Ranking My Cities: Weather

In the last 10 years I have lived in 9 different cities on 3 different continents. The constant moving brings with it many difficulties such maintaining a steady income, developing and maintaining friendships, collecting and/or keeping possessions, having the proper clothes for the weather, getting your favorite foods and many other things. But living in all these different cities also has allowed me to explore new places, meet lots of new people, experience different cultures, eat lots of different foods, learn new languages and discover all the unique things each of these cities have to offer their residence. 

I started thinking about which cities where my favorite and which ones I would prefer not to return to. As I was trying to rank them I found myself re-ranking them over and over depending on what factors I was focusing on. Some cities had better weather, while other cities had better transportation and other cities had better food. After a while I decided to rank the cities based on various individual categories rather just an overall ranking. By doing this I hoped it would help me understand why my favorite cities were in fact my favorites as well show some of the strengths and weaknesses of all the cities I've lived in.

I’m going to use multiple entries to do this. I will use each entry to explore one major factor of the cities like weather or infrastructure or culture or some other thing.  In this entry I will lay out the cities I have lived in the past 10 years and then examine and rank them based on various weather conditions like average temperature, precipitation, humidity, sunshine, etc.

So let’s start with some basic information such as what cities I have actually lived these past 10 years. Here is a list of the cities I've lived in. It is based simply on chronology, the order in which I lived these cities:

1.  Phoenix 
2. Oakland
3. Seattle
4. Los Angeles
5. Seoul
6. Sacramento
7. Denver (I’ve actually lived in Denver for short periods two or three times over the past 10 years. It’s where my family live and where I grew up)
8. Shenzhen
9. London

The next easy thing to do is list them based on the length of time I've lived there. I want to do this because obviously how long you live somewhere does affect how much you really know about the city. I am not claiming to be an expert about any of these cities except perhaps Denver but I still want to share what I know. Now two of these cities, Denver and Phoenix are ones that I not only lived in during the past 10 years but also for most of my life before that so if I included the time I had lived there during my whole life Denver would be the city I had lived in the longest (around 19 years) while Phoenix would be second (around 4.5 years). But for this list I am ranking the cities based on the amount of time I have lived there during the past 10 years. These numbers are rounded off a bit just to make it easier on me. So here’s the ordering of the cities I've lived in based on the amount of time I've lived in them during the past 10 years:

1. Los Angeles: 2.5 years
2. Oakland: 2 years
3. Phoenix: 1.5 years
4. Denver: 1 year
5. Seoul: 1 year
6. London: 9 months
7. Sacramento:  7 months
8. Shenzhen: 6 months
9. Seattle: 6 months

Generally the first thing people ask about when discussing a new city is the weather so let’s look at some basic weather stats of all the cities I've lived in.

Here are the cities I've lived in ranked based on the average amount of sunshine they receive in a year. The cities with more sunshine are ranked higher. With sunshine there is a maximum number of 4476 hours of sunshine in a year so these percentages are based off that number.

1. Phoenix: 86% (3872 hours a year)
2. Sacramento: 78% (3491 hours a year)
3. Los Angeles: 73% (3267 hours a year)
4. Denver: 69% (3107 hours a year)
5. Oakland: 66% (2954 hours a year)
6. Seattle: 48% (2170 hours a year)
7. Shenzhen: 47% (2120 hours a year)
8. Seoul: 46% (2066 hours a year)
9. London: 30% (1339.7 hours a year)

Now you can’t talk about sunshine and not talk about temperatures. So let’s rank the cities based on average summer temperatures using the month of July as the marker for summer. The list goes from hottest to coldest. I am also going to include the average relative humidity next to the temperatures to give one an idea of what kind of heat they’d be dealing with.  

1. Phoenix: 106-84 F (41-29 C)         Relative Humidity: 52-13%
2. Sacramento: 93-61 F (34-16 C)     Relative Humidity: 84-28%
3. Shenzhen: 90-79 F (32-26 C)        Relative Humidity: 90-62%
4. Denver: 88-56 F (31-13)                Relative Humidity: 75-22%
5. Los Angeles: 83-64 F (28-18)        Relative Humidity: 87-50%
6. Seoul:  84-71 F (29-22 C)              Relative Humidity: 96-63%
7. Seattle: 76-56 F (24-13)                 Relative Humidity: 86-42%
8. London: 73-55 F (23-13 C)            Relative Humidity: 90-48%
9. Oakland: 72-56 F (22-13)              Relative Humidity: 94-59%

Now let’s deal with the winter and rank these cities based on the average winter temperatures using the January as the marker for winter listing them from coldest to warmest.

