Seattle (WA) vs. Hamburg (GER); which city is the cloudiest? (climate, snow)
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In Germany, Hamburg is reputed to have Germany's worst weather, which is about the same reputation Seattle has in the US. By worst weather, I mean overcast, drizzly, misty and cool weather year round.
I am not sure whether Seattle gets some rain storms during fall over the Pacific but when I was in Hamburg once, it happened that strong winds with light rain hit bad the city and ended up flooding the Elbe river. I heard that it happens quite frequently (even in the UK) because of the turbulent North Sea.
Sunshine levels in Hamburg are worse than Seattle and by far! But then I am doubting whether Seattle's sunshine hours on wiki are ever correct? (I mean 2,170 hrs in Seattle!! It is almost the same what Southern France gets, can it be?)
Seattle's climate is odd for an oceanic climate in that summer is quite sunny which boosts Seattle's sunshine hours. Summer storms are also very rare in Seattle. However winter and autumn is wet and by judging by the forecasts 5 days can have near continuous rain.
Hamburg's summers are cloudier and wetter with more summer storms, Hamburg is definitely cloudier.
USA uses different method of calculating sunshine hours from Europe so Seattle's sunshine hours look overstated, but it still much sunnier than Hamburg. If Seattle's sunshine was calculated by European standards, it would probably be about 1900 hours (Seattle's sunshine is probably not much different from Vancouver's: Climate of Vancouver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Sitting close to Hamburg (50 miles west) i would say, generally it is a cloudy city but mainly so in late fall and winter.
Mid and late Spring though tend to be the sunniest time of the year (since Northern Germany is often influenced by High pressure systems during that time) and also the then still cool North Sea water plays a role here.
Also summer is mostly fairly sunny with some unsettled cooler periods with showers and storms in between, but long periods without sunshine are very rare during summer.
In late Fall and Early Winter however the gloom is quite the norm here, you can have days and sometimes even one or two weeks with overcast, gloomy weather on end. November to January are the worst sunshine wise and also keep in mind that the days are considerably shorter here, so on winter solstice you have only about 7.5 hours of daylight (roughly sunrise about 8:30 AM, sunset 4:00 PM) so on gloomy days it gets dark very early and light very late.
But from February onwards sunshine hours start to increase considerably again.
Hope this helps you a bit and enjoy your stay in Hamburg!
And btw Hamburg is still cloudier i think, even if you keep the overstated sunshine hours of Seattle in mind.
Southern France gets far more than 2170 hrs - up to 2900 in parts. Seattle's measuerements in non-US style would probabaly be aorund 1900 hrs, and still much sunnier than Hamburg.
I didn't know at all that the US has a different way to calculate sunshine hours. If Seattle has 1900 hours, that makes more sense and its totally true that the summers in Seattle are quite sunny which boosts the total yearly sunshine duration.
Is there any website/ forums that discuss how sunshine calculation is computed in Europe and how does it differ from the one in the US?
Its weird that the US gloomiest big city Seattle is sunnier than most Europe (Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Milano, Munich...). I am wondering how Americans are surviving European weather in those cities if they complain a lot about the lack of sun in Seattle.
I already know that Germany has nice springs because I used to live in Munich and the springs can sometimes be surprisingly sunnier than late summers. Thanks for the detailed climatic information "The East Frisian"!
Hamburg is wonderful, especially when the sun shines, which does not happen so often..
But hey I just noticed that for the 6 "summer months" (Sommerhalbzeit in German), Hamburg isn't that gloomy at all as I thought.
From the 1st of April till the 30th of September, I didn't feel any "depression" of its kind because it was too overcast or rainy/ windy. According to the DWD (German meteorological service), sunshine hours in those months year 2014 were:
So during those six sunniest months in Hamburg, there were only two good sunny months (July and September) and still I didn't feel it too gloomy. There was one week in May and one week in August, where it was bad but as for July and September, I remember they were wonderful and I couldn't ask for better temperatures and sunshine hours.
During those two months, Hamburg was the sunniest part in Germany only after the coastal regions of the North and Baltic Seas.
Hamburg is a better climate because it actually gets snow in the winter. Seattle!s winters are too mild.
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and by far! But then I am doubting whether Seattle's sunshine hours on wiki are ever correct? (I mean 2,170 hrs in Seattle!! It is almost the same what Southern France gets, can it be?)
