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I think one fair comparison between west and east is inland BC with Canada's eastern cities since inland BC has so little people but isn't really that cold.
Cognac is probably as sunny as Seattle if we consider how sunshine is calculated differently in the US. And it is probably more humid in the summer as well.
I mentioned that Victoria, BC is also sunnier than Cognac. I don't think Canada measures sun as generously as the U.S. And a 500-hour difference from Walla Walla is hard to explain by measurement differences.
No I mean average high in one of the summer months. Astrakhan reaches 89.6F (32C) in July. In comparison there are multiple locations in the Columbia River basin that reach those temps. In Europe not so much, unless you go further south such as in Spain.
Ah yeah. Well to be fair we have this here basically every summer at least for one month and we're at 44 N. We're hardly oceanic though, and our climate is probably more similar to the US upper south than to inland Oregon.
One more thing is that those places in inland PNW also have larger diurnal ranges in the summer, so the warmer highs are somehow compensed by the cooler summer lows. Places with lows around 12-14c in July / August are to be found in northern France or Germany, but the highs are generally 25c at most, whereas Lyon, Milan, Vienna, Zagreb see higher lows but relatively warm highs as well, usually above 27c and more. All of them are probably cloudier and rainier in the summer than the inland PNW locations due to being more open to outside airmasses.
I mentioned that Victoria, BC is also sunnier than Cognac. I don't think Canada measures sun as generously as the U.S. And a 500-hour difference from Walla Walla is hard to explain by measurement differences.
I just looked on wikipedia and Cognac is supposed to have a bit above 2000 hours of sunshine in a given year, whereas Victoria should have about 170 additional hours. From what I understand, this difference mostly comes from the fact that Victoria is more like a cool summer mediterranean climate, so it has sunnier and less rainy summers with little chance of thunderstorm whereas they are more likely to happen in Cognac, which also has less daylight hours in the summer due to being about 300 km south (Victoria is virtually at the latitude of Paris).
Also, this Cognac data is rather old (61-90), i bet it could be a bit sunnier nowadays.
Sunshine looks fairly comparable at 1785 vs 1810..... Vancouver may be a touch less prone to heat waves.... Nights in Le Havre look a little warmer, but this could be attributed to the newer time period.
France has a less mediterranean precip pattern this far north, but further south, we see a (milder) drying trend in summer, as in Royan....
London looks distinctly warmer than BC at that latitude... with an annual mean (comparing airports) of 52.3 vs 50.7 despite being around 2 degrees further north..
Tacoma and Nantes look fairly similar (perhaps Nantes is a smidgen warmer- Tacoma has a shorter records period so they are not directly comparable)
First of all, this whole "warm for latitude" thing is highly overrated. Sure, it offers insight into climate patterns and provides for interesting trivia, but in a practical sense it means very little. People don't check the latitude before they go outside; they check the temperature. So a place either has a nice climate or it doesn't--regardless of latitude.
Secondly, if you do want to play the latitude card, you say "only really being beaten by parts of Europe." However, the fact of the matter is that this is a two-horse race and the PNW comes in second. There are two west coasts in the Northern Hemisphere: that of Europe and that of North America. Europe's west coast is warmer, and in many aspects more pleasant, than North America's.
To be specific, as you say the coast of the PNW is notable only for mildness. Its summers, however, are essentially a non-event. Compare Newport, Oregon, to a place like La Teste-de-Buch, France. La Teste-de-Buch is warmer every single month of the year and has something of a real summer.
Moving inland, it's true the PNW has warm to hot summers but in terms of annual mean--which is the best single measure of warmth--places in France at similar latitudes have higher annual means. For example, by annual mean Cognac is warmer than Walla Walla. It achieves this by virtue of much milder, sunnier, and more agreeable winters while still having pleasantly warm summers.
Moving south, places in Spain at similar latitudes to Redding such as Tortosa are again warmer in terms of annual means. Summers are not quite as hot but the mean summer temperature are only one or two degrees Celsius cooler so there's not much in it. I would say it's a bit far-fetched to describe Redding as ridiculous when there are other places comparable to (and in fact warmer than) it.
Yes! Quite true! I strongly agree with this! Look at my post for more on further north... the British Isles are quite clearly milder than BC.. I wish I could give you more rep points!!
Does the pacific NW have more sunshine than NW Europe primarily because of its summers? It seemed that summers were sunnier, but winters were less sunny in the PacNW than in Europe, at least for the Pacific facade (I wouldn't consider Boise to really be comparable to anywhere in France, as that geography simply does not exist....)
Ah yeah. Well to be fair we have this here basically every summer at least for one month and we're at 44 N. We're hardly oceanic though, and our climate is probably more similar to the US upper south than to inland Oregon.
One more thing is that those places in inland PNW also have larger diurnal ranges in the summer, so the warmer highs are somehow compensed by the cooler summer lows. Places with lows around 12-14c in July / August are to be found in northern France or Germany, but the highs are generally 25c at most, whereas Lyon, Milan, Vienna, Zagreb see higher lows but relatively warm highs as well, usually above 27c and more. All of them are probably cloudier and rainier in the summer than the inland PNW locations due to being more open to outside airmasses.
Yeah northern Italy is really the only place at that latitude in Europe that can compete, and I would say Italy beat the inland NW in terms of overall warmth.
City: annual mean temp | monthly hottest mean temp | coldest mean temp
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