1. Seoul: 35-21 F (2 to -5 C)               Relative Humidity: 89-41%
2. Denver: 43-16 F (6 to -9 C)            Relative Humidity 78-35%
3. London: 45-36 F (7-2 C)                 Relative Humidity: 94-69%
4. Seattle: 47-37 F (8-3 C)                  Relative Humidity: 94-60%
5. Sacramento: 54-41 F (12-5 C)       Relative Humidity: 97-58%
6. Oakland: 58-44 F (14-7 C)             Relative Humidity: 95-60%
7. Phoenix: 67-46 F (19-8 C)              Relative Humidity: 71-26%
8. Los Angeles: 68-48 F (20-9)           Relative Humidity: 82-33%
9. Shenzhen: 68-54 F (20-12 C)         Relative Humidity: 85-47%

The cities I've lived in based on annual precipitation from the wettest to driest cities:

1. Shenzhen: 77.4 inches (1966 mm)
2. Seoul:  57.11 inches (1450 mm)
3. Seattle: 38.25 inches (972 mm)
4. London: 24 inches (610 mm)
5. Oakland: 22.94 inches (583 mm)
6. Sacramento: 17.93 inches (455 mm)
7. Denver: 15.81 inches (402 mm)
8. Los Angeles: 15.14 inches (385 mm)
9. Phoenix: 8.29 inches (211 mm)

Cities I've lived in based on elevation. While these numbers are not exactly weather related they do affect the weather. Plus I just think they are fun to know. Now these numbers can vary a bit based on where you are in the city this is particularly true in cities on the coast like L.A. or Seattle, where you can be standing at sea level or up in the hills. I am just using the numbers found online most of which use either city hall or the local airport as locations from which to measure the altitude of the city:

1. Denver: 5883 ft. (1793 m)
2. Phoenix: 1132 ft. (345 m)
3. Seattle: 429 ft. (131 m)
4. Seoul: 282 ft. (86 m)
5. Los Angeles: 126 ft. (38 m)
6. London: 79 ft.  (24 m)
7. Oakland: 43 ft. (13 m)
8. Shenzhen: 40 ft. (12 m)
9. Sacramento: 30 ft. (9 m)

 So there are some of the weather statistics that go with the cities I have lived in. I will finish this entry by now ranking the cities in the order I like them based solely on the weather and no other factors. As my rankings will surly reveal I prefer hot to cold, dry to wet and sunny to cloudy.

Ranking cities I've lived in based on weather: 

1. Los Angeles:
   
   LA is just the perfect combination of temperature, humidity and sun. It’s rarely too hot and almost never cold. There can be variations on the weather based on where you are in the city. Generally speaking the further you get from the ocean the hotter and dryer it gets. There are some hot summer days and even a few humid ones but they are worth it considering how few cold days there are. The constant sunshine is something that just makes life feel a bit better. And anytime you want the sandy beaches and nice ocean are right there for the visiting. The weather really is one of L.A.’s greatest strengths as a city.
2. Sacramento:
   
   I like Sacramento for the mild, dry winters. It certainly gets hot during the summer but it isn’t very humid so it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s the type of place where you won’t need to pack away winter clothes to make room from summer clothes you can just wear the same stuff pretty much year round.
3. Phoenix:
   
   Phoenix is hot, there is no denying that but it is almost always sunny and it’s not humid. Now when it’s a 116 degrees and you say “at least it’s a dry heat” that doesn’t help stop the sweating but when compared to more tropical locations like Shenzhen one discovers that there really is a big difference between humid and dry heat. Plus with Phoenix being in the USA almost everywhere you go has air conditioning so the heat can be dealt with. The most miserable times are when you go to the car in the summer and it has been baking in the sun for hours and your seats are scalding hot. Phoenix is not a place to have leather seats in your car yet tons of people still do.
4. Oakland:
   
