[HN Gopher] Cities with Nice Weather
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Cities with Nice Weather
        
       Author : m4burns
       Score  : 262 points
       Date   : 2022-05-13 03:39 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jdonland.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jdonland.github.io)
        
       | sandbx wrote:
       | this is most stable weather not nicest ... "We'll ignore any
       | other weather characteristics like humidity, rain, wind, diurnal
       | temperature difference, etc."
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | Depends what you think is nice!
        
       | POPOSYS wrote:
       | Climate change is real and will make that data very different.
        
       | mysecretaccount wrote:
       | Funny, Cusco may be a good candidate based on low variable
       | temperature during the year but my recollection is that it has
       | high variable temperature throughout a 24 hour period.
        
         | thakoppno wrote:
         | is altitude weather or weather adjacent?
        
       | nicoburns wrote:
       | IMO Medellin, Colombia (known as "the city of eternal spring") is
       | about perfect from a weather perspective. It averages around 23c
       | year round (varying between about 18 and 28). It does have a
       | rainy season, but even then mornings are often sunny (afternoon
       | not so much).
        
         | Wistar wrote:
         | A good friend spends a lot of time in Montevideo, Uruguay and
         | he says it has fairly steady pleasant weather.
        
           | smcl wrote:
           | Direct quote from my gf who lived in MVD for a while - "it's
           | cold and rainy often, and in winter it sucks because none of
           | the houses have central heating". For context we now live in
           | Central Europe (toasty summers and long cold winters).
           | 
           | She loved being there and to be honest I'd definitely visit,
           | but I guess there's more to it than just the average
           | temperature outside
        
       | deepnotderp wrote:
       | Weather isn't just temperature.
       | 
       | Bogota has perfect temperature but is cloudier than Seattle.
        
         | onionisafruit wrote:
         | Seattle has pretty good weather too, if you only consider
         | temperature.
        
           | grapeskin wrote:
           | Seattle has great weather. Less rain than Midwest and east
           | coast US cities and never too hot or too cold.
        
             | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
             | > Seattle has great weather. Less rain than Midwest
             | 
             | I know someone who had a depressive episode after moving to
             | Seattle because, "it's raining. It's just a thick, settling
             | mist. But it hasn't stopped, for 100 days"
        
             | cheeze wrote:
             | Except the part where it's May and it's still raining this
             | year, damnit.
        
               | freeqaz wrote:
               | Hopefully that helps the fires this year when it
               | eventually gets hot, at the very least! It's nice to not
               | have to worry about drought, as well. (That's a huge
               | reason why I moved to Seattle from SF.)
        
             | allset_ wrote:
             | It gets too hot a couple weeks every year. 90F+ for days
             | and even in the evening it doesn't drop that much which is
             | rough when most people don't have AC.
        
           | sangel wrote:
           | It is 40 degrees F right now... in mid May. And has been all
           | month and basically all year since last November.
           | 
           | I don't see how you can call that good temperature.
        
             | runarberg wrote:
             | I moved here from Reykjavik, and I'm loving this spring.
        
             | turtlebits wrote:
             | It was absolutely beautiful on Tues/Wed. High 50's and
             | sunny. (Maybe I'm used to it, but 40s/50s in the spring
             | when the sun is out is unbeatable).
             | 
             | IMO, Seattle has the best summers (save last years heat
             | wave). Nice weather from May - September.
        
         | bogomipz wrote:
         | Isn't it Medellin though thats known as the "city of eternal
         | spring" because of the weather?
        
           | el-salvador wrote:
           | Guatemala has nice spring weather too because of altitude.
           | 
           | It ranges from +13C to +23C. With extremes being +7C or +28C
           | depending on the time of the year.
        
           | aunty_helen wrote:
           | Yes, Bogota is more much larger, more polluted, worse
           | traffic, colder and at a high altitude (Medellin is about
           | 1500m, Bogota 2600m).
           | 
           | It has rained pretty much every day this year in Medellin
           | though. Still it's 20c Edit: Begins to rain
        
             | goeiedaggoeie wrote:
             | I am here as well. It looks like La Nina this year. Even
             | though it has rained a lot the weather is still incredible.
             | I originally come from Cape Town and Medellin is the most
             | perfect weather I have ever lived in.
        
       | kgbcia wrote:
       | spoiler : Reykjavik, Iceland because of English speaking
       | programmer. I might be interested.
        
       | renox wrote:
       | Mmm that's difficult to define for example in Le Havre (an
       | harbour NW of France) the average temperature is quite consistent
       | due to the sea proximity but the weather is often very variable
       | (and the weather forecasts aren't reliable): keep your sun hat
       | AND your umbrella with you..
       | 
       | While near Paris the weather is more stable during a day, but
       | from day to day the temperature variations are higher..
        
       | annexrichmond wrote:
       | > I live near Toronto. It's springtime, and currently about 30
       | degC
       | 
       | I don't think this is true. It's been around 20deg at most in the
       | Toronto area this past week.
       | 
       | https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/toronto/m5h/may-weather/55...
        
         | james_pm wrote:
         | Correct. Hasn't been near 30C in Toronto this week (source: me,
         | Toronto resident). This person could solve a lot of his
         | problems with Toronto weather by moving close to the lake. It's
         | generally a few degrees cooler in the summer, and warmer in the
         | winter. Having four distinct seasons is nice, although fall
         | (the best season, IMO) is way too short and winter is a bit too
         | long.
        
           | l8arrival wrote:
           | I think being near the lake is definitely nicer in the
           | summer, and probably winter too, as it moderates the
           | temperature. On the other hand in the spring and fall, since
           | the water temperature can be so much colder than the air, it
           | can be quite cold and breezy by the lake, and nice and warm
           | away from the lake.
        
       | leto_ii wrote:
       | > We'll ignore any other weather characteristics like humidity,
       | rain, wind, diurnal temperature difference, etc.
       | 
       | Ha! So basically you're ignoring most of what weather is. I'm
       | surprised Amsterdam (my current location) didn't end on top. I
       | mean if you ignore the rain and the wind (and the sunshine hours)
       | it's actually not that bad...
        
       | holoduke wrote:
       | There is a strong correlation between rich and good weather.
       | Amsterdam a city being rich for many hundreds years has pretty
       | good weather. almost all milt weather cities are rich. Whereas
       | warm climates are a recipe for poorness
        
         | dantondwa wrote:
         | I'd be careful making such statements without data. For
         | example, one could wonder if what you observe is a correlation,
         | but not a causation: cities that are close to the sea are rich,
         | as seas allow easy trade. And cities that are close to the sea
         | have a good climate, obviously.
        
       | flakiness wrote:
       | As a Python user I feel envious every time R folks use the
       | pipeline operator. It'd be so nice to have one for data mangling!
        
       | MrDresden wrote:
       | A Reykjavik local here.
       | 
       | Apart from not taking into account for wind and precipitation (as
       | has been mentioned in other comments) the analysis should also
       | look into the average amount of sunshine (or the average amount
       | of cloud cover) as well as look into seasonal exposer to the sun
       | based on latitude.
       | 
       | Reykjavik can go weeks without a break in the cloud cover, with
       | howling winds shacking the concrete bunker you live in.
       | 
       | Sure its probably not more than -10degC outside with windchill,
       | but you'll feel your body complaining about your life choices
       | pretty quickly.
       | 
       | And then there is the winter darkness.
        
         | DoingIsLearning wrote:
         | > you'll feel your body complaining about your life choices
         | pretty quickly.
         | 
         | Beautiful landscape and super nice people but I was there in
         | Spring and I struggled with modern clothing.
         | 
         | All my time there I kept thinking how on earth did someone 1200
         | years thought that was a good spot for a settlement.
        
           | MrDresden wrote:
           | In 3 words, the medieval warm period. It has been suggested
           | as the reason settlers were able to get the initial foothold.
           | 
           | The island's lowlands were also densely covered in birch
           | forest when discovered in the late 800s, so there was plenty
           | of wood to be had which would have helped.
           | 
           | Grazing animals would have had an easy time, as can be seen
           | with the size of the sheep population and the deforestation
           | effect they had on the island. The wool produced was a big
           | part of how the settlers survived winter.
        
       | classichasclass wrote:
       | San Diego should rank highly on this list.
        
         | oh_sigh wrote:
         | I traveled there for work once in February and it was sunny and
         | high 60s the entire week. I could only think of how grossly
         | unfair it was that people were allowed to live like that. I saw
         | a guy rollerblading with no shirt on.
        
           | donthellbanme wrote:
           | As a kid, I used to visit my cousins in San Diego, and two
           | summers in a row we had heat waves.
           | 
           | Even though I loved my cousins, the humidity/heat was enough
           | for me to beg to go home.
           | 
           | I remember feeling the fog on the Golden Gate bridge going
           | north, and I was just relieved.
           | 
           | I helped a friend move from Joplin, MO. ten years ago. I
           | actually brought my bicycle because daily exercise helped
           | with my anxiety/depression.
           | 
           | I got off the plane, and that thick moist hot air hit me. I
           | knew there will be no exercise.
           | 
           | My best buddy had a big 7-11 Big Gulp drink in his hand for
           | me. I asked if it's always this hot.
           | 
           | He said this is actually mild.
           | 
           | We were both very broke, and figured I'd get used to the
           | heat. My job was to move him from Joblin to San Rafael. We
           | were beyond co-dependants, and best friends for years.
           | 
           | He took me to his house. It was a small home his father had
           | build in the 40's. He didn't have money to air condition the
           | entire house, but he put up sheets on the kitchen in place of
           | doors. He had one window air conditioner, and that is where
           | we lived for two weeks.
           | 
           | He was getting over his mother's passing.
           | 
           | In the morning he said, "Just trust me on how to survive the
           | heat.".
           | 
           | We would basically just hydrate all day, and look for air
           | conditioning. He smoked heavily, and was just better with the
           | heat than me. He was much older than me, but I was a fat boy.
           | 
           | (I noticed the successful, productive Missourian's went from
           | air conditioned homes, to air conditioned cars, to air
           | conditioned offices. The poor just sweltered.)
           | 
           | I miss you Robert. You were a good friend.
        
           | fy20 wrote:
           | Where I live it's like that too... for maybe one week a year.
        
           | Nursie wrote:
           | Similar winter climate here in Perth, Western Australia.
           | 
           | But high 60s feels _cold_ when you regularly get summer days
           | over 100 and it occasionally hits the low hundred-teens...
        
         | system2 wrote:
         | Were you comfortable walking around with a t-shirt around
         | December?
        
           | holler wrote:
           | I walk around with a t-shirt in December in Seattle, but then
           | I grew up in San Diego...
        
           | kylehotchkiss wrote:
           | Last December in San Diego was definitely t-shirt and shorts
           | weather. It was rainy quite a few days too!
        
       | teaearlgraycold wrote:
       | I'm surprised Redwood City's marketing hasn't made it to the
       | author. "Climate Best by Government Test"! It's a settled fact in
       | my opinion.
        
       | madman2890 wrote:
       | Manizales, Colombia
        
       | ricardo81 wrote:
       | Weather seems like the classic the grass is greener elsewhere. I
       | see Edinburgh ranks well which I live near. Had also lived near
       | Toronto and can vouch for the less extreme temperature variance
       | in Scotland. The seasons are less well defined here, it's quite
       | normal to have all 4 seasons in a day.
        
         | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
         | In the high desert of the US southwest (6000'/1800m and above),
         | it is not unusual to see diurnal temperature swings of 30F/16C
         | or close to it. It's completely normal for at least 2 seasons a
         | year to need an insulated jacket in the morning and evening, a
         | light sweater just after and before the jacket is
         | removed/added, and a t-shirt or similar for the middle of the
         | day. Of course, the chance of rain is close to zero outside of
         | any monsoon season that may or may not occur.
        
           | addaon wrote:
           | I'm in the southwest at 5000', and if anything you're
           | understating it. To choose convenient arbitrary samples:
           | Tomorrow 40degF low / 82degF high (42degF delta); Saturday
           | 45degF low / 90degF high (45degF delta). Even 60degF swing
           | isn't unheard of.
        
