite it's pollution, it still felt like a very wet city and it was EXTREMELY green. It felt like a rainforest, but so does a lot of Southern China. The region is literally bathed in all sorts of moist airmasses from all directions.
10-26-2011, 01:34 AM
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Actually, there are sunnier Asian cities than what was mentioned.
This is similar to the generalizing and misconceptions of Europe climates. Some people think all of Europe has very cloudy low sunshine climates but that definitely is not the case for Athens Greece, Podgorica Montenegro, Nice France, Toulon France, Madrid Spain, Almeria Spain, and Lisbon Portugal etc.
Plus, there are plenty of times cloudy, rainy weather can be as enjoyable as sunny weather. However, I still pick Phoenix over Chongqing.
I prefer annual sunshine in the 2,400-3,100 range. Chongqing is just way too excessively cloudy, even for me. So I will pick Phoenix excessive sunshine over Chongqing excessive cloudiness.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dhdh
Very interesting, thanks
Hong Kong however has what you might want to call a solid sunny season. Around 180/h a month from Oct to Dec, that's not too bad - at least for Asian standards.
From my time spent there, fall felt really sunny, but late winter and early spring were memorably bad. I was in HK in Feb 2010 when they recorded only 30 hours of sun in the whole month (around 10%) including two completely overcast weeks
Yes despite winter being the 'dry' season coastal parts of Southern China are almost as gloomy as they are in the summer months. It's only the inland parts and northern China where winter is appreciably sunnier than summer.
If you want an example with a sunny winter/cloudy summer pattern, sub-tropical and warm temperate eastern Australia might be a candidate. Places like Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie have a definite sunshine maximum in the winter and spring months. Even in Sydney, most of winter (except for June) has GREATER sunshine hours than summer. That's CONSIDERING the difference in day length, so you can imagine how much cloudier summer actually is.
Yes despite winter being the 'dry' season coastal parts of Southern China are almost as gloomy as they are in the summer months. It's only the inland parts and northern China where winter is appreciably sunnier than summer.
If you want an example with a sunny winter/cloudy summer pattern, sub-tropical and warm temperate eastern Australia might be a candidate. Places like Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie have a definite sunshine maximum in the winter and spring months. Even in Sydney, most of winter (except for June) has GREATER sunshine hours than summer. That's CONSIDERING the difference in day length, so you can imagine how much cloudier summer actually is.
Some averages for Sydney Aero (30-odd years of data, but only up to 2008):
(month total in hours, % of astronomical possible)
Jan 233 53
Feb 204 54
Mar 214 56
Apr 207 61
May 190 59
Jun 179 60
Jul 205 65
Aug 242 72
Sep 235 66
Oct 245 61
Nov 228 55
Dec 245 55
Year 2627 59
So there's a marked contrast in summer-winter cloudiness, but not when compared with say tropical savannah types -eg Darwin range is about 45% to 89% - and in the fringe zone of that type, upland Brasilia gets almost twice as much sunshine in July as in December [and over double the percentage]
Chongqing, despite being much, much warmer, is cloudier then Lerwick, Shetland - the northernmost town in the UK (around 60 degrees) and probably the cloudiest. It's completely surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and is always being bombarded with rain and cloud.. it does shock more how cloudy these southern Chinese locations are.
Actually, there are sunnier Asian cities than what was mentioned.
1. Bangkok Thailand (a city of 8.2 million) for example gets 2,629 average annual sunshine hours. Bangkok - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is similar to the generalizing and misconceptions of Europe climates. Some people think all of Europe has very cloudy low sunshine climates but that definitely is not the case for Athens Greece, Podgorica Montenegro, Nice France, Toulon France, Madrid Spain, Almeria Spain, and Lisbon Portugal etc.
Plus, there are plenty of times cloudy, rainy weather can be as enjoyable as sunny weather. However, I still pick Phoenix over Chongqing.
I prefer annual sunshine in the 2,400-3,100 range. Chongqing is just way too excessively cloudy, even for me. So I will pick Phoenix excessive sunshine over Chongqing excessive cloudiness.
Interesting.
Those numbers for Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Phuket (2500 hrs/ann) are not too bad for high rainfall tropical climates.
As far as the generalizing and misconceptions of Europen climates...I agree. Many people forget (or don't even realize) that there is canyon of difference between temperate high latitude northern Europe and subtropical low latitude southern Europe in terms of sunshine and temps.
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However, I still pick Phoenix over Chongqing. 
