What's your climate like?

[Harve]

Because i'm a bit of a weather nerd, and we have members from all over the place, AND i've not seen one of these before, i thought it'd be a decent topic yeah?

As far as this country goes, i think my area gets the best weather. To get to the highest town in britain you have to go downhill, which would explain our comparatively snowy winters (as in, snowdrifts lasting from Christmas till March this winter, which i realise is nothing compared to Canada/USA etc.) If there's ever snow at sea level they'll always be at least twice as much here, it's amazing tbh <3. People say it rains a lot but it really doesn't, it just tends to be constant drizzle over a long time. Our summers are the coldest in Europe, which suits me well because anything over 20C/70F is too warm.
I would like colder winters though, the west coast of canada or something would suit me greatly.

[Chandra]

I'm a bit of a weather nerd too.

The Okanagan Valley is considered a desert in the summer - very dry and hot (it can get upwards of 40C). Winters are milder than in most parts of Canada, usually a few degrees below zero, although it can drop down to -20C or so. We usually get a moderate amount of snow. This past winter, however, was bizarre - it snowed a few times in December, then melted, and then from mid-January onwards... nothing. The temperature stayed at around 5 to 7C right up until the spring. We basically had no winter this year.

FYI - the west coast of Canada is generally wet and cloudy in the winter rather than cold and snowy. You're better off heading for the east coast or the Prairies if you want a cold, snowy winter.

[MusicIsLife]

Gotta love canada, we know winter.

Theres snow on the ground in montreal usually from late november to late march, but snow in april is not unheard of. the coldest ive seen it here is -40C, and the hottest +40. the usual temperature is around the mid +20s in summer, and -20s in winter, though our summers are usually very humid, and winter in february tends to be dry and very cold.

autumn and spring are my favourite times of the year, because its right in between. but i tend to like spring better as my birthday is in spring

[Maddy]

I'm in one of the cooler parts of Australia, but our summers are still pretty warm - it's very frequently over 30 C (86 F), not uncommonly over 35 C (95F), and the hottest it's been was 46.4 C (115.5 F). Our winters are mild, though, usually the maximum temperature's somewhere between 10 and 15 C (50 and 59 F) and it doesn't drop below freezing much. I've never seen snow.

[Lychee]

Yeah, I live in the same place as Maddy
It's rather dry, however we do have some massive thunder storms every now and then. Small earthquakes are not uncommon.
Our weather is odd. Like this year it feels like the weather has changed from summer to winter bypassing Autumn, however today was really hot. It's a bit strange.

[Ben]

I live in the UK too ^_^ Down in the South West.

I think it's warmer here on average than the UK? The average temperature in July is usually about 20°C which is waaaaay too frazzling for me.
The wind depends on where you are. It's very windy where I catch the bus because that's right by the sea and it feels like you're going to get thrown over sometimes, especially in the winter.
We get quite a bit of flooding around here. Not in my village though~. :')

But I guess the UK's climate is far less temperamental than the rest of the world. We don't get natural disasters and the temperature never gets too deathly cold or too deathly warm.

[Maddy]

What temperatures would you guys consider "cold", "cool", "warm" and "hot"?

I'd call below 15 C (59 F) cold, 20 C (68 F) cool, about 27 C (80 F) warm, and over about 35 C (95 F) hot. Between 20 and 25 is about my favourite temperature, it's a nice spring or autumn day.

[pirateninja]

Home in the West Midlands is pretty much either; rainy, cold, rainy and cold or cold even when it's sunny.

However, at Uni, I have to reiterate Ben's point; the South West is much warmer than anywhere else I've been So sunny skies should be on the menu

[the ry guy]

ITS HOT!?! Iraq BLOWS

[Sylver]

I am another member of the weather nerd club! I'm an official severe weather spotter here... we get tornadoes from time to time... a couple of years ago we had the strongest tornado in Canada's recorded history just a few miles outside of the city... it was rated an F5. Fortunately no one was killed but it evaporated part of a town... But the summer thunderstorms across the prairies can be awesome...