           | cagey wrote:
           | Ditto: I'm in the southwest (SE AZ) at 4700': Tomorrow 58degF
           | low / 90degF high (32degF delta); Saturday 61degF low /
           | 94degF high (33degF delta). An approximate 30degF diurnal
           | swing is pretty much the norm year-round here. Your comment
           | about precip and monsoon season applies too.
        
       | fluidcruft wrote:
       | So basically ignore everything else and go toward the equator to
       | remove seasons and then select average temperature by picking
       | elevation.
        
       | reactspa wrote:
       | Nice analysis, but...
       | 
       | ...here's something I find astonishing.
       | 
       | The word "R" doesn't appear anywhere in this article.
       | 
       | He doesn't mention anywhere that he's using "R", and within "R"
       | he's using the "tidyverse".
       | 
       | So much good work to write a tutorial, but a rank beginner will
       | have a hard time figuring out how to replicate it.
        
         | this_is_not_you wrote:
         | It says "This page was generated from an R markdown file."
         | under Tools at the top.
        
           | Liquid_Fire wrote:
           | This seems to have been added in response to parent's
           | comment.
        
         | hughlilly wrote:
         | Yeah I had no idea what he was using til I read your comment. I
         | thought it was Python but it didn't look enough like Python...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | redrobein wrote:
         | The code blocks blending in with the rest of the post and the
         | code itself is very aesthetically pleasing. I thought it was
         | julia at first glance.
        
           | thefringthing wrote:
           | I'd prefer if the `tufte` theme would render the "|>" pipes
           | as ">" but I wasn't prepared to do that level of tinkering.
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | I will consider adding a section mentioning the tools! (I'm the
         | author of this page.)
        
           | yreg wrote:
           | I really like the design/typography of the article. Pleasant
           | and elegant.
        
             | thefringthing wrote:
             | It's a recreation of the style used by Edward Tufte, who
             | wrote an influential book on data visualization.
        
         | freeqaz wrote:
         | I was wondering if it was R or Datalog. Thank you!
         | 
         | I did something similar to this with SQLite once. That was fun.
        
       | at_a_remove wrote:
       | What is "nice weather" really varies by person. Personally, I
       | would love something where the temperature didn't vary a lot, it
       | is damp, but most importantly, it is overcast/dark as much as
       | possible. Hence my ideal locale would be the Pacific Northwest.
        
       | jraby3 wrote:
       | I live in Tel Aviv and the weather there is ideal (for me). Sunny
       | about 300 days a year and doesn't get too hot because of the sea.
       | 
       | Coming from the NE US the winters were brutal and the summers
       | were so humid you could cut the air with a knife.
       | 
       | Wonder if this is one of the reasons TA is one of the most
       | expensive (and successful) cities in the world.
        
       | doitLP wrote:
       | Just use this tool: https://lukechampine.com/goldilocks/
       | 
       | (Posted to HN two months ago and very helpful convincing my wife
       | that there's only a couple places in the US with weather like San
       | Diego)
        
         | athenot wrote:
         | This only looks at one dimension: temperature. There are other
         | dimensions to look at:
         | 
         | - Humidity, or rather: Dew Point. 22oC / 72F feels awesome or
         | nasty depending on whether dewpoint is 10oC or 21oC. Anything
         | above 16oC is generally unpleasant.
         | 
         | - Sunshine. Many overcast days can do a number on our well
         | being, but some people actually prefer the softer light.
         | 
         | - Rainfall. Some prefer more on the dry side, others more on
         | the lush side. Again, it's a personal preference.
         | 
         | - Variety throughout the year. Some of us actually enjoy the
         | diversity of seasons while others prefer constance.
        
           | dzhiurgis wrote:
           | I'd add UV to the mix - i.e. Auckland climate is great, but
           | on sunny day you generally stay away from it.
        
             | mprovost wrote:
             | That's true of any place in the Southern hemisphere though.
        
       | beeforpork wrote:
       | Cuzco is at a high altitude, which is an important metric, too --
       | it is relatively cold and has lower levels of oxygen.
       | 
       | Algeciras or Tarifa or anything in the close vicinity to
       | Gibraltar is nice, as there is an unusually cool climate that is
       | much more agreeable than other parts of Southern Spain (usually
       | way too hot, e.g., Seville).
       | 
       | Jamestown, St. Helena is also nice weather in your definition,
       | and they speak English. But the humidity may be a bit too high.
       | 
       | How this can be found automatically would be interesting. I was
       | surprised not to find the above places in the article.
        
       | Dave3of5 wrote:
       | There is no qualitative way to work this out. Your graphs and
       | numbers here are meaningless.
        
       | ricardobayes wrote:
       | Canary Islands are notably missing. It's practically between 22
       | and 27C all year long.
        
         | davidmitchell2 wrote:
         | +1 for Canary!
        
       | odysseus wrote:
       | This reminds me of Kelly Norton'a Pleasant Places to Live, where
       | you can search by ZIP code:
       | 
       | https://kellegous.com/j/2014/02/03/pleasant-places/
       | 
       | I wrote to him to try and get the places listed in table form,
       | sortable CSV, but never received a reply.
        
       | jaggederest wrote:
       | Another interesting measure for these purposes is "heating degree
       | days" and "cooling degree days", i.e. how much the outside
       | temperature varies from indoor temperature.
       | 
       | One of my former coworkers who lived in San Diego said that
       | people there complain whenever the temperature outside is
       | different than the temperature inside, and sure enough, it's the
       | lowest by summed heating and cooling degree days in the US.
        
         | rootw0rm wrote:
         | that may be true...but as someone who's lived in San Diego
         | before, I can say that the weather and pretty much everything
         | else there, except the traffic, is pretty awesome.
        
           | adanto6840 wrote:
           | Don't forget to include the cost-of-living and the taxes,
           | along with the traffic.
           | 
           | The weather is quite nice -- but if you really like/want to
           | experience distinct seasons throughout the year, then the
           | lack of variability may leave you dissatisfied.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | darkhorn wrote:
       | Nice weather is lots of rain and snow, whithout humidity, and no
       | extreme temperatures.
        
       | jrd79 wrote:
       | Shameless plug: weatherspark.com has a great compare feature that
       | is extremely useful when evaluating the relative merits of a
       | given location's climate. See the following comparison page
       | between Algiers and LA:
       | 
       | https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/48929~1705/Comparison-of-...
        
       | erfgh wrote:
       | You mean climate.
        
       | chrsw wrote:
       | San Diego has the best weather I've ever experienced. I've been
       | there at different times of the year too. I don't live there and
       | don't have any motivation to say that other than just being
       | honest. I don't have any data to support my claim but it's not
       | even mentioned in this analysis. I wonder what criteria ruled it
       | out.
        
         | rcpt wrote:
         | Hawaii Big island you can decide your weather by simply driving
         | to a higher elevation
        
           | igorstellar wrote:
           | It's interesting, since it could be very dry east, but it has
           | most humid/rainy area in US (Hilo). One of the most
           | fascinating islands in my opinion.
        
       | angarg12 wrote:
       | > We'll ignore any other weather characteristics like humidity,
       | rain, wind, diurnal temperature difference, etc.
       | 
       | I chuckled at this. Ignoring factors like humidity, rain, wind,
       | and number of sunny days gives you a very distorted vision of the
       | weather in a given place.
        
         | cush wrote:
         | > we'll ignore the weather
        
         | avereveard wrote:
         | Yeah, not surprising to see Dublin surface in a good weather
         | list built off temperatures alone, and yet the weather is piss
         | poor for 49/52 weeks a year.
        
           | nixass wrote:
           | Even the weather is miserable in Dublin, there's a ton of
           | other more miserable things about that city. It's just
           | combination of everything awful
        
           | ihateolives wrote:
           | Of the places I've been Dublin has the most stable weather
           | except perhaps Canary islands, but the difference is that
           | Dublin has stable and shitty weather while Canary islands
           | have stable and nice.
           | 
           | I love Ireland but couldn't live there full time.
        
             | rootw0rm wrote:
             | of the many excellent comments for this story, yours made
             | me laugh the hardest, haha.
        
           | almostarockstar wrote:
           | I currently live in Dublin, I think you are exaggerating
           | quite a bit.
           | 
           | There are many reasons not to live in Dublin (poor housing
           | quality / price, high cost of living, poor public transport,
           | crime, etc) but the weather is absolutely not on that list.
           | 
           | Dublin has about 130 rainfall days each year, and most of
           | those are in the winter. Most days are mild and dry. The
           | weather is warm and pleasant enough to enjoy water sports
           | year-round. I spend most of my recreation time during the
           | winter in a wetsuit without a hood.
           | 
           | We don't get heavy snow, extreme cold/heat, hurricane force
           | winds, or flooding. Overall, I think the weather here is
           | better than most people give it credit for.
        
             | bogomipz wrote:
             | >"There are many reasons not to live in Dublin (poor
             | housing quality / price, high cost of living, poor public
             | transport, crime, etc)"
             | 
             | I was kind of surprised to see poor public transport on
             | your list as it's a major European city. Is this true of
             | the whole city or just certain parts?
        
             | returningfory2 wrote:
             | For me the problem with Ireland's weather is the lack of
             | sunshine. It gets about 1500 hours of sunshine a year,
             | compared to 2500 in New York and over 3000 in California.
             | Growing up in Ireland I didn't identify this as a problem,
             | but after moving to the US I realized that lots of sun,
             | even on freezing days, is just so nice.
        
               | ihateolives wrote:
               | Last year Dublin had 26deg C "heatwave" and people were
               | complaining. I'd take it over 16deg intermittent rain any
               | day.
        
             | avereveard wrote:
             | I've lived in Dublin enough to get depression and gtfo
             | 
             | the weather, even when it's not rainy, it's ofter
             | miserable, with very low overcast that gives us southerner
             | an unredeemable sense of oppression.
             | 
             | > hurricane force winds
             | 
             | my worst landing ever were all clustered around the dublin
             | airport. gusts up to 100/130 aren't as uncommon as you make
             | it to be.
             | 
             | and all the people I knew that indulged in water sport did
             | so with thick wetsuites
        
         | rob74 wrote:
         | Well, that's oceanic vs. continental climate for you: a large
         | mass of water nearby (preferably to the East) tends to even out
         | temperature differences, but you also get a lot of moisture.
         | You can't have everything, as they say.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_climate
         | 
         | I'm quite surprised Quito (capital of Ecuador) didn't come up
         | however: it's near the Equator, so constant temperatures, and
         | at very high altitude, which reduces the temperature to
         | pleasant levels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quito#Climate).
        
           | FabHK wrote:
           | Exactly. Quito and (very similarly) Medellin missing? Huge
           | red flag.
           | 
           | The methodology is very clearly flawed; maybe amusing as a
           | programming exercise, but of no value in determining where
           | one wants to live.
        
             | mtalantikite wrote:
             | Yeah I came here to say the same. Medellin has some of the
             | nicest weather of anywhere I've ever been, and it's like
             | that all year long.
             | 
             | As a New Yorker, I personally like some variation of the
             | seasons, but I guess if I lived in Medellin I could always
             | head up to the Caribbean coast for some beach weather.
        
           | throw0101a wrote:
           | > _Well, that 's oceanic vs. continental climate for you: a
           | large mass of water nearby_
           | 
           | Toronto is right on Lake Ontario which, at least for the old
           | city, moderates weather a lot compared to just 100-200 km
           | north of the city. Things can change quite a bit by the time
           | you get to Lake Simcoe, or to the west (Guelph-London-Owne
           | Sound triangle).
        
       | s0rce wrote:
       | I grew up in Toronto and lived in Oakland for the past 6 years.
       | Other than some smokey summers weather is near perfect. Very mild
       | "winters", beautiful and sunny summers (much less fog than the
       | coast or Berkeley) with only a few days >30C. Low humidity most
       | of the year. I'm in Carson City now and its colder/hotter, still
       | no humidity.
        
         | myowz wrote:
         | I am looking for someone to do a data crunch like this and see
         | Oakland emerge as a big winner
        
           | tagami wrote:
           | I was born an raised in Oakland. Live in the East Bay.
           | Oakland has amazing weather. There are social challenges it
           | faces now that give it substantially reduced marks.
        
