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If your methodology for identifying "cities with nice weather" returns Reykjavik in its top ten, either your sample only includes places with terrible weather,

• thefringthing 4y ago
  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.
  • rgmerk 4y ago
    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.
  • bpye 4y ago
    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 4y ago
      To be fair, last summer’s heat dome in the PNW felt pretty close to the upper bound for habitability.
  • lotsofpulp 4y ago
    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.
  • acchow 4y ago
    > My personal preference is definitely for colder temperatures than most other people would like. You should really check out San Francisco...
• liamwire 4y ago
  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.)
  • rgmerk 4y ago
    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 4y ago
      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."
  • dwd 4y ago
    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.
• donavanm 4y ago
  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.”
  • scoofy 4y ago
    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 4y ago
    I think his desire for “lower variability” than Toronto means he has gone from “sometimes bad” to “always bad” weather.
    • TrysterosEmp 4y ago
      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"
      • 0tt049 4y ago
        All this comunal reaction against OP's methodology makes me smile. After spending miserable weeks under, sometimes tree shades but, most of the time, hot Brazilian sun observing whet bulbs, anemometers and what not, during "Environmental Comfort" class at Architecture school, I could not help myself felling anything other than pure hatred towards OP's assumptions and overall lack of understanding of what "nice" means. So again, it doesn't come often, but HN people, you made my day, thank you.
  • 4y ago
• blamazon 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    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 (Reykjavík would be down to the south).
    • cpach 4y ago
      I don’t find it confusing, but it’s dreary though. Especially in regions where there’s short days but very little snow.
      • SZJX 4y ago
        Yep, Berlin’s snowless and gloomy winters are messing me up really badly.
  • Nullabillity 4y ago
    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!
    • thematrixturtle 4y ago
      This problem is trivially fixed with blackout curtains. Dealing with lack of sun is harder.
      • Nullabillity 4y ago
        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.
• Hamuko 4y ago
  I'd say any (regular) amount of snow disqualifies your city as having "nice weather".
  • t-3 4y ago
    Snow isn't bad compared to rain. At least it looks nice and lights up the night.
    • Hamuko 4y ago
      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 0°C, 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.
• twelvechairs 4y ago
  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-Zun06iJA0SPXCDu2ahNsVF9dPEeJh9Ffd7ngNgn6HNxCBKphRvcfeJkxNN9LiQO3_YMsqrykQv6GTahYRk_r6sUHyM3S76aXSJj2J5b0SjUITcNBmDLaIURwwYyw=w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/RABRuDIpRt8NxvGqB-Zu...
• bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  >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.
• Nullabillity 4y ago
  It's a lot easier to deal with excessive cold than excessive heat. You can only have so many clothes to remove.
• basicform 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    Not sure if true, or just a new trap laid by iceland to keep me away...
    • basicform 4y ago
      Both.
  • thefringthing 4y ago
    My takeaway from reading Grænlendinga saga and Eiríks saga rauða 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 4y ago
      “fall of civilizations” podcast episode 4 (https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/2019/03/26/episode-4-of-fall-of-civilizations-is-now-live/ https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.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 4y ago
        I think the edition I read mentioned that the Norse society in Greenland dwindled to nothing because of an inability to adapt to the conditions created by the Little Ice Age; sounds like this podcast has the same idea.
• quirino 4y ago
  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.
• ar0 4y ago
  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.
• yakubin 4y ago
  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 25°C (up to 33°C, or even 42°C in some godforesaken parts of the country). For me to feel comfortable, 22°C is the max (-5°C is the soft min, but will also take -20°C over 30°C), 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).
  • s17k 4y ago
    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.
    • arethuza 4y ago
      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.
    • yakubin 4y ago
      I didn't mention it, but wind is also a plus for me. Warsaw has too little wind for my taste. :)
  • ekianjo 4y ago
• dzhiurgis 4y ago
  82F is a lot. Auckland has solid 7 months of 23C - just perfect for jandals and tshirt.
• ekianjo 4y ago
  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.
• RC_ITR 4y ago
  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.
  • wolverine876 4y ago
    What data do you have regarding social sciences beyond a trendy take?
    • RC_ITR 4y ago
      A degree in economics. Like the IS/LM curve broke for 40 years and is still the first thing we teach undergrads.
      • wolverine876 4y ago
        These claims seem like the same (putative) thing you are deriding, takes with little basis.
        • RC_ITR 4y ago
          Are you implying the IS/LM curve is representative of the trends seen in macroeconomic data? (And not a normative description of what a select group of people think the economy “should” look like?) I’d be interested to hear more about why, since you say my claim has no basis.
• acchow 4y ago
  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 4y ago
    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 4y ago
      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 4y ago
        your perception of what is "nice weather" matches up great with my own. Edinburgh has nearly perfect weather for my tastes.
• ravi-delia 4y ago
  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.
• Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
  > A more appropriate methodology would take into account wet bulb temperatures, Are there any recommendations for accurate API accessible wet-bulb temperatures across the world? I've been looking at this website for India[1] during the heatwave and I'm not sure whether its accurate. Also, is there any reproducible DIY project to measure wet bulb temperature with a digital output for daily use. [1] https://meteologix.com/in/observations/wet-bulb-temperature.html https://meteologix.com/in/observations/wet-bulb-temperature....