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Note the most comparable areas of similar latitude to the Pacific NW are in Canada, which are cloudy. You're also ignoring New Zealand, which does not have particularly winters since it is not a high latitude climate but it is oceanic. As for disturbed weather events, I'm not sure how you'd measure them, but from my experience, I don't think the Great Lakes region has more disturbed weather than coastal New England.
Since the map only shows the USA mainland it can be a be a bit tough to estimate where it would fall in Canada.
However, using areas like western OR for example and comparing them to points to the east (like SD or southern MN) it's seems clear one location is much more cloudy than the other. This would also apply to the Great Lakes, the data seems to support much more frequent periods of distrubed weather (meaning storms/fronts...etc) in the Great Lakes than in New England. However, keep in mind (and you can see it one the map to some degree), parts of northwestern New England(northern VT/NH/ME) do see more impact from mid latitude winter storms as they head up the St. Lawerence Valley. I would also guess, that some of those higher numbers in northern VT/NH/ME are the result of elevation to some degree.
As far as New Zealand...I 'm an not expert...but I did extensively study southern hempisphere synoptic patterns...and south Island, NZ is fully in the zone of the stormy westerlies in the their cold season. So for example, I would guess that parts of the tip of North Island (and say parts of Australia) just to the south - but more distant from the stormy winter westerlies - sees far less winter stratus/clouds than much of central and southern south Island. Of course, again, local topo can impact things to some degree.
a winter sunshine map of europe would be interesting.
Yes...I have yet to find one.
However, I think we could estimate what it might look like:
I would guess that the Med rim lands would be the least stormy(though obviously not storm free)...
Areas inland from the sea - say east of France, would be in the middle in terms of clouds/storms....
And the most marine portions of Ireland, Scotland, UK, Norway...etc would show the most cloud/storms...
However, here again it gets complicated: Blocking occurs in the NW Atlantic in spring now and then....and storms/disturbed weather often heads both north and south of areas like the UK and NW France.
See previous posts, if anything interior Europe is slightly cloudier.
Hmmm....I would really tend to doubt that.
Coastal areas of western Europe see more stormy weather events than areas well inland. They are closer to storm tracks, and the thermal high over North Africa is more distant. Maybe the local Chamber of commerce is at work
Coastal areas of western Europe see more stormy weather events than areas well inland. They are closer to storm tracks, and the thermal high over North Africa is more distant. Maybe the local Chamber of commerce is at work
Areas of central and eastern Europe experience inversions in the winter which can trap stratus and fog, for long periods. This is likely to be the defining reason for why central and eastern Europe are so cloudy in the winter compared to western Europe.
Areas of central and eastern Europe experience inversions in the winter which can trap stratus and fog, for long periods. This is likely to be the defining reason for why central and eastern Europe are so cloudy in the winter compared to western Europe.
Yes, you don't need lots of storminess for cloudy weather though it helps. Many times the Great Lakes region just has clouds, with no storms passing through. Compare the more continental Milan to oceanic Bordeaux (nice climate for non-Mediterranean Europe!)
Turku, Finland, 60N, coast: Dec 16%, Jan 19%, Feb 30%.
Moscow, Russia, 55N, inland: Dec 8%, Jan 14%, Feb 27%
Brussels, Belgium, 50N, inland: Dec 18%, Jan 23%, Feb 28%
La Rochelle, France, 46N, coast: Dec 32%, Jan 30%, Feb 38%
Kaliningrad, Russian Prussia, 53N, coast: Dec: 11%, Jan 14%, Feb 23%
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