       | Tabular-Iceberg wrote:
       | Stanley is my all time favourite, but you're forced to use
       | expensive, unusably slow satellite internet, so it's no place for
       | a technologist to live.
       | 
       | Maybe Starlink can change that, it's going to be interesting to
       | see.
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | Cusco and La Paz, etc, are highland cities. If you are not
       | accustomized to living at 2km+ altitude you would be miserable
       | and may get health problems and/or depression. This just shows
       | how bad oligoparametrical models are.
        
         | ectopod wrote:
         | I used to live in La Paz. It's nearly 4km up. I did like the
         | climate though.
        
       | raspasov wrote:
       | San Diego
        
       | bigbacaloa wrote:
       | Ignoring humidity Is stupid. Madrid is hotter than Chicago but
       | has much nicer weather.
        
       | divbzero wrote:
       | I would also be curious to see the same marginal histogram
       | animated over time.
        
       | 867-5309 wrote:
       | seemingly the only English-speaking city on the list, is this
       | Stanley, NB or Stanley, WI?
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | It's Stanley, Falkland Islands.
        
           | 867-5309 wrote:
           | I'm not so sure about that. googling for annual weather there
           | returns
           | 
           | "winter is cold, windy and snowy, while summer is very cool,
           | if not cold, and it's rainy and windy as well"
           | 
           | "summers are cold, the winters are very cold, and it is
           | extremely windy and mostly cloudy year round"
           | 
           | but then, Reykjavik is on the list so who knows
        
       | prpl wrote:
       | I've lived 12 years in the bay area and spent quite a bit of time
       | in Chile (mostly Santiago, but other places too). Both are great
       | and pretty close to ideal.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | andix wrote:
       | Your algorithm should probably return places like Lisbon or Nice,
       | which have nice and sunny weather all year round, but not too hot
       | summers. And not Reykjavik, where you need functional clothing
       | (water and wind proof) all year round.
        
       | anilgulecha wrote:
       | Great weather, but Bangalore (tshirt all year around) doesn't
       | make the cut? makes me suspect something is off with the data or
       | analysis. (Perhaps it's the anchoring on 9 celcius? that's
       | chilly.)
        
         | tintedfireglass wrote:
         | The cyclone is also bringing a 20C May this time. The past few
         | days were pretty damp and cold. This week was expected to be
         | the hottest on record for bengaluru but rain saved us :)
        
         | extrememacaroni wrote:
         | From what I see in the news India will soon be 60 degrees and
         | death all year round because of global warming so it should
         | probably not make many lists :(
        
           | nsenifty wrote:
           | Can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but India isn't a tiny
           | country with a single temperature zone. Cities like Bangalore
           | have great weather year long. The real problem is dust and
           | pollution.
        
             | yamazakiwi wrote:
             | They're not being sarcastic, they're referencing a heatmap
             | that is growing in popularity showing an intense heat wave
             | covering India currently.
        
       | dghughes wrote:
       | When I meet people from other countries I like to ask about the
       | weather where they are from.
       | 
       | Two of the best places I've heard of that sound nice coming from
       | people who are form there.
       | 
       | Monaco/Nice France. Summer can be quite warm but not winters are
       | moderate about 15C (which to them was a cold winter). Really
       | anywhere on the shores of the Mediterranean would be nice.
       | 
       | The other is Kigali, Rwanda I asked someone what it was like they
       | said summer about 26C and winter about 15C - very stable, very
       | little variation.
       | 
       | For both of those places no hurricanes, tornadoes, no snow, no
       | wild temperature changes.
        
       | jll29 wrote:
       | Dear author,
       | 
       | I can tell you Edinburgh is best; however, not _because_ of the
       | weather, but _despite_ the weather.
        
       | thematrixturtle wrote:
       | You'd probably want to factor in precipitation and humidity as
       | well. Also, having lived in the tropics for a long time, having
       | _no_ variation also gets a little boring after a while, although
       | it is nice to never having to pay attention to the weather
       | forecast.
        
       | fortysixdegrees wrote:
       | I did a similar study many years ago then actually moved to the
       | city. It was wonderful, the climate was perfect for me. Moderate
       | all year, low humidity, low wind and rain.
       | 
       | Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico was the answer for me. I will move
       | back there when the kids are older.
        
         | gautamcgoel wrote:
         | Do you feel safe in Mexico? I saw an HN comment the other day
         | from someone who had acquaintances who moved to Mexico and were
         | murdered.
        
         | freeqaz wrote:
         | I spent a month down there once. Definitely very nice! I found
         | the food wasn't that great though, unfortunately.
         | 
         | What makes you want to live there?
        
         | downut wrote:
         | Basically quite a few places in Mexico. La Ciudad de Mexico or
         | Ensenada for me. I intensely love Mexico City but Ensenada is
         | where I'm moving to. Entirely for health insurance reasons. I
         | will be there tomorrow hooray.
         | 
         | There's Guanajauto, but also Queretaro, San Mig, Leon. The
         | central highlands are big and agreeable.
         | 
         | People here love San Diego... I know San Diego really well, and
         | I think Ensenada beats it in every way. San Diego is like a
         | little brother to LA. It sure _seems_ like it would be great to
         | live there, and I suppose if you are desperate to spend quality
         | time sitting in your car crawling in traffic it is ideal, but
         | that 's not for me.
        
           | bogomipz wrote:
           | What's the connection between Ensenada and health insurance?
        
       | readonthegoapp wrote:
       | 30C?
       | 
       | toronto weather right now 1am EST May 13 is 64F.
       | 
       | ...oh, ok, C, got it. so, too hot? i dig the seasons.
       | 
       | but, global warming. the new extremes are going to be too damn
       | hot, and deadly hot, so...
        
       | TacticalCoder wrote:
       | The Mediterannean seaside. The french riviera, Italy, Croatia. I
       | spent lots of time in Spain (Valencia): way too warm in the
       | summer IMO (too much south) and the spanish kinda build fugly
       | buildings along the entire coast, ruining it (compared to France,
       | the difference is staggering).
       | 
       | Here on the french riviera / Cote d'Azur I get to type this while
       | watching the sea and I get my kid to the village's school while
       | driving through the vineyeards. Beach is a three minutes walk.
       | 
       | I'd say that lots of poets/writers/actors/oligarchs (!)/etc.
       | kinda figured this out a long time ago.
       | 
       | Sure, it gets a bit wild in july/august when all the tourists and
       | billionaires come in the area and population goes 5x to 10x but
       | it makes things fun.
       | 
       | During the winter you may get below zero temperatures but it's
       | highly uncommon (the sea regulates both summer and winter) and,
       | anyway, even when that happen, you can still have days where you
       | can then eat lunch outside.
       | 
       | Internet ain't staggering yet but I can get a 4G battery-powered
       | router (because why not, it's 70 EUR) and a 15 EUR / month data
       | plan SIM that can do 80 GB per month while waiting for fiber
       | (it's coming, 18% of my district already has fiber).
        
         | ricardobayes wrote:
         | I agree this area (mediterranean coast) is one of the best in
         | the world. There are nuances between countries: Italy has
         | arguably the best food, Spain has the best weather, France has
         | a combination of these two, good food and good weather. In my
         | case I went for Spain because I don't like to feel the cold,
         | ever. I like to be outdoors all year, plus villas cost a
         | fraction of what they cost in France or Italy. You can easily
         | buy a completely new build with a pool in a nice area for
         | 300.000EUR.
        
         | bogomipz wrote:
         | Where about in the Cote d'Azur do you get vineyards a few
         | minutes from the beach? That sounds amazing.
        
         | andruby wrote:
         | How expense is real estate along the French Riviera? I loved
         | going there as a kid though, so can totally see it being an
         | ideal climate if you're able to afford it.
        
           | downut wrote:
           | Check out the expenses for Montpellier. Cheaper than any US
           | city you could stand to live in. The food is immensely better
           | too.
        
         | rynbill wrote:
         | Are you an expat? I've been dreaming about a relocation to this
         | area but I don't know where to start.
        
       | ohgodplsno wrote:
       | >Cities with Nice Weather
       | 
       | >Doesn't include the city of Nice
       | 
       | disappointing
        
       | dvirsky wrote:
       | I was just reading the Wiki page for Bogota yesterday and was
       | like "damn, that city has my favorite kind of weather and it
       | barely changes". Is it a good place to live in otherwise?
        
       | sega_sai wrote:
       | I think people are a bit too critical here, as people's view on
       | weather are different, i.e. utility functions are different. As a
       | person living in Edinburgh though, I can say the weather is not
       | too bad, but certainly could be tad warmer without being
       | uncomfortable.
        
       | rgmerk wrote:
       | If your methodology for identifying "cities with nice weather"
       | returns Reykjavik in its top ten, either your sample only
       | includes places with terrible weather, or your methodology is
       | completely whacked.
       | 
       | Reykjavik is a wonderful little city, but it's cold, extremely
       | windy, and often very miserable.
       | 
       | The place with the most pleasant weather I've ever experienced is
       | probably the area around the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
       | (at least, most of the time - they've had an extraordinary run of
       | flooding rains, recently). 70 degree Fahrenheit maximums in the
       | winter, 82 in the summer, warm-water beaches, sea breezes to take
       | the edge off the humidity - and there's mountains next door you
       | can recreate in during summer to take the edge off. What more
       | could you possibly want, except possibly snow if you're one of
       | those weirdos who likes the stuff?
       | 
       | A more appropriate methodology would take into account wet bulb
       | temperatures, rainfall amounts, hours of sunshine, and wind
       | (aside from its effect on wet bulb temperature a howling gale is
       | unpleasant in its own right).
       | 
       | Still, given the poster's starting point was Toronto...well...
        
         | bryanrasmussen wrote:
         | >If your methodology for identifying "cities with nice weather"
         | returns Reykjavik in its top ten, either your sample only
         | includes places with terrible weather, or your methodology is
         | completely whacked.
         | 
         | Or you have different opinions than most people, for example I
         | tend to really dislike summer in most places because I dislike
         | hot weather more than I dislike cold weather, even here in
         | Denmark I dislike summer.
         | 
         | on edit: fixed spelling.
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | Also, hours of daylight in winter is a factor. I was in
         | Reykjavik for Christmas once and there was about 4 hours of
         | sunlight each day. It confuses the body.
        
           | Hamuko wrote:
           | It's not really that confusing if you actually live there.
           | Speaking from experience, since I grew up further north than
           | 99% of the world population (Reykjavik would be down to the
           | south).
        
             | cpach wrote:
             | I don't find it confusing, but it's dreary though.
             | Especially in regions where there's short days but very
             | little snow.
        
           | Nullabillity wrote:
           | That's what people always seem to be concerned about... but
           | the real problem up north is the eternal summer days. Enjoy
           | never getting a night's proper sleep!
        
             | drodil wrote:
             | In Finland we usually sleep during the winters and stay
             | awake during the summers
        
             | thematrixturtle wrote:
             | This problem is trivially fixed with blackout curtains.
             | Dealing with lack of sun is harder.
        
               | Nullabillity wrote:
               | Lack of sun is trivially fixed with lights.
               | 
               | Blackout curtains don't form a good seal and always let
               | light bleed through around the edges.
        
               | citboin wrote:
               | You want " Blackout EZ - Total Sunlight Blocking Window
               | Covers" (available on Amazon) which seal to Velcro strips
               | that are mounted around your windows with screws, and a
               | DIY hard shell window valence above that, plus blackout
               | curtains over that just so it doesn't look so stark.
               | That's what I do.
        
               | PKop wrote:
               | No it isn't. Sunlight is an important source of Vitamin
               | D, which affects immune system, hormones, and mood. There
               | are special lamps to supplement this, but it is not so
               | trivial as turning on "lights".
        
               | throw-ru-938 wrote:
               | One of my best investments ever was a good sleeping mask.
               | These do not let any light in (even around the edges if
               | it's a good fit), and unlike blackout curtains they're
               | portable.
        
               | Nullabillity wrote:
               | That sounds really uncomfortable, I doubt I'd be able to
               | sleep well with that kind of pressure on my face.
        
               | throw-ru-938 wrote:
               | YMMV, but I got completely used to a mask after a couple
               | of nights.
        
               | telesilla wrote:
               | I'm curious to try a solution such as electrochromic
               | glass, but to get a better blackout the glass seems to
               | need to be tinted. But on the Dreamliner plane, they seem
               | to have solved this. Not sure if it's just uneconomical
               | at a house scale.
        
