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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 a

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 4y ago
> 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 4y ago
  > 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 4y ago
    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".
    - dbetteridge 4y ago
      > 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 Thought you were talking about Perth, Australia there for a sec! The running joke is 'it's a dry heat' when referring to the week long runs of 40+ degrees
      - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
        "But it's a dry heat" is an old saw: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/69689/yeah-but-its-a-dry-heat-reference-to-another-film https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/69689/yeah-but-it... I've been in Cape Town on 40+ Degrees C days. It is dry there in summer. Parent comment about the mountain catching fire is "joking but also true(ish)". There's sea on 3 sides of Cape Town but somehow, the summer heat is bone dry. I suppose it would be worse if it was damp.
gspr 4y ago
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 4y ago
  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.
  - lelanthran 4y ago
    > 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.
  - smcl 4y ago
    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
dwd 4y ago
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 4y ago
  San Diego and Houston in the same sentence about weather, dafuq????
  - dwd 4y ago
    I think the confusion is while the post says nice weather, it's more about nice climate. There are other factors, good latitude is just the better starting point in my opinion. But you are right, Houston is really not the same as it doesn't have a directly adjacent ocean and mountain backdrop and there's a big difference between sitting on the Pacific than sitting on the Gulf. But even the nicest places can have bad weather events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Eastern_Australia_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Eastern_Australia_floods

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago

> 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 4y ago
> 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 4y ago
  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".
  - dbetteridge 4y ago
    > 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 Thought you were talking about Perth, Australia there for a sec! The running joke is 'it's a dry heat' when referring to the week long runs of 40+ degrees
    - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
      "But it's a dry heat" is an old saw: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/69689/yeah-but-its-a-dry-heat-reference-to-another-film https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/69689/yeah-but-it... I've been in Cape Town on 40+ Degrees C days. It is dry there in summer. Parent comment about the mountain catching fire is "joking but also true(ish)". There's sea on 3 sides of Cape Town but somehow, the summer heat is bone dry. I suppose it would be worse if it was damp.

gspr 4y ago

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 4y ago
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.
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > 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.
- smcl 4y ago
  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

dwd 4y ago

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 4y ago
San Diego and Houston in the same sentence about weather, dafuq????
- dwd 4y ago
  I think the confusion is while the post says nice weather, it's more about nice climate. There are other factors, good latitude is just the better starting point in my opinion. But you are right, Houston is really not the same as it doesn't have a directly adjacent ocean and mountain backdrop and there's a big difference between sitting on the Pacific than sitting on the Gulf. But even the nicest places can have bad weather events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Eastern_Australia_floods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Eastern_Australia_floods