Where the sun don't shine.
November 13, 2014 6:58 AM Subscribe
What are some cities that are more likely than not to have weather?
I have a weather app on my phone (LG G2) that displays animations of the current weather for a given city. It maxes out at 20, so I'm looking to add 19 locations that are more likely to have weather than clear skies.
I'm hoping for geographic diversity so that I can get a variety of Cloudy, Fog, Rain, Snow, Thundershower, etc. simultaneously.
I'd also like to hit as many timezones as possible.
I have a weather app on my phone (LG G2) that displays animations of the current weather for a given city. It maxes out at 20, so I'm looking to add 19 locations that are more likely to have weather than clear skies.
I'm hoping for geographic diversity so that I can get a variety of Cloudy, Fog, Rain, Snow, Thundershower, etc. simultaneously.
I'd also like to hit as many timezones as possible.
St. John's, Newfoundland. I have never been anywhere with a more useless forecast. The weather seemed to change minute to minute.
posted by something something at 7:09 AM on November 13, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by something something at 7:09 AM on November 13, 2014 [4 favorites]
Worldwide timezones? London! Sunny yesterday, cloudy/rainy today... we get pretty good variation. The same is probably true of most temperate cities... Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscau, Tokyo... etc!
posted by Drexen at 7:11 AM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Drexen at 7:11 AM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Hilo, Hawaii.
posted by three_red_balloons at 7:16 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by three_red_balloons at 7:16 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Syracuse, NY.
posted by headnsouth at 7:21 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by headnsouth at 7:21 AM on November 13, 2014
Best answer: Forecast for Vancouver for the next five years.... Rain.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Galway, Ireland averages about 225 days of rain per year.
posted by Flood at 7:45 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by Flood at 7:45 AM on November 13, 2014
Cleveland, Syracuse, Chicago, Buffalo, any place that gets lake effect weather.
posted by Dolley at 7:49 AM on November 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Dolley at 7:49 AM on November 13, 2014 [3 favorites]
Death Valley, CA for variety. Always hot hot hot, occasionally punctuated by violent thunderstorms.
Far North Queensland, Australia, such as Cairns or Townsville. IIRC, it gets something like 300 inches of rain per year, also very hot all year.
posted by Melismata at 8:06 AM on November 13, 2014
Far North Queensland, Australia, such as Cairns or Townsville. IIRC, it gets something like 300 inches of rain per year, also very hot all year.
posted by Melismata at 8:06 AM on November 13, 2014
Houghton, Michigan, is open to lake-effect snow from multiple directions.
posted by mr. digits at 8:08 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by mr. digits at 8:08 AM on November 13, 2014
Philadelphia: rain, snow, hail, and sometimes thundersnow.
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:12 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by jetlagaddict at 8:12 AM on November 13, 2014
was also going to suggest western Michigan (I came from Kalamazoo), where, if nothing else, the sun is not generally seen between, say, mid-October and mid-April. not always snowing, just always gray.
posted by acm at 8:12 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by acm at 8:12 AM on November 13, 2014
Cleveland, Syracuse, Chicago, Buffalo, any place that gets lake effect weather.
Don't forget Rochester!
posted by Lucinda at 8:20 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Don't forget Rochester!
posted by Lucinda at 8:20 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Don't bother with Syracuse. Go for the bad weather gold with Oswego, which generally gets many more feet of snow each year than Syracuse, because it is right on the lake. I have to second Buffalo, though, which gets lake effects from TWO lakes.
You might also check out Newcastle, UK. I had a friend from Sunderland who said he had never, in his entire life, been in Newcastle when the sun was shining.
posted by ubiquity at 8:53 AM on November 13, 2014
You might also check out Newcastle, UK. I had a friend from Sunderland who said he had never, in his entire life, been in Newcastle when the sun was shining.
posted by ubiquity at 8:53 AM on November 13, 2014
Best answer: Antananarivo (subtropical highland) gets the majority of its rain between November and April. UTC +3
Chennai (tropical wet and dry) gets most of its rain between October and December and deals with cyclones. UTC + 5.5
Manila (tropical savannah) deals with typhoons UTC +8
Porto Alegre gets radiation fog and is in UTC -3 which is Greenland, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
posted by soelo at 8:57 AM on November 13, 2014
Chennai (tropical wet and dry) gets most of its rain between October and December and deals with cyclones. UTC + 5.5
Manila (tropical savannah) deals with typhoons UTC +8
Porto Alegre gets radiation fog and is in UTC -3 which is Greenland, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
posted by soelo at 8:57 AM on November 13, 2014
St John's, Newfoundland, is the foggiest, snowiest, iciest, rainiest, windiest major city in Canada - in fact, it's the third-windiest city in the world (where 'city' means at least 50k people). It's very unpredictable and changeable, too. I've seen my breath in August and I've walked around in a t-shirt in December.
posted by erlking at 9:10 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by erlking at 9:10 AM on November 13, 2014
Best answer: Omymykon in Siberia is the coldest town in the world. Note that Siberia received several feet of snow in October of this year alone.