               | cpach wrote:
               | _"Lack of sun is trivially fixed with lights."_
               | 
               | As someone who lives in Sweden, I can't agree there.
               | 
               | Lights can never fully replace sunlight. It's not even
               | close.
        
               | Nullabillity wrote:
               | > As someone who lives in Sweden, I can't agree there.
               | 
               | I've lived in Sweden my whole life, and in Norrbotten for
               | a decade.
        
               | cpach wrote:
               | Ah. I would probably not survive north of Gavle :-p
        
               | vintermann wrote:
               | Why can't those damn coelux things become mass produced?
        
               | FredPret wrote:
               | Velcro + blackout curtain
        
               | thematrixturtle wrote:
               | It actually isn't, because most home lighting is far less
               | intense than the sun and the wrong spectrum to boot.
               | Light therapy works but sitting in front of a big bright
               | box is not terribly convenient or fun.
               | 
               | And if your blackout curtains don't work, get better
               | ones. Many Nordic households have double curtains, one
               | solid plastic to block the vast majority of the light and
               | the other from cloth to diffuse/block the rest and look
               | pretty.
        
               | quickthrower2 wrote:
               | Eye mask too
        
               | ProZsolt wrote:
               | Instal proper window shutters. Your rooms will be pitch
               | black.
        
         | Hamuko wrote:
         | I'd say any (regular) amount of snow disqualifies your city as
         | having "nice weather".
        
           | t-3 wrote:
           | Snow isn't bad compared to rain. At least it looks nice and
           | lights up the night.
        
             | throw0101a wrote:
             | > _Snow isn 't bad compared to rain. At least it looks nice
             | and lights up the night._
             | 
             | You don't have to shovel rain.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | dam_broke_it wrote:
             | Try shoveling 6-9 inches of snow per storm--storms every
             | 4-6 days during the winter in the Rockies....
        
               | t-3 wrote:
               | I live in Michigan. We might not get quite as much
               | precipitation as the mountains, but I assure you, I'm no
               | stranger to snow.
        
             | Hamuko wrote:
             | What? Snow is way worse. There's basically no comparison.
             | 
             | If it rains, you can still drive, walk and cycle. If it
             | snows, your car will get stuck in the snow, your bike will
             | get stuck in the snow, and you will completely soak your
             | boots and pants as you slog through the snow.
             | 
             | Things get somewhat improved when they plough the roads,
             | but the big problem with ploughing is that it polishes the
             | road surface. So if you're walking or cycling, you're
             | constantly in danger of slipping, and it's much harder to
             | control and stop your car. And obviously if you live where
             | it snows, you have to switch between summer and winter
             | tyres twice a year in order to deal with it. Haven't heard
             | of people switching between tyres because it rains.
             | 
             | If you're walking and it snows, you basically want to wait
             | until someone ploughs the roads and then carpet bombs it
             | with grit. Grit that will stay around when the snow melts
             | and has to be cleaned up. And when they clean up the grit,
             | it kicks up a bunch of dust and you get to breathe it in.
             | 
             | I don't think the elderly start falling and breaking their
             | bones whenever a rainy season starts somewhere, but they
             | most definitely do when it starts snowing. The couple of
             | times that I've hurt myself in the past years have been
             | because of snow and ice. My grandma got put in a wheelchair
             | after breaking her leg in icy stairs.
             | 
             | That snow also has to be stored somewhere, so the sides of
             | roads, sidewalks, parking lots, will all be full of massive
             | piles of snow that will obviously eat away space that you
             | could otherwise use. A whole sidewalk might turn into a
             | one-person wide path.
             | 
             | If you're driving and it rains, it'll wipe off pretty easy.
             | If it snows, it wipes off way worse. And if it's heavy
             | snow, it will actually get stuck in the wipers and
             | basically make the wipers useless. Obviously heavy rain is
             | also an issue for visibility, but at least your wipers
             | won't stop working.
             | 
             | And when spring comes, the snow melts and everywhere it wet
             | for weeks. And since it usually fluctuates above and below
             | 0degC, that water will freeze, melt, freeze, melt, freeze,
             | melt, which is once again a shitty experience for all road
             | users.
             | 
             | There's so many downsides to snow that I can't probably
             | think of all of them right now.
        
               | t-3 wrote:
               | Those are only problems for people not used to driving
               | and walking in snow. Rain gets you wet, which is way
               | worse than any snow.
        
               | Hamuko wrote:
               | Good to know I haven't gotten used to driving and walking
               | in snow.
               | 
               | Guess what also gets you wet? Snow. It'll even get you
               | wet when it isn't snowing, since it stays on the ground,
               | and for a very long time.
        
               | t-3 wrote:
               | Not if it's cold enough ;)
        
               | ido wrote:
               | I think it really depends. Here (northern Germany) you
               | don't really get a lot of snow. So a bit of snow & the
               | accompanied very dry weather is significantly nicer than
               | the cold, damp ~0-5c rain you'd otherwise get in winter.
               | The snow usually doesn't pile up high enough to really be
               | a problem.
               | 
               | So the choice here is "slightly below 0 with a bit of
               | snow" or "slightly above 0 with rain". It's not like
               | crazy canadian levels of "a meter of snow and -30c" type
               | situation.
        
               | ProZsolt wrote:
               | There is no problem cycling in snow:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU
               | 
               | If you have proper snow you won't get wet as the snow
               | won't melt.
        
               | Hamuko wrote:
               | I don't know how many times I have been linked this
               | video, but it is several, and I imagine almost all of
               | them have never actually cycled in Finland during the
               | winter. But I have, for many years, and I can tell you
               | that it does in fact suck!
               | 
               | If the cycle paths are not plowed, you basically have no
               | forward momentum, and even if you manage to cycle in it,
               | your bike will refuse to go straight, especially when the
               | snow is wet. And if they're plowed, they're still
               | slippery to a point that wet asphalt could never be. Ever
               | had to hard stop a bicycle on the snow because a car
               | pulled in front of you? Not fun.
        
               | cameronh90 wrote:
               | It's possible, but it's still more difficult and
               | dangerous. I have cycled in Finland in the snow, and it
               | is objectively worse than in the dry or wet (albeit
               | better than it is here in the UK).
               | 
               | For example, cycling across parks or crossing between
               | lanes, there's usually the odd snow drift or edge between
               | the ploughed lanes. If you're not careful, you can lose
               | traction going across those or even it can be frozen
               | solid and you can hit it like a kerb. Then when it's just
               | starting to get cold, before the streets are being
               | gritted, you're much more vulnerable to black ice
               | patches.
               | 
               | Even on a well ploughed, gritted surface, the grip is
               | still nowhere near comparable to the rain. As a bonus,
               | the grit is really harsh on your bike's drivetrain, so
               | you have to wash your bike thoroughly every time you
               | ride.
        
               | kblev wrote:
               | Op really dislikes snow..
        
               | mrep wrote:
               | Definitely doesn't seem like a skier or snowboarder.
        
             | cameronh90 wrote:
             | Snow gets behind my glasses and into my eyes, blows into my
             | ears, and gets blown into places that rain wouldn't
             | normally reach, which then melts and gets wet.
             | 
             | This means you need to seal yourself up much more rather
             | than just getting an umbrella. It also is much more
             | difficult to cycle in and covers up the street markings.
             | 
             | I love how snow looks but then whenever I go out in it, I
             | remember how much I hate it.
        
           | Steltek wrote:
           | If you don't have a snowy winter, you probably have a
           | blistering hot summer. I can always get a beefier winter
           | jacket for the cold but in the heat, there are only so many
           | layers I can take off before being arrested.
        
             | pb7 wrote:
             | Or you're in the San Francisco Bay Area.
        
               | acchow wrote:
               | 100% this.
               | 
               | You want to look for fingerprints with no blue (and
               | ideally no dark green) and no red:
               | https://weatherspark.com/map
               | 
               | South Africa and parts of Chile looking real good
        
         | dzhiurgis wrote:
         | 82F is a lot. Auckland has solid 7 months of 23C - just perfect
         | for jandals and tshirt.
        
         | ravi-delia wrote:
         | The model is clearly simplistic, but if you made me write out
         | my ideal range of temperatures through the year, Reykjavik is
         | perhaps a few degrees too cold month by month. Centering on
         | freezing for the winter, just warm enough for a jacket during
         | the summer, it's just about ideal. Wind isn't great though,
         | I'll give you that.
        
         | ekianjo wrote:
         | Also, you can't just consider temperature without humidity. The
         | way you feel about temperature depends hugely on the humidity
         | levels in the air. This article is a very simple analysis, it's
         | a lot more complex than that if you want to make reasonable
         | choices.
        
         | quirino wrote:
         | The author's model doesn't really say that Reykjavik is a good
         | option. From my understanding, the graph shows the cities which
         | have less variation than all cities colder than them.
        
         | Nullabillity wrote:
         | It's a lot easier to deal with excessive cold than excessive
         | heat. You can only have so many clothes to remove.
        
         | twelvechairs wrote:
         | The starting point for temperature and humidity should be the
         | thermal comfort zone on a psychometric chart [0]. Wind can be
         | considered in this too (see the 'natural ventilation' section).
         | Hours of sunshine and rainfall should be separately measured.
         | 
         | [0] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/RABRuDIpRt8NxvGqB-
         | Zu...
        
         | ar0 wrote:
         | Yes, that also immediately focussed my attention... We have
         | friends from Iceland and I have since added Reykjavik to my
         | weather app -- to feel good that weather there is even more
         | miserable than where I currently am, wherever that may be.
         | 
         | An obvious topic that seems missing from "good weather" is the
         | amount and duration of rainfall.
        
         | RC_ITR wrote:
         | The universal criticism of things like this is 'you just
         | codified your preferences and tried to make it seem scientific'
         | 
         | What's scary about that is 99% of social science is just that.
        
         | acchow wrote:
         | The title is "Cities with nice weather" but in the writeup they
         | didn't even look at cities with nice weather.
         | 
         | FTA: "The area of this plot I'm most interested in is the
         | vertical slice around Toronto"
         | 
         | They were investigating cities with "average temperatures"
         | around Toronto's. Which is going to be very cold, as you
         | mentioned.
        
           | irrational wrote:
           | Yes, the title was clearly click bait. It got me to click,
           | but had nothing to do with the cities with the nicest
           | weather.
        
             | thefringthing wrote:
             | I didn't think anyone would post this to HN when I wrote
             | it, so I certainly wasn't baiting clicks, except perhaps
             | from the friends with whom I shared it directly.
        
               | gwill wrote:
               | your perception of what is "nice weather" matches up
               | great with my own. Edinburgh has nearly perfect weather
               | for my tastes.
        
         | basicform wrote:
         | Yes - be warned - this is a trap.
         | 
         | We first named Greenland Greenland to trick people to go there
         | instead of Iceland.
         | 
         | Now we want people to come - so we are manipulating math and
         | logic on a scale never seen before.
         | 
         | Be vary of any data that points to Iceland as being a good
         | place to live in terms of weather.
         | 
         | The truth is "in Iceland, the weather is trying to kill you!"
        
           | abofh wrote:
           | Not sure if true, or just a new trap laid by iceland to keep
           | me away...
        
             | basicform wrote:
             | Both.
        
           | thefringthing wrote:
           | My takeaway from reading Graenlendinga saga and Eiriks saga
           | rauda was that Iceland is where you went when you got kicked
           | out of Norway for killing too many people, and Greenland is
           | where you went when you got kicked out of Iceland for killing
           | too many people.
        
             | swasheck wrote:
             | "fall of civilizations" podcast episode 4 (https://fallofci
             | vilizationspodcast.com/2019/03/26/episode-4-...) has an
             | interesting, and alternative, take on this but to distill
             | it, like so many other episodes in the series:
             | 
             | climate change, man-made or otherwise, and the need to
             | adapt pushed humans beyond the conventional borders of
             | their tribes/clans. however, the precipitating event on the
             | move from the mainland was a lot of murder.
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | My personal preference is definitely for colder temperatures
         | than most other people would like.
         | 
         | I didn't include humidity, precipitation, wind, etc., mostly
         | because I threw this together in an hour or so and didn't
         | intend for it to be a "serious" analysis, just a novelty.
        
