# Cities with worst climate



## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Adde said:


> Yeah, it's not for everyone. Probably harder for people who move here from other climates than for most people who grew up here.


Probably. 



Adde said:


> But I don't agree with your assessment of this May. I haven't worn winter clothes for a month and a half and even in my spring jacket I get uncomfortably warm walking outside. Yeah, today was pretty bad, but it's also been the worst day in weeks (it was Stockholm Marathon today, so it was bound to be either raining or 30 degrees). Sunny days seem to have outnumbered grey/rainy ones over the last couple of weeks.


Lucky you, I find it cold and I am still cold, and I don't feel like I've seen the sun much at all given it is now, in most of the northern hemisphere, more summer like. It's June on Monday and it feels like an Auckland winter (in fact, Auckland in winter is warmer than here at the moment). 



Adde said:


> It's funny, I was in Melbourne, Australia at the beginning of April and even though I'm sure it's generally a warmer city than Stockholm for the equivalent season, I was much colder there than I usually am here at home.


Melbourne is unique - lots of seasons in one day depending on the wind change there. April is, however, going into winter. Were you cold due to poor insulation in the housing as that is a bit of a problem in Aus/NZ during winter, I'll admit. But to say you're colder in Melbourne than in Stockholm is... A little hard to believe especially given the temperature has never been below -3˚C...


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## Adde (May 8, 2011)

Svartmetall said:


> Melbourne is unique - lots of seasons in one day depending on the wind change there. April is, however, going into winter. Were you cold due to poor insulation in the housing as that is a bit of a problem in Aus/NZ during winter, I'll admit. But to say you're colder in Melbourne than in Stockholm is... A little hard to believe especially given the temperature has never been below -3˚C...


I was staying with friends and the house was cold, especially at night. Seemed to be a recurring theme with most of the private houses I stayed in. Beautiful city, but not very well insulated. The weather was fine, cold nights, 15-20 in the day and quick changes between pretty heavy rain and sunshine during the days.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Adde said:


> I was staying with friends and the house was cold, especially at night. Seemed to be a recurring theme with most of the private houses I stayed in. Beautiful city, but not very well insulated. The weather was fine, cold nights, 15-20 in the day and quick changes between pretty heavy rain and sunshine during the days.


Yes, that is a problem. We installed heat pumps throughout our house to cope with that problem. It's a common complaint across Aus/NZ as they don't feel they need proper insulation. Madness if you ask me. But that's an issue separate from climate, though.


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## Adde (May 8, 2011)

I don't know, every kind of climate needs to be managed. In colder climates, houses need to be well insulated. In warmer climates, heat needs to be managed. Like I said, I'm rarely cold here in Stockholm - houses are warm and I know how to dress when I go out in the colder months. 

For me, heat is much harder to manage than cold. We went to Darwin as well, and there's something claustrophobic about that kind of heat, there's no escaping it. And I always get the sniffles from air conditioning.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Adde said:


> I don't know, every kind of climate needs to be managed. In colder climates, houses need to be well insulated. In warmer climates, heat needs to be managed. Like I said, I'm rarely cold here in Stockholm - houses are warm and I know how to dress when I go out in the colder months.
> 
> For me, heat is much harder to manage than cold. We went to Darwin as well, and there's something claustrophobic about that kind of heat, there's no escaping it. And I always get the sniffles from air conditioning.


Well, you are clearly very different to me, then. I love the climate of Brisbane and Singapore. More heat the better. For me the heat and sun make a place feel much happier than gloom, cold and miserable weather. In a hotter climate, even rain is not a problem. In Stockholm rain makes you feel cold and chilled to the bone.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I made a big mistake moving here thinking I could adapt to the climate (and people) and I was horribly wrong.


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## Adde (May 8, 2011)

To me there's nothing happy about the kind of heat they have in say Darwin. Like I said, it makes me feel claustrophobic, like there's nowhere to escape, and people tend to look pained and miserable. 

Rain in Stockholm comes in a 1000 varieties. In the winter it chills you to the bone. But in summer it can be fresh and cooling. There's nothing better than going out after a summer rain when everything smells like fresh grass and there's still slight moist freshness to the air, or swimming in a lake during a summer rain.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Adde said:


> To me there's nothing happy about the kind of heat they have in say Darwin. Like I said, it makes me feel claustrophobic, like there's nowhere to escape, and people tend to look pained and miserable.
> 
> Rain in Stockholm comes in a 1000 varieties. In the winter it chills you to the bone. But in summer it can be fresh and cooling. There's nothing better than going out after a summer rain when everything smells like fresh grass and there's still slight moist freshness to the air, or swimming in a lake during a summer rain.


