Discuss the Generalities of Coastlines Facing North vs East vs South vs West

[grega94]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

This generality doesn’t always hold true because Miami, for example, is east facing and is nearly always warmer than the beaches on the U.S. west coast.

Plus, many of the eastern seaboard beaches are warmer to swim in the summer than beaches on the west coast.

Miami doesn't count cause it's at the southern most point of Florida and has the everglades to the west. A better comparison would be St. Petersburg and Melbourne. St. Petersburg has warmer winter lows and record lows.

And yes east coast has warmer water, but has colder winters. Look at the comparison between Boston and Brookings, OR, they are both at the same latitude yet Brookings is by far way warmer in winter.

[Texyn]

Originally Posted by saturno_v

Even then, the Adriatic coast (Croatia all the way down to Greece) back more east has warmer waters than the east coast of Spain....

The Adriatic coast is also part of the Eurasian "West Coast." The "East Coast" would be in Asia.

Originally Posted by grega94

Miami doesn't count cause it's at the southern most point of Florida and has the everglades to the west. A better comparison would be St. Petersburg and Melbourne. St. Petersburg has warmer winter lows and record lows.

And yes east coast has warmer water, but has colder winters. Look at the comparison between Boston and Brookings, OR, they are both at the same latitude yet Brookings is by far way warmer in winter.

Well, St. Petersburg is on a peninsula, whereas Melbourne is on the mainland coast. Plus the entirety of Florida is an "East Coast," as is the whole Gulf Coast.

[antarcticare]

Cool discussion. More than just climate and water temperature, sunset/sunrise patterns could be important - especially for those building houses. Any generalities about the views from N/E/S/W?

[marlinfshr]

Originally Posted by grega94

And yes east coast has warmer water, but has colder winters. Look at the comparison between Boston and Brookings, OR, they are both at the same latitude yet Brookings is by far way warmer in winter.

Cold fronts typically move from west to east so, at least here in the US, we have a couple thousand miles over the whole US and Canada which they travel before hitting us here on the coast. There are also no east/west mountain ranges to block the cold air, so we are a bit chillier then places of the same latitude on the west coast. The systems that the west coast gets have typically traveled over water, which is typically more mild air.

Here on the mid Atlantic coast, where I live, the climate is not typically bad but we do get our share of cold air, like what we recently had, but when a low moves in from the south or the wind itself blows from the southeast, it is typically quite mild here as it is bringing that "gulf stream" air with it and 70 degree winter days are not uncommon. It is definately milder here on the coast then a couple hours away in the Balt/DC area where I grew up!

As far as other takes on east/west facing coasts? In my line of work (fishing) I get to see the sunrise over the Atlantic when heading out in the morning, but that is only on days I have a trip. Otherwise I'm not getting up until the sun is high in the sky. When I lived in Costa Rica, every evening I saw beautiful sunsets over the Pacific.