           | acchow wrote:
           | > My personal preference is definitely for colder
           | temperatures than most other people would like.
           | 
           | You should really check out San Francisco...
        
           | bpye wrote:
           | I'm absolutely with you. I moved from the U.K. to Vancouver,
           | BC and I've decided it's certainly at my upper bound for
           | 'warm' summers.
        
             | aaronbrethorst wrote:
             | To be fair, last summer's heat dome in the PNW felt pretty
             | close to the upper bound for habitability.
        
           | rgmerk wrote:
           | Fair enough. And it's a great discussion starter.
           | 
           | Consider my original comment a slightly impolite suggestion
           | how this might be done better, if somebody wants to have a
           | crack.
        
           | lotsofpulp wrote:
           | Temperature on its own is a meaningless metric when
           | discussing how comfortable the weather is. I'll take a dry
           | 115F than a humid 90F.
        
         | liamwire wrote:
         | As a Queenslander, the crime rate on the Gold Coast,
         | particularly around Surfers Paradise, subjectively feels a bit
         | higher than other cities of a similar size. (It's still nothing
         | too bad, nor am I looking at objective data currently.)
        
           | dwd wrote:
           | I know a few people who wouldn't live anywhere else after
           | settling in Slacks Creek up in the hills behind the Gold
           | Coast.
           | 
           | Personally I'm more a Sunshine Coast person. But the money
           | however seems to have discovered Byron Bay: A few of the
           | lower-lying coastal towns flood frequently though.
        
           | rgmerk wrote:
           | Fair enough, and that's a reasonable question for the broader
           | topic of "livability" (which as I'm sure you know there are
           | global rankings for), but I personally wasn't considering
           | "crime rates" as part of "weather".
        
             | ezzaf wrote:
             | I can just see the forecast now:
             | 
             | "Partly cloudy. Medium (40%) chance of burglary, most
             | likely later in the evening. Light winds becoming south to
             | southeasterly 15 to 20 km/h during the morning."
        
         | donavanm wrote:
         | Having spent meaningful time in Reykjavik... hard concur.
         | Seeing Dublin and Chicago in their target range simply
         | reinforces the doubt. The bad assumptions start with average
         | temp, but this is where it goes off the rails:
         | 
         | > Let's see the same plot, including only the cities within one
         | degree of Toronto's average temperature.
         | 
         | So theyre really looking at "cities with an average temp
         | similar to toronto, but lower variability." That is certainly
         | one wag to look at weather, but Id be hard pressed to accept
         | its "nice."
        
           | twox2 wrote:
           | One man's frostbite is another man's "nice weather.
        
           | scoofy wrote:
           | Seriously, if Californian coastal cities are not
           | predominantly featured, there's something wrong with the
           | methodology.
           | 
           | Whether you like chilly Eureka, temperate San Francisco,
           | moderate San Diego, or warm Los Angeles, you can't get more
           | consistent weather than out here in California.
        
           | caffeine wrote:
           | I think his desire for "lower variability" than Toronto means
           | he has gone from "sometimes bad" to "always bad" weather.
        
             | TrysterosEmp wrote:
             | Bringing Edinburgh into the mix definitely reinforces this
             | take. "I want to live somewhere that's not total shit, but
             | a bit shit... all the time"
        
           | Simon_O_Rourke wrote:
           | Well the thing about Dublin at least, you're unlikely to get
           | six foot snow banks, or Chicago style freezing winds. But
           | it's got the most bland weather both summer and winter. Never
           | been to Iceland, but I guess the clue is in the name there!
        
             | rowanajmarshall wrote:
             | Assuming Dublin is pretty similar to the UK, it's the
             | blandness that gets you. I'll take inconvenient variety
             | over months of grey, dark dampness anytime.
        
               | messe wrote:
               | Similar enough, but tends to be ever so slightly more
               | bland than even the UK. If I remember rightly Ireland has
               | the highest lows and lowest highs of anywhere in Europe.
        
             | thematrixturtle wrote:
             | Oddly, Iceland rarely if ever gets really cold and even
             | snow is mostly transient. Temps mostly hover between 0 and
             | 10 C (30-50 F), and it rains quite a bit.
             | 
             | It has often been suggested that the names of Greenland and
             | Iceland should be reversed, and/or that "Greenland" was
             | thus misnamed for marketing purposes to entice Viking
             | settlers.
        
               | pen2l wrote:
               | Iceland is cold, but a very enjoyable kind of cold.
               | There's this crispness in the air in Reykjavik which I
               | always liked a lot. It's actually super fun to walk
               | around the city or even away from the city. I dread the
               | extreme winters of American cities though.
        
               | vintermann wrote:
               | With the amount of sunlight Reykjavik gets, "Greyland"
               | might be more appropriate.
        
           | netfortius wrote:
           | After 30+ years in Chicago, I can tell you this data
           | processing approach, deriving results presented, is
           | completely wrong. Period.
        
             | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
             | Been a miserable "spring" this year...
        
               | mrep wrote:
               | It was only 90 degrees yesterday...
        
               | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
               | Yeah we went from winter to summer in a week.
        
               | searchableguy wrote:
               | It was 115F or 46 C here in the noon today.
        
           | basicform wrote:
           | No wind is factored in this equation. That kills Reykjavik.
           | 
           | From page: "Next Steps: It would be interesting to use
           | detailed time series for each city and a utility function on
           | temperatures (perhaps including wind chill and humidex) to
           | determine which cities are truly mean-variance optimal."
        
             | starik36 wrote:
             | Yep, was there in this February and while the temperature
             | is not bad (bring hand warmers), there were multiple wind
             | storms. One of them was so bad that you simply couldn't
             | walk. Otherwise a wonderful city.
        
         | yakubin wrote:
         | Different people like different weather. For me e.g. Edinburgh
         | has the perfect weather (I'm planning to move there). Where I
         | am currently (Poland), I'm miserable in the summer, when
         | humidity drops as low as 40% and temperatures get above 25degC
         | (up to 33degC, or even 42degC in some godforesaken parts of the
         | country). For me to feel comfortable, 22degC is the max (-5degC
         | is the soft min, but will also take -20degC over 30degC),
         | humidity should be at around 70% optimally (don't mind if it's
         | higher than that) and definitely not lower than 50% (breathing
         | gets less pleasant). I also prefer it when the sky is cloudy.
         | Clear blue sky makes me feel as if I was living in a Windows XP
         | wallpaper (kitchy) honestly, and it usually means in the middle
         | of the day there is too much non-diffused light around (looks
         | mildly worse aesthetically in my eyes, a lot worse on photos,
         | and subconsciously I feel attacked by the rough changes in
         | strength of light in different places, with it being really
         | intense in some places, but practically non-existent in
         | others).
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | > Different people like different weather
           | 
           | Not really, rather people get used to where they have to live
           | and then rationalize the fact that they "like it" because
           | they don't really have a choice.
        
             | alexcp_ wrote:
             | If you do a lot of outdoor sports, it's nice to have
             | different season. I do skiing in the winter and I look
             | forward to snow storm for example.
        
               | mrep wrote:
               | Totally, boat life for me in the summer and ski life for
               | me in the winter.
        
             | yakubin wrote:
             | That doesn't square with the fact that people who can
             | afford it choose wildly-different places based on weather.
             | Loads of people move from places like Edinburgh precisely
             | due to weather, and move somewhere which is hotter, drier
             | and sunnier, while I and some other people do the opposite.
        
               | hattmall wrote:
               | Other things factor into moves besides weather, even when
               | weather is a factor. Certainly there is variability but
               | it seems pretty clear that warmer, sunnier, areas are
               | most desirable based on the costs of housing.
               | 
               | When you really start looking at people with true
               | choices, i.e. the very rich, they want moderate weather
               | with hot enough summers for water sports to be a viable
               | activity, but nice enough that other outdoor activities
               | aren't prohibitively hot and extreme weather isn't a
               | concern.
               | 
               | A good example of this is Lake Oconee Georgia. It's
               | basically bumfuck nowhere yet there's a plethora of
               | multi-million dollar homes because the weather and
               | geography are what falls in the ideal range for most
               | people. So of course it's generally inaccessible to the
               | average person but the super wealthy are gating it off
               | and enjoying it.
        
             | gwill wrote:
             | people live places with various seasons and often have a
             | favorite season. Their favorite is not always the longest
             | season as well, which kind of throws out your
             | rationalization theory.
             | 
             | In fact, this post wouldn't exist if what you said is true.
        
           | s17k wrote:
           | I lived in Edinburgh for 3.5 years and rn I have moved back
           | to Poland. The summers in Edi are great for working, most of
           | the time it is very slightly below t-shirt weather. However,
           | the weather oveerall is really bland for my taste. I enjoy
           | the variety of winter snow and summer heat.
           | 
           | Also, once in a while it is _very_ windy which is not too
           | pleasant. The air feels fresh as well because it is somewhat
           | windy all the time. I remember stepping out of the plane from
           | Edinburgh once and feeling a weird sensation of quietness in
           | my ears - turned out my ears just got used to constant wind.
        
             | yakubin wrote:
             | I didn't mention it, but wind is also a plus for me. Warsaw
             | has too little wind for my taste. :)
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | I remember a colleague who I worked alongside in Edinburgh
             | commenting that his first impression coming from Spain was
             | how quickly the clouds move here.
        
       | adnmcq999 wrote:
       | >>> nice weather
       | 
       | >>> Scotland
       | 
       | You need more variables
        
         | bjarneh wrote:
         | Also Iceland/Reykjavik in the top ranking makes me agree with
         | you. I went to school with a girl from Iceland and she told me
         | school was cancelled on days with nice weather in Iceland.
         | 
         | A location where every sunny day becomes an instant holiday
         | shouldn't end up at the top of a list like that. Cool website
         | and demo of R nonetheless I guess.
        
         | raister wrote:
         | This is so very true... Funny anecdote: whilst deciding where
         | to pursue a PhD, the Univ. of Edinburgh website stated: "If you
         | are deciding based on weather, don't come here."
        
           | _Wintermute wrote:
           | The Scottish weather jokes are really tired at this point, I
           | come from Manchester and when I lived in Edinburgh I got the
           | "How do you like the Scottish weather?", but the weather in
           | Edinburgh is pretty great compared to a lot of the UK,
           | especially the western parts.
        
       | hadlock wrote:
       | Interesting to see him zero in on Cusco and Bogota. Both are
       | equatorial(esque) cities. Bogota is at 8,000 ft and Cusco is at
       | ~11,000 ft, and both have sunset within ~30 minutes of 6pm for
       | 300+ days a year. Cusco actually gets hot, but Bogota reminds me
       | a lot of san francisco. It rarely gets above 65F in the day time,
       | and 45-55F at night is pretty common. Bogota is a Real City with
       | a population of 8 million and daily flights to Madrid (Spain,
       | Europe) with full suite of services. Medellin is about a 4-6 hour
       | drive from Bogota and has a very San Diego-esque climate year
       | round.
        
       | munificent wrote:
       | Looking at the variance as a single datapoint doesn't capture
       | temperature information very well. A single rare outlier data
       | will make a city look bad even if most days are milkd.
       | 
       | I hacked together a little program to try something different. My
       | rule was to look at the daily average temperature for a bunch of
       | cities on a single year. Then count up the number of "good
       | temperature" days which I defined to be within 60degF-80degF. The
       | best cities are the ones with the most good days.
       | 
       | Based on that, looking at US cities, the top and bottom ten are:
       | 282 : San Diego, California         256 : Los Angeles, California
       | 236 : Orlando, Florida         203 : Honolulu, Hawaii         202
       | : Jacksonville, Florida         199 : West Palm Beach, Florida
       | 193 : Tampa St. Petersburg, Florida         189 : Asheville,
       | North Carolina         179 : Charleston, South Carolina
       | ...               92 : Duluth, Minnesota          91 : Casper,
       | Wyoming          89 : Concord, New Hampshire          89 : Great
       | Falls, Montana          87 : Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
       | 80 : Caribou, Maine          76 : Salt Lake City, Utah
       | 64 : Anchorage, Alaska          63 : Fairbanks, Alaska
       | 41 : Juneau, Alaska
       | 
       | That looks about right to me.
        