I've heard that we may get the largest temperature swings here of anywhere on earth. We usually get down to -35c each winter, and up to +35c each summer. I've seen it as cold as -43 here (that's actual temperature - with the windchill we've had -60) and as high as +40 in summer. In fact a couple of years ago we set the all-time hottest "humidex" reading in Canada with +53c!! So yeah, it gets very cold and very hot here.

[xequar]

The State of Michigan in the United States is a very unique place for weather. Because of the Great Lakes, our weather is very hard to predict and changes rapidly enough that the common phrase here is, "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes". It is entirely common to use the heater and A/C in your car on the same day.

From a climate standpoint, we're a lot like most of Canada, except with more random swings in weather because of the lakes. During the summer, we normally get above 20C/70F pretty easily, and it's not uncommon to get days above 30C/85F. Our summers are humid, again because of the lakes, so we get random thunderstorms and stuff too. Our winters are cold. Pretty much from the beginning of December to the end of February we're never above 0C/32F, and it's not uncommon to be in the single digits F (below -10C) for weeks at a time. We get all sorts of snow, with the west side of the state getting hammered with lake effect snow and the Upper Penninsula being one of the snowiest places in the United States, again because of the lakes. Some places in the state average over 150 inches of snow per year. Even the less-snowy places in the state average over 30 inches of snow per year.

[Lexington]

I actually was going to go into meteorology in college, but never did.

Denver has some rather bizarre weather due to its positioning. (Although, judging from this thread, I'm starting to think EVERY place has bizarre weather due to its positioning.) Really high mountains to the west, and high-level plains in all other directions. Because most weather systems move from west to east, the majority of rain and snow gets dumped on the mountains, and we get whatever's left. It's not unusual to be sunny and warm in Denver, but still be able to actually see the huge clouds dumping snow on the mountains.



Winter time usually kicks in early - around November - and can last through March. During that time, our average high temperature is only about 45 or 50F on a warm day, and 30F or so on a cold one. We usually get snow maybe once a week, and most snowfalls are about an inch or so. During the winter, we usually get a couple decent-sized snowfalls (3-6 inches), and often get exactly one pounding (over 6 inches). For whatever reason, these huge snowfalls always seem to fall right at the beginning of the winter, or right at the end. So we're far more likely to see a foot of snow in November or March (or even April) than we are in January. The advantage to this is that our regular high temperatures during those months are warmer, so within a day or two, all the snow melts away.



Spring usually has at least one "false start". The temperature starts hitting 60 or 65 regularly, people break out the shorts, get the barbecue ready...and then we get four inches of snow. But eventually, spring kicks into full gear, and things get green again. Before long, summer overtakes it. Our high temperatures usually are around 90F, but hitting 100 once or twice a summer isn't at all uncommon.

Summer also brings the ever-popular "afternoon thunderstorms". Weather geeks can explain the hows and whys, but let's just say it's not a surprise to get a sprinkle and a few booms each evening sometime between 4 and 8pm. Most of them are pretty benign, but they CAN get dangerous. I've experienced flash floods (yes, even a mile up!), tornadoes, and massive hailstorms. None of which are common, but they're all possibilities.

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

And yes, having been caught out in hailstorms, I can say with certainty that it hurts like hell. As I said, mainly it's just a sprinkle and a few distant rumbles, though.

One positive effect - killer rainbows. Denver showing gay pride, y'all!



Autumn starts around September (I've seen snowstorms as early as Sept 3rd!), but we often have an "Indian summer" where the warm weather lasts until mid-October. The leaves start changing color (OK, they start revealing their real colors when the chlorophyl runs out - must you be so literal?), and many Colorado families take a trip up to the mountains to view the pretty trees.



Then the snow starts, and we're back where we started.

[malachite]

I'm Florida, and oddly it got cool again. Usually its humid as hell right now

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Home of the freak weather. The weather can go from a sunny clear sky to a blizzard in a matter of hours. We have long winters and short summers.

