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View Poll Results: Which city do you think would feel like it has hotter summers?
Sydney 21 58.33%
Boston 15 41.67%
Voters: 36. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-28-2016, 08:40 PM
 
Location: Sydney, Australia
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I know, one of these threads again. But I think they make a good conversation and debate. Anyway, I noticed that Sydney and Boston have similar summers. Except, the latter would be more consistently muggy but less likely to get extreme heat (38C+), and the former will be more prone to cool changes, despite getting extreme heat. Furthermore, Sydney's summers are longer, although Boston does have a month with warmer highs. Now, overall, would you say that Sydney (ONLY the CBD) or Boston have a hotter summer?

Sydney CBD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney#Climate
Boston: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate

If you want a closeup of their summer temps:

Sydney:


Boston:


P.S. I was about to do NYC instead of Boston. But I realized that Sydney wouldn't stand a chance, as NYC's summers are virtually tropical with those 20C average lows in July.
Attached Thumbnails
Which city would feel hotter in summer, Sydney or Boston?-syd.png   Which city would feel hotter in summer, Sydney or Boston?-bost.png  
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:47 PM
 
Location: In transition
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Sydney would feel hotter with its more intense sunshine than Boston.
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Munich, Germany
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Why don't you use the 1981-2010 normals for Sydney aswell. The Wikipedia Climate Table for Sydney uses the period 1859-2016

Climate statistics for Australian locations

It looks quite different this way. The Summer lows average almost 1°C warmer.
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:57 PM
nei nei won $500 in our forum's Most Engaging Poster Contest - Thirteenth Edition (Jan-Feb 2015). 

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Location: Western Massachusetts
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Boston is more consistently humid than Sydney? I would have assumed the opposite? I guess hot, dry inland airflows for Sydney? Boston's lowest humidity summer weather is usually also cooler than average summer weather. Hot and dry is rare.
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:59 PM
 
Location: Lexington, KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nei View Post
Boston is more consistently humid than Sydney? I would have assumed the opposite? I guess hot, dry inland airflows for Sydney? Boston's lowest humidity summer weather is usually also cooler than average summer weather. Hot and dry is rare.
Dewpoints above 20C are pretty rare in Sydney.
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Old 10-28-2016, 09:43 PM
 
Location: Perth, Australia
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I'd say Sydney due to such an intense sun and high UV which would make it more harsh. Sydney can also get days of 40C and these extremes are alot more common in recent years.
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:10 PM
 
Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
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Looking at summer only, Boston averages 24 days equal to or greater than 30C; Sydney averages 9 such days. Plus when it gets hot in Boston it's usually humid. So I think Boston would feel hotter in summer.

National Weather Service Climate

Climate statistics for Australian locations
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:52 PM
 
Location: The Valley Of The Sun just east of Canberra
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildcat15 View Post
Dewpoints above 20C are pretty rare in Sydney.
Not in recent years. With persistent warming in the Tasman Sea, tropical-style summers in Sydney are fast becoming the norm. Local SSTs have been hitting 25-26C regularly.

Summers in New England seem to be heading the same way too, though. I don't look at the models for the NE US regularly, though it seems to me that midsummer cool shots are usually restricted to the far NE. In Sydney, we receive modified cold fronts that drop maxima to the mid-upper 70s F once per week on average. However, these changes might become less common as waters warm.

All things considered, I'd go with Sydney, but it's a fairly close thing. The length of summer in Sydney is a key psychological factor; in Boston, you're guaranteed a sharp cool-down in mid-autumn after a warm summer.
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Old 10-29-2016, 12:36 AM
 
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Keep in mind that the data for Sydney is taken at Observatory Hill, which is right on the coast with near-clockwork seabreezes on summer afternoons and is one of the coolest locations in the entire metro area. Slightly inland things get warmer. Bankstown Airport is a better representation for the majority of the population Climate statistics for Australian locations The 30C day count goes up to 38

At Penrith, the most inland suburb of the metro area, it's warmer still http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...7113_All.shtml and now you have 68 days over 30C

So, Sydney would feel warmer where 80% of the population live away from the immediate coast.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildcat15 View Post
Dewpoints above 20C are pretty rare in Sydney.
They are actually fairly common.
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Old 10-29-2016, 01:28 AM
 
Location: The Valley Of The Sun just east of Canberra
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The OP did emphasise that the analysis should be limited to the Sydney CBD, i.e. Observatory Hill. However, most of the Sydney CBD is probably warmer than the (harbourside) Observatory Hill in a typical summer seabreeze regime, though there's no weather station to confirm it. The quality of Observatory Hill is an old chestnut that is debated ad nauseam on Australian weather forums, so I won't bother with it here.

To properly answer the question, obtaining the mean 24-hour temperature during the three warmest months of the year would be useful. In Sydney, this value is roughly 21C/70F in December and 22C/72F in January and February. Statistics from a reliable PWS (say, a Davis Vantage Pro) in the Boston area could provide this information, but we'd need someone that is familiar with the areas' climate to weed out bad data.
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