         | quesera wrote:
         | This is interesting. It doesn't capture humidity / heat index,
         | which would drop at least five cities (FL, SC) out of the top
         | ten.
        
           | munificent wrote:
           | Yeah, if you really want to pick a city by weather, you'd
           | want to take into account more than just temperature. Amount
           | of sunlight is important too, from cloud cover and day length
           | based on latitude.
        
         | angarg12 wrote:
         | Can you please share the code? Or show the results for other
         | continents.
        
           | munificent wrote:
           | The code is too hacky to share. Basically, I got a CSV of
           | daily average temperatures for a bunch of cities. I discarded
           | all the rows except for ones in the US and within a single
           | year.
           | 
           | Then, for each city, I just counted the number of days whose
           | temperature was within a range.
           | 
           | I had to do a little massaging because for some reason
           | Washington DC was double counted in there.
        
         | sidpatil wrote:
         | This seems related to the concept of the degree day. [1]
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_day
        
         | freediver wrote:
         | Makes sense, San Diego and anything on Hawaii is hard to beat
         | for 'comfort'. If you account for outdoor diversity then moving
         | bit north to Silicon Valley makes sense. Warmer than San
         | Francisco, with great skiing 4 hours away.
        
         | nullgeo wrote:
         | Bob, are you using the same data as the OP?
        
           | munificent wrote:
           | No idea. I just searched for "average city temperature CSV"
           | and ended up downloading some file from Kaggle.
        
           | thefringthing wrote:
           | Nope; I used the Wikipedia article I mentioned. This is a
           | different, more detailed, table of temperature data.
        
       | acchow wrote:
       | What you want to look at is "Temperature Fingerprints"
       | https://weatherspark.com/map
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | > We'll ignore any other weather characteristics like humidity,
       | rain, wind, diurnal temperature difference, etc.
       | 
       | If the author ends up moving to Edinburgh based on this, we can
       | count on seeing a follow up analysis that doesn't ignore rain.
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | I'll tolerate any amount of rain if I never have to sweat
         | through another shirt.
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | Edinburgh isn't particularly wet - there is a lot of variation
         | in rainfall levels in the UK and as Edinburgh is on the east
         | coast its not that bad:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Europe_by_pr...
        
           | smcl wrote:
           | Yeah guys here like to joke about how we're having "Scottish"
           | weather when it's raining, so it's funny to see Edinburgh
           | (704mm/year) isn't really _that_ much wetter than Prague
           | (587mm /year)
        
             | TremendousJudge wrote:
             | I have never been to Edinburgh, but mm/year isn't the best
             | way of saying if a place is wet or not. A city that has
             | that horrible misty rain two thirds of the year may not
             | score high a mm/year measure, but in reality you'll be wet
             | two days out of three.
        
               | arethuza wrote:
               | "in reality you'll be wet two days out of three."
               | 
               | I walked and cycled to work in Edinburgh for ~20 years
               | and I really didn't get wet that often, although I did
               | certainly get _drookit_ a few times.
               | 
               | Edit: I spend quite a lot of time in the areas of
               | Scotland that _are_ pretty wet ( > 3000mm/year) -
               | Edinburgh isn't anything like those.
        
               | TremendousJudge wrote:
               | Yeah, I don't know how Edinburgh is specifically, just
               | that in general I think using this measurement is hiding
               | part of the truth. In places with wet and dry seasons,
               | you might get rain for a month and the rest of the year
               | is dry, but mm/year might still be very high.
        
               | smcl wrote:
               | The wikipedia article Arethuza posted shows average
               | precipitation for European cities by month as well, so
               | you can actually see how this breaks down. For example
               | Istanbul definitely has this - it has more rain than
               | Edinburgh overall but it's concentrated in the winter
               | months. Interestingly (and as a total aside) I was there
               | in February once and was shocked when the temperature was
               | below zero, it was a relief when we escaped to Izmir and
               | it was >15C :D
        
               | smcl wrote:
               | I've noticed it rains differently on the continent. When
               | it's raining here people will often shelter in doorways
               | or bus shelters because they know it'll usually be done
               | in a few minutes and they can wait it out. Scottish rain
               | is very much a " _today_ it is raining, and that 's just
               | how it's gonna be" thing. If I'm honest it never bothered
               | me that much - a brolly will suffice in the city or a
               | waterproof on a walk in the countryside.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | Edinburgh is drier than Monaco (743.6mm/year) :-)
        
         | BucketsMcG wrote:
         | Edinburgh's not so bad for rain. Not compared to Glasgow, at
         | least.
         | 
         | The wind, however, is incessant from October to Easter, and
         | somehow is always blowing into your face. When it does rain, it
         | comes down sideways. Add wind chill to the already cool
         | temperatures and it's absolutely bitter.
         | 
         | I love Edinburgh, lived there for a few years, but it's tough
         | going.
        
           | smcl wrote:
           | > somehow is always blowing into your face
           | 
           | This might sound ridiculous but I can confirm it, really
           | peculiar
        
         | bpye wrote:
         | And daylight hours...
        
       | the_origami_fox wrote:
       | Johannesburg, South Africa. A city with many problems but
       | everyone agrees the weather is great. Average temperature per
       | month ranges from 10C to 20C. Extremes are normally between 0C
       | and 30C. (It can feel very cold when it goes below 0C because the
       | housing is not built for that.) Low humidity. It rains less than
       | 90 days a year and most of that is in short, concentrated
       | afternoon thunderstorms in the summer. I'd have expected this
       | analysis to readily propose a city like this.
        
         | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
         | > Johannesburg, South Africa. A city with many problems but
         | everyone agrees the weather is great.
         | 
         | Johannesburg's rival, Cape Town, would also lay claim to "great
         | weather".
        
           | lelanthran wrote:
           | > Johannesburg's rival, Cape Town, would also lay claim to
           | "great weather".
           | 
           | I lived in Cape Town. Would not live there again.
           | 
           | Winter is very _very_ cold, it rains _every single_ day and
           | the wind is insane, making you need warmer clothing than you
           | would think.
           | 
           | Summer is very dry, it never rains and the mountain keeps
           | catching fire which gets spread by the constant high-speed
           | winds.
           | 
           | There are advantages though: six months ago I had an
           | opportunity to relocate to CT, and realised that with the
           | amount of constant strong wind it gets, I might be able to
           | live completely off-grid using 4 - 6 wind turbines on the
           | roof of the house.
        
             | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
             | Cool rainy winters and hot dry summers are characteristic
             | of the Mediterranean climate, which is often seen as
             | "pleasant".
             | 
             | I thought you would mention that it can be hot in CT in
             | Jan-Feb, in the 30-40C range. But it's a dry heat.
             | 
             | > Winter is very very cold
             | 
             | Since it does not freeze in CT, not that cold. Not even as
             | cold as JHB.
             | 
             | > it rains every single day
             | 
             | It does not typically constant rain every day in CT in
             | winter (it's nothing like London, Dublin or Seattle in that
             | regard) instead, storms bring strong wind and rain very few
             | days, which abates and clears before the next cold front. I
             | find this preferable to e.g. London's "long months of grey
             | drizzle and dark at 4pm". It's certainly more eventful.
             | 
             | Wind speed is also not constant, and depends on where
             | exactly you are, some areas are sheltered, some spots are
             | "high-sided vehicles will blow over when there's a storm".
        
         | dwd wrote:
         | That would be if your starting point was cities in the
         | temperate/sub-tropical latitudes, but I would probably favour
         | coastal cities over inland as you get less extreme day/night
         | temperature difference.
         | 
         | Somewhere like Durbin sits right in the same band as the Tweed
         | Coast Australia (Byron Bay, etc). Gold Coast and Rio are
         | slightly more tropical, somewhere like Perth slightly less. In
         | the Northern hemisphere: San Diego, Houston, Savannah
         | (Georgia), the Canary Islands, The Levant, Kuwait and Shanghai
         | are in that zone. A little more humidity and the Bahamas,
         | Hawaii, The Whitsundays are looking pretty nice. I spent a
         | couple of years in East Malaysia and once you get used to the
         | humidity you stop checking the forecast as it's going to be 32c
         | during the day/25c at night.
         | 
         | As an aside, there could be a correlation between nice
         | temperature seaside places, and where you're mostly likely to
         | run into a Great White shark if you go swimming.
        
           | dam_broke_it wrote:
           | San Diego and Houston in the same sentence about weather,
           | dafuq????
        
         | gspr wrote:
         | As a Norwegian, I'm rather used to cold and wind. I was once in
         | Johannesburg in late-winter-early-spring. It's one of the
         | coldest experiences of my life! Indeed, the outdoor temperature
         | wasn't too bad, but the wind was constant and _what the fuck
         | why are there like centimeter-wide gaps around doors where the
         | wind just comes howling in so that you have to wear a jacket
         | indoors?!_
        
           | mskullcap wrote:
           | I am Canadian, I lived in Joburg for 2yrs. You are bang on:
           | huge gaps in doors, windows that can't fully close and
           | uninsulated homes. It was bloody cold in the winter, with my
           | indoor temp being around 10C in the morning! And of course,
           | all sorts of creepy crawlies appearing in my living room
           | (scorpions, prawns) at random times. Loved the cloudless
           | skies, however.
        
             | smcl wrote:
             | I'm guessing "prawn" is local slang for some insect,
             | because I'd only ever heard it refer to the seafood (like
             | shrimp) or those aliens in District 9
        
               | dematz wrote:
               | According to the wikipedia article they jump and shoot
               | ink and are generally very annoying, to the extent that
               | there's an april fools day story that they were
               | genetically modified...
               | 
               | one of the sources has some funny
               | stories/comics/attestations to the horror of prawns
               | https://ourfiresidestories.com/the-parktown-prawn-
               | chronicles...
        
               | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn
               | 
               | > The Parktown prawn or African king cricket
               | 
               | The term used in District 9 also comes from this
        
               | smcl wrote:
               | Oh man the pictures on the wiki don't do it justice - I
               | checked for one with scale and they're a fair size!
        
             | TremendousJudge wrote:
             | I'm from a place that (I'm told) has similar weather, and
             | it's common for people from colder climates to complain
             | about lack of insulation. The quick answer is, here you
             | don't have winters that are as cold, therefore developers
             | can get away with shoddy construction without killing its
             | inhabitants... so they do. If you built something like this
             | in Toronto, people would literally freeze to death inside,
             | so it can't be done.
             | 
             | Also, take into account that spring/summer is warmer, and
             | construction practices also have to take this into account.
        
             | lelanthran wrote:
             | > I am Canadian, I lived in Joburg for 2yrs. You are bang
             | on: huge gaps in doors, windows that can't fully close and
             | uninsulated homes. It was bloody cold in the winter, with
             | my indoor temp being around 10C in the morning! And of
             | course, all sorts of creepy crawlies appearing in my living
             | room (scorpions, prawns) at random times. Loved the
             | cloudless skies, however.
             | 
             | I live in JHB, have been for most of my life. Still not
             | used to how cold it is in the winter.
             | 
             | But the creepy crawlies? C'mon - you're in Africa, what did
             | you expect? In my experience, the benefit of moving to JHB
             | from the east coast was the _lack_ of creepy crawlies!
             | 
             | I grew up on the coast, and there's no end to the wildlife
             | (including creepy crawlies ... maybe the occasional
             | leopard).
             | 
             | The east coast of South Africa is a pain to live in;
             | monkeys frequently raid the garden, large, flying
             | cockroaches get into any food, people will frequently find
             | frogs and/or crabs getting into their pools, snakes
             | frequently getting into the house ...
             | 
             | I'd rather have the cold.
        
       | jwmoz wrote:
       | Great piece but something isn't right. Scotland is notoriously
       | crap weather, cold and wet most the time.
        
       | 404mm wrote:
       | Check out https://weatherspark.com/map
        
       | disillusioned wrote:
       | The answer is, of course, invariably, San Diego. That's the one
       | city. That's it.
        
         | mprovost wrote:
         | This was the subtle joke in "Anchorman" with Brick Tamland
         | (Steve Carell) the weatherman with an IQ of 48. You don't have
         | to be smart to predict "78 and sunny" every day.
        