   Oakland offers very mild weather. It is a bit cooler than LA and it really isn’t that wet of a place. San Francisco blocks a lot of the precipitation that might otherwise come into Oakland. It is the type of weather that almost anyone can live with. It’s rarely very hot and almost never cold it just sits right in the middle. For me I prefer a bit more heat than Oakland can provide but really it’s not a place that offers too much to complain about concerning the weather.
5. Denver:
   
   One of the great things about Denver is the sun. You get a lot of sunshine in Denver even in the winter. So whether the temperature is cold or hot it is usually sunny. One of the best places to be in Denver on a cold winter day is in your car because it will be nice and toasty inside from sitting in the sun. Most people think of Denver as a place that gets buried in snow in the winter but that just isn’t the case. It does snow during the winter but it can be quite sporadic and the snow that comes has often melted away only days after it has fallen. Now the summers can get hot but unlike many other cities Denver cools down a lot during the night so you never feel stuck in the heat they way you might in Phoenix or Shenzhen or even Sacramento. I spent most of my life in Denver so I am just used to the weather and overall it really isn’t that bad but despite all the sun it still gets colder than I like in the winter.
6. Shenzhen:
   
   Shenzhen takes some getting used to. During the summer it is hot and it is wet and when I say wet I mean really wet. You get real tropical rain storms in Shenzhen. Now while I don’t generally like rain I do prefer rain in Shenzhen to the other cities I have lived in because it is a warm rain. There were times that I would actually go outside and just walk around in the rain in a t-shirt and shorts just because it was like being in a warm shower. The winters are quite nice and mild though it can still be pretty humid. The other downside to living in Shenzhen is that numerous places don’t have air conditioning. Most of the new stores, restaurants and apartments have it but there are a lot of older buildings that don’t and that can be hard if you are used to always being able to get out of the heat and to a nice cool air conditioned room. But I would take Shenzhen in an instant over any city that has predominately cold weather.
7. Seattle:
   
   Now Seattle is often dark, wet and cold but probably not as much as people think. There is more sun there than I expected when I got there though most of it comes in the afternoon. You have to deal with cold, foggy mornings in the winter, which I just did not like. It did rain frequently sometimes hard but most often it was just a constant drizzling. I did not like the weather but it was never super hot or freezing cold so I could live with it if I had to.
8. London:
   
   I don’t like the weather here. Too much of the year is just wet and cold with very little sunshine. Of all the places I've lived London has the least amount of sunshine and it isn't even close. I didn't realize how sad it can be just to have nothing but clouds and fog to look at every day. Now the summers are okay. There is more sun and it warms up a bit but for me it is still too mild. The problem with heat here in London is when it does come around for that week or two in the summer there is almost nowhere here that has air conditioning. This is most noticeable in the tube (subway) were the cars are just boiling with no air flow. And the smells created by that heat box with all the raised arms are just not pleasant. So even when it was hot outside like I like this is not the city to be hot in because there really is nowhere to go to escape that feeling at any point. Overall the weather has to be one of London’s greatest weaknesses as a city.
9. Seoul:
   
   Seoul is a city whose weather brings with it all the extremes that are possible. It gets extremely hot during the summer and freezing cold in the winter. You have to deal with heavy rain and snow as well as boiling heat. There really are only a few times a year where the weather was what I would call nice. This is the only city where I felt I needed completely different clothes for different seasons. I of course didn't have those different clothes so I spent a lot of time wearing the same two large jackets covering up the clothes I did have most of which are best suited to California weather. Seoul was the first city I had to carry an umbrella around with me and it was not something that I liked doing. If you take one small enough to fit in a bag it usually ends up being too small to really keep you dry whereas if you take an umbrella big enough to keep you dry it ends up being this huge pole you have to carry around all day. Seoul is a place where you could suffer from a heat stroke and frost bite in the same year. There was a lot I like about Seoul but the weather is not one of those things.

So that is the ranking of the cities I've lived in based on weather. Feel free to add your own opinions on the weather in any of these cities or about the weather in your own city.

Next time I will rank the cities based on each cities infrastructure, things like the transportation systems, waste management, public parks, communications and stuff like that.