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View Poll Results: Which climate you like the best?
Raleigh, NC 4 19.05%
Maebashi, Japan 17 80.95%
Voters: 21. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-30-2020, 03:35 AM
 
Location: Nirvana
346 posts, read 195,240 times
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Here are two medium sized cities that are fairly close in latitude that are classified being in the humid subtropical zone (Cfa both under Koppen and Trewartha). I live in Raleigh (35.78° N) currently and I have traveled to Maebashi, Japan (36.39° N) for a summer while attending college at UNC Charlotte in 2005. Here the figures, more information is recorded for Raleigh than Maebashi as you can see.

Maebashi, Gunma, Japan


Raleigh, North Carolina, USA


As you can see, temperature averages are marginally cooler in all seasons in Maebashi than Raleigh. Annual precipitation amounts are fairly close with a 5 inch difference (43.3" in Raleigh and 48.6 in Maebashi) BUT most of Maebashi's rain falls in the late spring and summer (May to October) but way drier in the winter than Raleigh (due to the "karakaze", or a dry wind blows in from the north through the city). Maebashi also gets less snow on average.

I also notice that the record lows for Raleigh, NC (-9F) are lower than Maebashi (11F). Also, when you look at the plant hardiness maps, Raleigh is located in hardiness zone 8a (or said to be borderline 7b/8a depending where in the Raleigh-Durham metro you are) with annual mean minimum temps in the low to mid teens in most years and sometimes in the single digits. Maebashi is located in hardiness zone 9a where it doesn't go below 20F in the vast majority of years. This implies more stable winters in Japan than in the Southeastern US. Raleigh is slightly warmer but it's a toss up to me because our winters are not stable and it can get colder here on certain days than Maebashi's coldest day of the winter.

Last edited by cevven; 11-30-2020 at 03:49 AM..
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Old 11-30-2020, 11:23 AM
 
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Both climates suck imo, but I'm from somewhere near Raleigh and I know what the weather is like so I choose Raleigh.
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Old 11-30-2020, 12:48 PM
 
Location: Nirvana
346 posts, read 195,240 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Strawhats View Post
Both climates suck imo, but I'm from somewhere near Raleigh and I know what the weather is like so I choose Raleigh.
Yeah, I'm currently here as well (been here since 2007). Live in Garner. Mid-spring up to mid-late autumn is fine but late Dec to Feb is too unstable with the temperatures IMO.
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Old 11-30-2020, 04:54 PM
 
377 posts, read 254,055 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cevven View Post
Yeah, I'm currently here as well (been here since 2007). Live in Garner. Mid-spring up to mid-late autumn is fine but late Dec to Feb is too unstable with the temperatures IMO.
I agree. Winter temperatures are all over the place, from the teens to the 70s. You wear pants in the morning and then by noon, it's 70° on a fine winter day and you're sweating. Lol. Someplace like Florida is fun to have warm winters, but not somewhere like the piedmont where everything is dead and the suns out imo.
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Old 12-01-2020, 02:22 AM
 
Location: Nirvana
346 posts, read 195,240 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Strawhats View Post
I agree. Winter temperatures are all over the place, from the teens to the 70s. You wear pants in the morning and then by noon, it's 70° on a fine winter da. y and you're sweating. Lol. Someplace like Florida is fun to have warm winters, but not somewhere like the piedmont where everything is dead and the suns out imo.
You describe the east Piedmont perfectly, the rolling hills section of the coastal plain and the sandhills is similar (being from Fayetteville originally). Like yesterday was just like you described here, it was 70 degrees in the morning and now it's literally freezing outside. I did look at weather.com's 10 day forecast - most days are forecasted to be around Dec average temperatures, mid-50s for highs and low to mid 30's for lows. It seems that the polar vortex is somewhat stable now so they are not forecasting the usually bi-weekly temperature fluctuations that are start being common this time of the year.

Speaking of everything being dead, we had some crazy winds blow thru the area yesterday, taking all the fall leaves off the trees. You been down here so you know it's mostly loblollies and shortleaf pines (with some patches of longleaf and maybe some naturalized slashes in the marshes in the eastern counties like Johnston) mixed in with some deciduous oak and hickories. Of course the pines stay green but the bare deciduous trees contribute heavy to this dead of winter look - which I don't care too much for. We need more broadleaf evergreens like some lithocarpus oaks and more magnolias
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Old 12-03-2020, 07:26 AM
 
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Both aren't that good.

But Raleigh for the higher sunshine hours and for being a bit drier.
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Old 12-03-2020, 07:48 AM
 
Location: Sheffield, England
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Maebashi is rather better.
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Old 12-03-2020, 09:45 AM
 
Location: Lake Huron Shores
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Maebashi, because the snow is in the hills close by, and I can probably take a bus or train to get there without having to deal with traffic. From Raleigh, you have to drive at least 2 hours on 40 to see decent snow. And with all the construction, trucks, and wannabe nascar drivers, it’s too much stress just to go see a good blanket of snow.
As a side note, I also like bento box .
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Old 12-03-2020, 10:26 AM
 
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On paper, I'd pick Maebashi, for its milder summers.

However, having spent a few days in Tokyo in August, I'm inclined to go with Raleigh.

Japan has implemented "Setsuden" since the 2011 earthquake to conserve power. This makes it so there's not much AC in buildings and it is extremely uncomfortable. I honestly felt like I could not cool off anywhere when I was in Tokyo, except for when I took a shower. When I went to Singapore afterwards, it felt cool to me, due to more prevalent AC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsuden
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Old 12-03-2020, 12:50 PM
 
Location: Nirvana
346 posts, read 195,240 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FrozenI69 View Post
Maebashi, because the snow is in the hills close by, and I can probably take a bus or train to get there without having to deal with traffic. From Raleigh, you have to drive at least 2 hours on 40 to see decent snow. And with all the construction, trucks, and wannabe nascar drivers, it’s too much stress just to go see a good blanket of snow.
As a side note, I also like bento box .
Yea, you don't have to tell me twice about that Raleigh traffic. While the sprawl is relatively 'clean' to some cities I traveled and hit up, it's still extremely stressful to deal with. This is a very fast growing area (as well as many metros in the SE) but the roads seem like they can't keep up and we lack a decent public transit system (one of my close friends works for GoRaleigh and he tells me some serious horror stories about his job). Raleigh has a decent snow once in a while (the annual average is said to be around 6 in but we usually get anywhere from roughly an inch but at times 10 or more). I am from Fayetteville and spend much of my childhood in Southern SC, which gets even less snow (Fay rarely gets over 2 inches a year, many years none). Now if you go to places like Roxboro or even the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem), I do notice they get a bit more snow than we do. Roxboro is in the Triangle but a little far north and near the VA border and a bit cooler on average than Raleigh - I haven't actually been there from what I remember but I heard a quite few times of them getting some good snows.
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