         | seydor wrote:
         | It's like mediterranean with skyscrapers
        
       | yrcyrc wrote:
       | For having lived in Dublin, La Paz and spent quite some time in
       | Reykjavik, there is something really wrong with the data as
       | suggested in earlier posts. I find European cities like Cork and
       | in Brittany would fit to what he is seeking.
        
       | jkellermann wrote:
       | Nice is the one city that has 100% nice weather...
        
         | dullcrisp wrote:
         | Anywhere else it's sparkling weather
        
       | FargaColora wrote:
       | Interesting cultural difference on what is "nice" weather.
       | 
       | For me, a good city should have seasonality, that is the "joy of
       | life". The changing of the seasons and the cycle through life is
       | what makes me happy. Snowy winter days, the springtime change,
       | endlessly long summer days, and the first cool autumn breeze as
       | the colours change.
        
         | matsemann wrote:
         | Agreed. The dark and snowy times bring a certain coziness I
         | wouldn't want to miss.
        
         | FabHK wrote:
         | I have friend and colleagues in Singapore, which they describe
         | as having two seasons: rainy and dry. They alternate every 15
         | minutes or so.
         | 
         | After some years, yes, many miss the seasons very much.
        
         | yamazakiwi wrote:
         | Part of the problem of where I live is the seasons of Winter
         | and Summer seem to be extending and the time for Spring and
         | Fall (The best seasons) appear to be shrinking.
        
       | awsrocks wrote:
        
       | killjoywashere wrote:
       | See also The Well-Tempered Traveler (1), code (2) with prior
       | discussion (3).
       | 
       | (1) https://www.google.com/welltemperedtraveler/
       | 
       | (2) https://github.com/lmanul/welltemperedtraveler
       | 
       | (3) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27841209
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | This is a neat tool/visualization!
        
       | jupp0r wrote:
       | Humidity is completely missing in this analysis. 80F (27C) can be
       | either extremely pleasant or borderline miserable, depending on
       | relative humidity.
        
         | BloominOnion wrote:
         | 100% I'm in Melbourne so summers are usually a dry heat that
         | can go into the mid-high 30's often. Send me up to the Gold
         | Coast where the humidity is much greater and I'll struggle in
         | the high 20's low 30's
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | soared wrote:
       | I always love to see data analysis on tolerable weather. I've
       | done a lot of research on weather in the US and its a perpetually
       | challenging problem. There are a small list of cities where its
       | consistently nice (Solely in california and miami), and a larger
       | list of cities that are have 4 nice seasons. But the data will
       | never tell you the full story - Denver doesn't rank incredibly
       | well in the data but the winters are mild and the summers
       | surprisingly hot because its always sunny and closer to the sun.
       | SLC ranks well, but has unbearable smog. It seems that every city
       | has caveats that can't be captured in the data. Portland
       | seemingly has great weather.. when its not raining.
        
         | kortilla wrote:
         | >Denver doesn't rank incredibly well in the data but the
         | winters are mild and the summers surprisingly hot because its
         | always sunny and closer to the sun.
         | 
         | Difference in distance to the sun is completely negligible.
         | Maybe you're thinking of UV index?
        
           | VLM wrote:
           | Its a smog/fog effect.
           | 
           | Lots more hot sunlight at the top of the mountain than on the
           | coast.
        
           | soared wrote:
           | UV index is definitely a more accurate representation. I had
           | to look it up because people always say it's the elevation,
           | which turns out to be partly true.
           | 
           | The link below says an increase of 2% for every 1000 feet, so
           | most of Denver gets 10% more uv index because it's closer to
           | the sun (more accurately higher elevation/less atmosphere).
           | 
           | https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/uviguide.p.
           | ..
        
           | silisili wrote:
           | I keep seeing that same reason listed in tons of
           | places(mainly forums and blogs), but can't make sense of it.
           | 
           | Earth is like 94 million miles from the sun, I'm not sure how
           | people reason a few thousand feet somehow puts you too close
           | to the sun.
        
             | jschulenklopper wrote:
             | Well, there's less air between you and the sun. Most of
             | that 94 million miles are void of anything
             | blocking/filtering light. The last 10 miles aren't. It
             | likely makes a difference if it only 8-9 miles.
        
         | L_Rahman wrote:
         | Miami is gross and sticky even in March and I'm surprised it's
         | listed next to Californian cities.
        
           | soared wrote:
           | Miami has some weird weather patterns where it's always
           | humid, but the temperature never reaches triple digits so you
           | don't have the crazy hot muggy unbearable summers like the
           | Midwest.
        
         | thakoppno wrote:
         | > caveats that can't be captured in the data
         | 
         | hold up - this tiny part of your comment strikes me as the
         | essential issue facing tech in this era.
        
         | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
         | Santa Fe springs: glorious temperatures, murderous winds for 6
         | weeks or more.
        
           | dam_broke_it wrote:
           | SW Colorado -- same :/
        
       | speedgoose wrote:
       | Nice has the most Nice weather.
        
         | seydor wrote:
         | 69 degrees?
        
       | hsn915 wrote:
       | The SF Bay Area has the nicest weather year round, which is
       | probably a strong contributing factor to why the area is so rich.
       | 
       | I'm currently in Tokyo. The temparetrue is not the nicest year
       | round, but it feels very natural. There are four seasons. Winter
       | is tolerable and it rarely goes below 0C. It snows about once a
       | year. Summer is hot, just like it should be, but it hardly goes
       | above 32C.
       | 
       | The only thing that bothers me is the rainy season in the summer.
        
         | jandrewrogers wrote:
         | San Diego is the gold standard for nice weather in California
         | (and most of the planet), it is significantly better than the
         | San Francisco area. I've lived in both and it isn't
         | particularly close.
        
         | aliz64 wrote:
         | I live here in South Bay and while I do love the weather, it is
         | a bit colder than ideal.
         | 
         | I think SoCal especially San Diego definitely has better and
         | more consistent weather. San Diego is an amazing city apart
         | from weather as well!
         | 
         | Meanwhile my childhood hometown is not dipping below 30C this
         | week, and the highs every day are above 43C...
        
           | beowulfey wrote:
           | Yeah I think no question San Diego has the best weather of
           | CA, followed by maybe Santa Barbara. South Bay LA (on the
           | coast, not to be confused with South Bay, Bay area) is also
           | usually really great and consistent year-round but if you go
           | inland at all the weather can be dramatically different.
        
             | asdff wrote:
             | Anywhere on the southern californian coast has perfect
             | weather. The seabreeze keeps things from ever breaching 85*
             | even in the strongest heat waves.
        
               | rcpt wrote:
               | Long Beach gets the most sea breeze south of Ventura
        
               | asdff wrote:
               | But you also get all the air pollution from the port of
               | LA/LB, so thats why prices don't necessarily reflect the
               | access like they do over in redondo beach or down in OC.
               | Can't do anything about much of it either. When the city
               | wanted to remove that breakwater recently that pins water
               | pollution to the beach and killed the surf scene when
               | they erected it decades ago, the navy said no, should
               | they ever need to load explosives into battleships near
               | downtown long beach.
        
           | kylehotchkiss wrote:
           | Currently in San Diego with the windows and doors open,
           | enjoying the slightly cool air coming in. Great place to live
           | and seems like more tech companies are moving down. Sadly the
           | housing and rent are becoming increasingly inaccessible.
        
             | lisper wrote:
             | Water too.
        
               | crftr wrote:
               | I applaud the San Diego Water Authority's efforts to
               | diversify their sources. The Carlsbad desalination plant
               | receives the most local coverage, but it's the
               | investments in reclamation that will be vital in the
               | coming decades.
        
         | gnulinux wrote:
         | I personally find SF Bay Area weather terrible, terrible. SF
         | has the same weather year round and it is as follows:
         | 
         | * Uncomfortably warm during the day
         | 
         | * Uncomfortably cold during the night
         | 
         | * A lot of unpredictable and long-running showers, rain and fog
         | 
         | * A lot of cold wind year-round (especially summer, see below)
         | 
         | I found the following quote by Mark Twain very accurate:
         | 
         | > The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
         | Francisco.
         | 
         | I also personally experienced that, although summers and
         | winters in SF have the same weather (as explained above)
         | somehow summers tend to be _colder_ especially during night and
         | in shades.
         | 
         | I think it just sucks. If you like that's great.
        
           | rcpt wrote:
           | Also fire month
        
           | eitally wrote:
           | It's disingenuous to conflate SF's micro-climate with the
           | entirety of the bay area. I agree that SF weather is
           | insufferable, and I live in San Jose, which is entirely
           | different ... and different again that the mid/upper-
           | peninsula, or the Santa Cruz Mountains, or Marin, or
           | Berkeley.
           | 
           | I think what a lots of folks don't understand until they're
           | living here is exactly how different things are in different
           | areas around the bay.
           | 
           | Generally speaking, I think south bay weather is
           | approximately ideal, if it wasn't for fire season, which can
           | ruin entire summers & falls depending.
        
             | mustacheemperor wrote:
             | Even within SF the weather can be pretty variable depending
             | on what part of the city you're in. My friend living in
             | Richmond has a nice view of the ocean, theoretically, but
             | it's pretty cold and cloudy out in the yard for a lot of
             | the year. I live in the southeast side of the city near
             | Hunter's Point, and we probably have totally overcast days
             | in the single digits, it's basically always sunny and 70
             | during the day. It does get really windy for a good chunk
             | of the day for a good chunk of the year, but our warmest
             | days are during the spring and summer when that dies down.
             | 
             | My guess is when the candlestick park / shipyard
             | redevelopment happens this is going to be prime residential
             | real estate, it's the best weather in the city IMO.
        
           | pb7 wrote:
           | It's amazing how one comment can have so much wrong with it.
           | Long running showers? Downright hilarious. It doesn't rain a
           | drop here 9 months out of the year. When it does, it barely
           | qualifies as a sprinkle. You could walk outside for 20
           | minutes and not even get soaked. "Cold wind" is the breeze
           | that makes every day feel amazing and fresh.
           | 
           | >I found the following quote by Mark Twain very accurate:
           | 
           | > > The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
           | Francisco.
           | 
           | He never said this.
           | 
           | I love it but any reason that gets people out of here is
           | great for me.
        
             | gnulinux wrote:
             | I lived in Berkeley for about 5 years and this was my
             | experience. Some comments here argue SF Bay Area has
             | different climates in different regions. I never realized
             | this, but if it's true it might explain gaps in my comment
             | (I still fully stand by it. No long running showers? Did we
             | even live in the same place? Berkeley famously has days-
             | long powder-like showers! I was absolutely sick of them
             | when I was living there.)
        
           | danenania wrote:
           | It doesn't really make sense to talk about "SF Bay Area
           | weather" given that most days there's a 10-30 degree
           | difference between the coldest and warmest parts of the
           | region. If you're near the coast in the summer, a typical
           | "warm day" is mid-to-high 60s, while it's 75-80 in
           | Oakland/Berkeley and 90s in Walnut Creek.
           | 
           | I lived in west SF (near Golden Gate Park/Presidio) for 2
           | years and I can count the days it was "uncomfortably warm" on
           | one hand.
           | 
           | It's not really the same year round either. Summer is by far
           | the windiest and foggiest season, which is why it feels cold
           | despite a higher base temp (but again, depends where you
           | are).
        
           | dam_broke_it wrote:
           | Microclimates....try googling it :/
        
         | L_Rahman wrote:
         | Tokyo summers are miserable, as are the ones in Seoul and New
         | York City. I have lived in all three and every July/August I
         | wonder if this is the year I start cooling off in Bogota for a
         | month.
        
           | hsn915 wrote:
           | I'm from the Middle East and I kinda love the hot summer.
           | Tokyo's summers feel just right to me. Hot but not
           | intolerable.
        
             | keerthiko wrote:
             | all my american friends find it ridiculous, but yes, having
             | lived my childhood in heat that you can _see_ rising off
             | the ground in the middle east, i love the pleasant 30-35C
             | summers of NYC where i live now, especially when combined
             | with the daylight deep into  "night", like 8-9pm in June-
             | August
        
               | rr808 wrote:
               | > 30-35C summers of NYC Is OK if you're on the beach. If
               | you're wearing a suit on a underground platform its
               | miserable.
        