Also, why not Hobart, Tasmania, which gets snow at the opposite end of the year?
posted by Andrhia at 9:12 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Also, why not Hobart, Tasmania, which gets snow at the opposite end of the year?
posted by Andrhia at 9:12 AM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]
Bergen, Norway or Edinburgh for lots of rain in a different timezone.
posted by Kosmob0t at 11:38 AM on November 13, 2014
posted by Kosmob0t at 11:38 AM on November 13, 2014
Actually Edinburgh's pretty dry (or at least... dry for Scotland). Glasgow's the wet one. Select them both and you can watch the rain clouds empty out as they head east across the Central Belt.
posted by penguin pie at 12:03 PM on November 13, 2014
posted by penguin pie at 12:03 PM on November 13, 2014
Best answer: Port Aransas/Corpus Christi Texas area: One of the windiest spots in North America and surprisingly temperate year round.
Washington state has a bona fide rain forest and, in the rain shadow on the other side of the mountain, is the driest spot on the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco, iirc. (The town there is called Sequim, in case you didn't click through.)
Cheyenne Wyoming gets five feet of snow a year, but, thanks to the Chinook winds, it rarely stays on the ground for very long and, thus, the city does not get as deep-freezy cold as many parts of that region. IIRC, the Chinook winds are also responsible for frequent cloud cover that looks like storm clouds, yet often fails to produce rain.
La Jolla California: Fog like Silent Hill in sunny Southern California. I have been told (by a surfing enthusiast) this is likely due to the steep drop off of the ocean floor there.
For that matter, you might try googling for ocean research centers. Sequim, Port Aransas and La Jolla all have a serious ocean research center due to the unique intersection of marine environments in those areas and the marine environments are part of what fuels the odd weather.
posted by Michele in California at 1:05 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Washington state has a bona fide rain forest and, in the rain shadow on the other side of the mountain, is the driest spot on the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco, iirc. (The town there is called Sequim, in case you didn't click through.)
Cheyenne Wyoming gets five feet of snow a year, but, thanks to the Chinook winds, it rarely stays on the ground for very long and, thus, the city does not get as deep-freezy cold as many parts of that region. IIRC, the Chinook winds are also responsible for frequent cloud cover that looks like storm clouds, yet often fails to produce rain.
La Jolla California: Fog like Silent Hill in sunny Southern California. I have been told (by a surfing enthusiast) this is likely due to the steep drop off of the ocean floor there.
For that matter, you might try googling for ocean research centers. Sequim, Port Aransas and La Jolla all have a serious ocean research center due to the unique intersection of marine environments in those areas and the marine environments are part of what fuels the odd weather.
posted by Michele in California at 1:05 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Pittsburghers proudly boast of fewer sunny days than Portland OR.
posted by IAmBroom at 1:25 PM on November 13, 2014
posted by IAmBroom at 1:25 PM on November 13, 2014
If you are doing international, Wellington, NZ is usually pretty exciting.
We had a German exchange student stay with us for three months when I was in high school, and she kept a diary where she noted the weather each day. At the end she ran some statistics and showed among other things that there wasn't a single day during that three months where it didn't rain at some point.
posted by lollusc at 4:36 PM on November 13, 2014
We had a German exchange student stay with us for three months when I was in high school, and she kept a diary where she noted the weather each day. At the end she ran some statistics and showed among other things that there wasn't a single day during that three months where it didn't rain at some point.
posted by lollusc at 4:36 PM on November 13, 2014
Toronto has lots of weather variations - sunny rainy snowy foggy, beautiful sunsets, insane storms that knock trees over...
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:44 PM on November 13, 2014
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 8:44 PM on November 13, 2014
Definitely Paris. We get a nice variety of weather here. Fog, drizzle, downpours, winds, occasional sun, clouds, snowfall, etc.
posted by fraula at 12:53 AM on November 14, 2014
posted by fraula at 12:53 AM on November 14, 2014
Melbourne (Australia) - famous for Four Seasons in One Day.
Southern Tasmania ~ It can snow on Christmas Day (heat of summer), be over 100ºF one day and under 50º the next.
posted by Flashduck at 1:40 AM on November 14, 2014
Southern Tasmania ~ It can snow on Christmas Day (heat of summer), be over 100ºF one day and under 50º the next.
posted by Flashduck at 1:40 AM on November 14, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks for all your suggestions. I played around with them and came to the conclusion that there is no set of 20 cities where every possible weather pattern is currently occurring.
So instead I opted for 3 diagonal cross-sections of the Globe. Google Map.
posted by zinon at 1:32 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
So instead I opted for 3 diagonal cross-sections of the Globe. Google Map.
posted by zinon at 1:32 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by lpcxa0 at 7:09 AM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]