131–140 of 404 posts
For me, a good city should have seasonality, that is the "joy of life". The changing of the seasons and the cycle through life is what makes me happy. Snowy winter days, the springtime change, endlessly long summer days, and the first cool autumn breeze as the colours change.
If your goal is to identify your favorite cities based on your own criteria, you will definitely like it:
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I'd say any (regular) amount of snow disqualifies your city as having "nice weather".
Snow isn't bad compared to rain. At least it looks nice and lights up the night.
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.
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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 variabili…
Well the thing about Dublin at least, you're unlikely to get six foot snow banks, or Chicago style freezing winds. But it's got the most bland weather both summer and winter. Never been to Iceland, but I guess the clue is in the name there!
It has often been suggested that the names of Greenland and Iceland should be reversed, and/or that "Greenland" was thus misnamed for marketing purposes to entice Viking settlers.
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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.
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!
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Snow isn't bad compared to rain. At least it looks nice and lights up the night.
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 w…
While near Paris the weather is more stable during a day, but from day to day the temperature variations are higher..
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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 w…
Those are only problems for people not used to driving and walking in snow. Rain gets you wet, which is way worse than any snow.
Guess what also gets you wet? Snow. It'll even get you wet when it isn't snowing, since it stays on the ground, and for a very long time.
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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!
This problem is trivially fixed with blackout curtains. Dealing with lack of sun is harder.
Blackout curtains don't form a good seal and always let light bleed through around the edges.