         | baby wrote:
         | I couldn't disagree more, SF's weather is capricious (you
         | always need a sweater, and be prepared to remove it and wear it
         | back as you walk along the city and its many microclimates) and
         | never warm enough (you like wearing shorts, flip flops, skirts,
         | dresses, or just hang out in the evenings in the park? Nope,
         | not going to happen). Because it's never warm enough, or cold
         | enough, nobody has a heater or an AC, and when hot or cold days
         | happen you're in for a real treat in your home.
         | 
         | I'm just saying that it's not for everyone, I'm looking to move
         | out and weather is a big reason. I want to be able to drink and
         | enjoy being in a park in the evening with my friends.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | rendaw wrote:
         | I hear "Japan has four seasons" a lot living there, but I don't
         | get it. It definitely has summer. Leaves take 8 months to
         | gradually fall from trees (if they fall at all) before summer
         | starts again. There's no snow. And obviously there's no
         | snowmelt or sudden greening in the spring.
         | 
         | You might be able to make the claim if your four seasons are
         | "Summer, Typhoon season, Rainy season, Not-summer".
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | There is snow in Japan close enough pretty much everywhere in
           | the country if you are willing to drive a bit. For example,
           | there's not much snow in Osaka but a lot in Kyoto and a lot
           | around Nagoya, which are close enough.
        
           | zzbzq wrote:
           | Obsessing over having 4 seasons is a theme that comes up in
           | several cultures and I believe it is probably an ancient
           | relic from when agrarianism was a nascent lifestyle upon
           | which to base a civilization. Some nomadic cultures are
           | similarly obsessed with the 4 cardinal directions.
        
         | bogomipz wrote:
         | Did you move there from SF? Do you work in tech? I'd be curious
         | to hear how it is if so. My understanding is that they just
         | announced they are going to let international travelers back in
         | June.
        
           | woutr_be wrote:
           | They haven't made a final decision yet regarding allowing
           | international travelers, but as far as I understand it,
           | they'll only allow tour groups first, and only the month
           | after open up for tourists.
           | (https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Japan-
           | weighs-w...)
        
           | presentation wrote:
           | I moved from SF, I work in tech, it is awesome (but don't
           | work for a Japanese company unless you want to get underpaid
           | and overworked, foreign firms are much better).
        
             | bogomipz wrote:
             | Did you transfer then with a company you were already
             | working for? Tokyo?
        
           | hsn915 wrote:
           | I believe you can now enter Japan for the purpose of working,
           | if you have a job offer.
           | 
           | There are several tech companies that speak English
           | internally. You can google for Tokyo Dev Jobs or Japan Dev
           | Jobs and a few websites will popup.
           | 
           | Edit:
           | 
           | https://www.tokyodev.com/jobs/
           | 
           | https://japan-dev.com/jobs/
        
         | seizethecheese wrote:
         | Sounds like Seattle weather, except summer is dry here.
        
           | foota wrote:
           | I think Tokyo is quite a bit warmer in the summer. Compare
           | https://weatherspark.com/y/143809/Average-Weather-in-
           | Tokyo-J... and https://weatherspark.com/y/913/Average-
           | Weather-in-Seattle-Wa...
        
             | Loic wrote:
             | WeatherSpark is wonderful both for the data and the quality
             | of the visualisation.
        
         | closeparen wrote:
         | The Bay Area was only marginally more expensive than average 10
         | years ago, whereas now it's at least 3x. Did the weather get
         | that much better?
        
           | lotsofpulp wrote:
           | Probably not, but people with money who are able to bid for
           | land there probably did get 3x+ richer.
        
         | dkasper wrote:
         | The main problem with the California coast is that the water is
         | so cold. Between NorCal and SoCal there is pretty much an ideal
         | weather zone for everyone.
        
           | benttoothpaste wrote:
           | That cold water is partly responsible for California's
           | perfect weather. A warmer sea would produce some undesirable
           | weather phenomena like hurricanes.
        
           | Fatnino wrote:
           | The water is indeed cold most places here. But once you get
           | down to Santa Barbara or better yet Long Beach you can find
           | the occasional beach with warm water.
           | 
           | It's some combination of the very deep water being rather
           | near shore and beaches that get directly blasted with the
           | cold water streaming down the coast from Alaska.
           | Remove/minimize those 2 factors and you can start finding
           | warm water.
        
             | holler wrote:
             | In San Diego around late August / early Sept you can find
             | some really warm water relatively speaking. Particularly I
             | used to enjoy going down to La Jolla cove and snorkeling
             | around that time, with temps reaching up to 75f, which
             | feels like bath water for the Pacific Ocean. Fairly certain
             | I've experienced warmer than that a few times growing up.
        
           | Fnoord wrote:
           | Cold water is only a problem the first few minutes. After
           | that, it is refreshing. You find that out every single time
           | you gave it a go and stayed. But when you don't, or the one
           | time you went in and out immediately, are the times you
           | remember when you don't have enough data points where you
           | stayed.
        
       | EdwardDiego wrote:
       | Running this with wet bulb/dry bulb temperatures would
       | interesting.
       | 
       | In our spring/summer it can get into the mid thirties (celsius),
       | where I live, which is definitely hot, but it typically comes
       | with minimal humidity.
       | 
       | Whereas our biggest city might hit 25 degrees max, but the
       | humidity feels to me like the entire city had a shower and didn't
       | turn on the extractor fans.
       | 
       | So I definitely prefer the dry heat to the humid.
        
       | tenuousemphasis wrote:
       | I've also been thinking about relocating due to climate (and
       | projected future climate). I came across this website which shows
       | condenses daily and annual temperatures into a sort of sparkline
       | graph.
       | 
       | https://weatherspark.com/
        
       | vishnugupta wrote:
       | No Bangalore on the list!? Of course I'm partial to the city
       | being my home base. But really, having seen and lived in a
       | diverse climatic places, Bangalore comes close to being the
       | perfect climate. No snow but one can't be too greedy :-)
        
       | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
       | This seems to miss out the broader dimensions of "nice weather".
       | 
       | For example, 39F/3.8C on a cloudy winter day on the US east coast
       | is entirely different than the same temperatures in the (intense)
       | sun and low humidity of the high desert in the US southwest.
       | 
       | Conversely, 78F/25.5C in May in the US southwest on a windy day
       | is totally miserable to be out in, because the wind can hit
       | sustained bursts of 25mph/40kmh with much higher gusts, whereas
       | the same temperature on a sunny May day in London might be
       | paradise.
        
         | DeathArrow wrote:
         | That's correct, humidity and wind can also affect the feeling.
         | 25 C can feel like 20C if it's windy or feel like 30C if
         | humidity is high.
         | 
         | I would take 20 to 25C,low humidity and low wind speed. :)
        
       | jverrecchia wrote:
       | I made a free website called City Filter that aggregates a lot of
       | data from cities around the world and lets you filter them by
       | different criteria including temperature and rain, but also
       | safety, development, population, distance from your location,
       | etc.
       | 
       | If your goal is to identify your favorite cities based on your
       | own criteria, you will definitely like it:
       | 
       | https://www.city-filter.com
        
       | anonymousDan wrote:
       | As much as I like them I'm not sure I'd be moving to Edinburgh or
       | Dublin for the weather! Of the places I've lived, San Diego has a
       | great climate.
        
       | tintedfireglass wrote:
       | Come to Bangalore, temperate weather with tropical climate. You
       | can't find it anywhere else ;)
        
       | DeathArrow wrote:
       | I would settle for an ideal temperature, let's say 20 C and see
       | the cities which have lowest variations based on that.
        
       | alkonaut wrote:
       | Let's zoom in on the interesting bit.
       | 
       |  _zooms in on Edinburgh, Dublin and Reykjavik_
       | 
       | My gut feeling tells me high altitude southern cities are stable
       | around "room temperature" (like Mexico City and La Paz) but if
       | one doesn't mind 30C for a few weeks, then of course a lot more
       | cities in the Mediterranean, California, Australia etc are also
       | in play.
       | 
       | I take it the person writing the article prefers _anything_ ,
       | including a constant drab rain, to ever having -15C or +30C.
        
         | thefringthing wrote:
         | > I take it the person writing the article prefers anything,
         | including a constant drab rain, to ever having -15C or +30C.
         | 
         | That's about right. I don't mind -15C so much but don't care
         | for anything below about -20C or above 20C. I don't like rain
         | either but I think I'd put up with it for a narrow enough
         | temperature band.
        
       | el_dipster wrote:
       | can you do this for climate change (rising sea waters)
        
       | dbg31415 wrote:
       | Similar tool.
       | 
       | https://vividmaps.com/cities-with-similar-climates/
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | spicyusername wrote:
       | Weather spark is a nice resource for comparing weather
       | 
       | https://weatherspark.com/
        
       | steanne wrote:
       | missing diurnal air temperature variation, for me.
        
       | physhster wrote:
       | Lower variability isn't a very good indicator of good weather at
       | all. Humidity, median vs. average yearly temp, annual sunshine,
       | and precipitation are more useful IMHO.
        
         | corrral wrote:
         | Humidity's the thing I have trouble finding good info about.
         | Weather maps of humidity don't seem to do a good job of
         | matching with what's actually perceived. But 85F and humid
         | feels a hell of a lot worse than 95F and dry, so as far as
         | Summer (and to some extent, Spring and Fall) characteristics
         | go, I'd consider humidity by far the most important factor in
         | whether Summer's basically pleasant, or completely miserable.
        
       | Lio wrote:
       | Cities with Nice weather?
       | 
       | Well, Nice would be the top of that list surely.
       | 
       | Where's Nice-ier than Nice?
        
       | bogomipz wrote:
       | I would interested to see or hear about "walkable" cities with
       | nice weather. I feel like that's the dream.
        
         | hgomersall wrote:
         | That and pleasant greenery. No use being lovely and warm if
         | everything is dead and brown. Rain is a necessary part of the
         | discussion here.
        
       | simonebrunozzi wrote:
       | Data alone is not enough. Or, you should have lots of it, and use
       | and weigh it properly.
       | 
       | Temperature, humidity, winds, sunlight, duration and intensity of
       | rain, clouds... The list goes on and on.
       | 
       | And what about pollution? Milan is one of the most polluted
       | cities in Europe, and people wouldn't guess it. You could have
       | nice weather, be outside, and not enjoy breathing (Milan is still
       | ok, there are much worse places like New Delhi).
        
       | seibelj wrote:
       | Boston is the land of extremes. The winters are cold, windy, full
       | of snow, and too long. The summers are absurdly humid and hot.
       | The fall is so beautiful it's the most fall you have ever seen.
       | Perhaps spring is a tad mundane, I'll admit.
       | 
       | Boston (and Massachusetts itself) has the most character of any
       | state, and the people are quite unique in various capacities. It
       | is #1 in biotech, education, and healthcare and #2 in finance and
       | software. For the size of its population it punches well above
       | its weight in importance.
       | 
       | To circle back, I think the weather has something to do with it.
       | Tough weather makes tough people. Locals can be gruff at first
       | but if you learn how to break through they are far nicer than New
       | Yorkers.
        
       | kart23 wrote:
       | This person has not been to socal if that's your top ten.
        
       | 0xbadcafebee wrote:
       | You're never going to find a perfect city. If it's not the
       | weather that bugs you, it's something else. Don't spend your time
       | trying to find the perfect fit. Rather, spend your time on
       | accepting the world as it is and adapting to it. Then you'll be
       | happy anywhere, anytime.
        
         | corrral wrote:
        
       | axus wrote:
       | Somewhere like Dubai can have pleasant weather for 7 months, 99%
       | of the time. And very bad weather for 4 months, 95% of the time.
       | 
       | Where I live might have objectionable weather on 70% of the days,
       | but they are more spread out and not as extreme, and the plants
       | can tolerate it. Dubai would still win on "number of pleasant
       | days".
        
       | bumbledraven wrote:
       | https://weatherspark.com/ has wonderful visualizations of many
       | different aspects of location-specific weather, including
       | humidity, temperature, wind, and precipitation, and clouds.
        
       | bmy78 wrote:
       | As someone who lives in the US Northeast with its biting winters,
       | San Diego and Los Angeles's yearlong climate seems like a dream.
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-13 23:03 UTC)