Winter

November - April
Our winter is considered mild to some other cities in Canada. Temperatures usually around the -15'C to -20'C but we also get Chinook Winds, which are warm winds from the mountains that can bring the temperature up to +15'C. It's not unusual to see it go from +15'C to -20'C in a day. Wind chill is usually what makes it bad. We usually have at least 1 day in winter where the wind chill can make it feel like it's -40'C. We generally have low precipitation in the winter, where you often have "brown" Christmas' but we sometimes get freak blizzards that pretty much stops the city.
This winter was considered very warm, we usually have snow til April and this year it started to get warm in February.


December 6th, 2009 (Took me 3 hrs to get to work the next day)

Summer

June - August
Again, pretty mild summers compared to other places. Temperatures are usually around 20'C - 25'C with it rarely going over 30'C. Summer is our wet season, we usually get a lot of rainfall in May-June. With the nice weather, we usually have more festivals in the summer time than winter time. Our biggest one in the Calgary Stampede which is the during the 2nd week of July and goes on for 10 days. It hosts the world's largest outdoor rodeo, Midway, Games, Shows, Concerts and more.

Calgary Stampede - Midway

Fall and Spring are pretty much non-existent. Fall is considered September-October and Spring is pretty much just May.

[SaturdaySaviour]

Mediterranean climate: hot, dry summers (maximum air temperature in July reaches 42 °C) and warm, wet winters. (copied from wiki XD)

Split is situated on a peninsula and is surrounded by the sea and a mountain. Every couple of years you're lucky enough to see the city covered with snow and it lasts only for a day... or less. One really annoying thing about summer here are the hot nights, the air often feels heavy and stale, if that makes sense.

People are prone to mood changes depending on which wind is blowing. Or maybe it's just me.

[Windmills]

I'm from the Atlantic coast of Virginia. Winters aren't very wintery--most years we don't get any snow and it's rarely below freezing. The winter average is probably about 50F/10C. But the temperature fluctuates like crazy in the winter--it's normal to be 40F one day and 70F the next in January. This year winter was actually pretty cold for home--and there were a few snow "storms" (Virginia Beach got I think at most 4 or 5 inches at once---the rest of Virginia was hit really hard though on multiple occasions--central and northern Virginia actually got more snow than central New York, where I go to school).

Summers are humid (like the whole east coast of the US) and hot--average in June-Aug is about 85F/30C, but there are generally a few days where it's around 100F (without factoring in the humidity). Generally lots of thunderstorms in the summer, but hurricanes rarely make it up that far with much life left in them.

Our winters are a bit warmer than those in the rest of Virginia (where it does get below freezing and can snow a decent amount) and our summers a tiny bit cooler due to the moderating effects of the ocean.

[MusicIsLife]

Originally Posted by Myke

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Home of the freak weather.

Truer words have never been spoken. You forgot the snow in august!

To me hot would be anything above 25C, warm would be anything between 15 and 20C, cool 15-5C, and cold -20 to -30C

[Chandra]

Originally Posted by Maddy

What temperatures would you guys consider "cold", "cool", "warm" and "hot"?

cold < 20C

(I think I'm amphibious...)

[Harve]

Originally Posted by Lexington

Yeah i want your climate over all the others, those pics/videos are incredible, but this one in particular is pretty insane and the only one i've not seen something similar of before.

Back onto snow, when it does actually snow, it really does snow. January 2010:

1979:


June 2009:


I've very happy with it never being below -10 or above 30C though, especially the last one.

Cold - -5C, Cool - 5C, Warm - 15C, Hot - 25C with it rapidly getting unbearable following that.

Originally Posted by MusicIsLife

Truer words have never been spoken. You forgot the snow in august!

To me hot would be anything above 25C, warm would be anything between 15 and 20C, cool 15-5C, and cold -20 to -30C

Oh yes I forgot about that, that was a while back.

And pretty much agreed with the temps.