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I must be spending too much time in our air conditioned office. I looked up some stats for Reading, PA (actually i am closer to Reading than to Philly) and for the past 5 years, there was 1 summer month (August 2008) with an average low temp below 60 degrees. There was one summer month in the past 5 years (June 2009) with an average high temp below 80 degrees. That's 2 subpar months out of 15. No wonder some of you thought i was out of my mind for complaining.
So i guess it's the idiot in our office who keeps cranking the air-conditioning down to 67 degrees who is to blame for my feelings that the summers are not warm enough. Statistics show that the weather has in fact been very good... i just need to get out of the office and into the sun more often.
Yes, but what if the averages are unsatisfactory in the first place? A month that is 1-2C warmer than a 26C average high may still be too cool for those that enjoy hot summer weather.
I always find people blasting me for complaining about the weather when Melbourne's summer average was say 2C above the average. Well, that doesn't matter, because the summer averages suck to begin with, so being 2C above only starts to bring it into acceptable territory.
I really don't get this obsession with averages. Why should I be happy when the average for x month was 1-2C higher than the crap average, but still not being warm enough in my eyes?
With that in mind, I believe you have every reason to complain if your above-average months still do not meet your preferred definition of summer.
Probably because averages are what you should expect to get where ever you live. I hope for cold winters but that probably won't happen. I think UK winters are pathetic and not snowy enough at all.. but I know if I want reliable snowy winters I need to move abroad so I try and keep the moaning to a minimum.
I must be spending too much time in our air conditioned office. I looked up some stats for Reading, PA (actually i am closer to Reading than to Philly) and for the past 5 years, there was 1 summer month (August 2008) with an average low temp below 60 degrees. There was one summer month in the past 5 years (June 2009) with an average high temp below 80 degrees. That's 2 subpar months out of 15. No wonder some of you thought i was out of my mind for complaining.
You're not necessarily out of your mind for complaining, if you really don't like your summer temperatures, but summers where you live are very reliably warm to hot, as your statistics indicated. On the subpar months, 2 out of 15, while not as good as 0 out of 15, make for some pretty good odds that by your standards you'll get a good summer (or at least not "skip summer" ). If this was winter I'm sure many a snow fan in the Sun Belt would gladly take those odds, though I'm sure they're like me in that if they could, they'd take a place with 0 percent chance of a subpar month. For instance, if you want a White Christmas West Yellowstone, Montana is the perfect place to be, because in 85 years of record-keeping there has never been a Brown Christmas - a straight-up, 100% chance. On top of that there has never been a Christmas with less than 8 inches of snow depth, and there has been a few Christmases with more than a yard of snow depth. I researched the COOP data myself.
Of course you're for the most part fine with your summers and if I'm not mistaken you wouldn't be fine with a summer like they have in the Deep South. From what you've said, it seems that your climate is good enough for you for at least the warm half of the year; it's just that you seem to need a lifestyle change.
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So i guess it's the idiot in our office who keeps cranking the air-conditioning down to 67 degrees who is to blame for my feelings that the summers are not warm enough. Statistics show that the weather has in fact been very good... i just need to get out of the office and into the sun more often.
67F sounds like a great room temperature to me, and it's great to work in. However I do understand that many people will prefer warmer than that. An air conditioning setting like that also precludes one from experiencing or enjoying the heat, which is the whole point of me setting my A/C to such a temperature but obviously won't work as well for you .
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Originally Posted by Flight Simmer
Yes, but what if the averages are unsatisfactory in the first place? A month that is 1-2C warmer than a 26C average high may still be too cool for those that enjoy hot summer weather.
I always find people blasting me for complaining about the weather when Melbourne's summer average was say 2C above the average. Well, that doesn't matter, because the summer averages suck to begin with, so being 2C above only starts to bring it into acceptable territory.
I really don't get this obsession with averages. Why should I be happy when the average for x month was 1-2C higher than the crap average, but still not being warm enough in my eyes?
With that in mind, I believe you have every reason to complain if your above-average months still do not meet your preferred definition of summer.
I agree strongly with the idea of this post, which can be extended to winter averages or any other kind of weather, and you bring to light a point I've been trying to make, which is to avoid relativism in weather (i.e. if it sucks it sucks). Still, it doesn't apply in this case because the OP is more or less fine with his summer averages as they stand.
In Dunno's favor, I will say that one should appreciate the weather that comes closer to your ideal than the average, or put another way appreciate periods of weather that resemble your ideal weather conditions. But I'd appreciate it for what it is. It is not the ideal, nor does even the shrunken version stick around. Maintain perspective. I believe this is what Flight Simmer does. He did appreciate the heat waves that Melbourne got, I believe, but he recognizes the reality that the vast majority of the time the weather is terrible, and thus it should be judged as an awful climate, at least by his standards.
Interesting comments on a frequent topic! What I have a problem with is people carrying on about an area having influences that are going to make the weather very unpredictable. They know it, not going to change any time soon, but they bring up their horrible weather. Mountains and large bodies of water can make weather change not by the hour but by the minute.
Very much the same where I am (blocks from Lake Michigan), people are complaining about the breeze off the lake, how chilly it seems, lake is still cold, it is going to be 60-70 inland and 45-52 by the lake. I don't want to hear how cold it is, put on a sweater. The fog, hot air west of us moves in and all of a sudden sun is gone. It almost looks like a fire/smoke rolling in, you can almost touch it. I love all the variations/changes, if I didn't embrace/enjoy it, this area would drive me crazy.
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What I have a problem with is people carrying on about an area having influences that are going to make the weather very unpredictable. They know it, not going to change any time soon, but they bring up their horrible weather. Mountains and large bodies of water can make weather change not by the hour but by the minute.