Pained and miserable? You just described your average Swede having to interact with a stranger without having imbibed alcohol.

Look, we reach an impasse, you like the climate here, it makes me want to kill myself. The inverse is true for you in hot climates. We aren't going to convince each other, so you stay happy in Sweden and I will leave as soon as I can and we will both be happy.


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## Quall (Feb 15, 2006)

..


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## crakening (Jan 17, 2012)

Of the places I'm familiar with, Chongqing is my least favourite. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing#Climate

Long, hot, humid and wet summers without any sunshine to show for it - extremely miserable foggy weather all year round.


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## U1081 (Jun 20, 2015)

*Stavanger*

Ive lived around Europe, but weather wise , Stavanger in Norway has to have the most abysmal climate I've ever experienced( and I've lived in Scotland)

Winters are bad enough, cold, rainy,dark etc but summer does not exist.

Up until July it struggles to get to 12degc and it is always windy (EVERY day) Even in July and August I've had to go out in a thick jacket. Almost constantly overcast and rarely above 18degC. Just Awful!!!


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

Most Northern U.S. cities are colder than the population centers of Scandinavia. Only comparable European places for winter are in Russia.


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## skyrocket2 (Jun 22, 2015)

It depends on your lifestyle and wealth. The Arctic Circle maybe more delightful than Barbados to a person with a couple million, but hell for a person in poverty.

Europe is too mild to say they have the worst climate. Intact they would contend for having the best climate on earth.

I think Vancouver generally has a poor climate that's too wet, but it lacks ant bad storms such as the ones in Southern USA.

I won,t know much about Pakistan but it comes across as hideous there... They have Dubai style summers and Siberian winters, extremer than US or European climates.

The Middle East also comes across as just being too darn hot.

I would say that the contender is either in Russia or somewhere in Pakistan since ME doesn't get severe storms.


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## Colm Flynn (Mar 8, 2012)

For the summer anyway, I haven't found any city with an average high as this for the summer.


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

Hot cities are definitely much much much worse to live in than cold cities. 

Give me freezing temperatures anytime over disgusting humid hot places! especially those that have the same temperature all year around like Singapore or Manaus uke:


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## ainvan (Nov 15, 2006)

skyrocket2 said:


> I think Vancouver generally has a poor climate that's too wet, but it lacks ant bad storms such as the ones in Southern USA.


It's wet only from November to March. It's relatively dry for the rest of the year. 

Vancouver gets more amount of sunshine in a year than Milan, Italy 
*
Average amount of sunshine a year*


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## asdfg (Mar 25, 2006)

Since *Vostok *clearly has the worst climate on earth, here are its closest matches (using a statistical matching algorithm):

North America:


Alert, Nunavut	83
Nord, Greenland	73
Barrow, Alaska	66

Europe:


Longyearbyen	60
Kiruna	47

Asia-Pacific


Macquarie Island	46

No decent matches for Vostok in South America or Africa.


Another notable hellhole, with probably the most extreme continental climate on earth is *Verkhoyansk*. Average winter high temperature of -42C, but climbs to 23C in summer.











Climate matches for Verkhoyansk:

Russia:


Yakutsk 93
Oymyakon 87

African / Middle East / Central Asia:


Astana	34

Europe:


Longyearbyen	72
Kiruna	68
Murmansk	63


Asia-Pacific:


Macquarie Island	52
Dras	42
Hegang	38

North America:


Baker Lake, Nunavut	83
Kugluktuk	82
Rankin Inlet	82


South America:


Punta Arenas	30
Stanley, Falkland Islands	28
Ushuaia	28


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## b.morgan21445 (Jan 20, 2015)

Irish weather is terrible!


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

Kanto said:


> I'm gonna start this thread with the city I think has the worst climate of any major city in the world. This city is Reykjavík. The people and society there are very friendly and awesome, I heard, however its climate is a nightmare. It's attrociously cold throughout the whole year and sunshine is virtually nonexistent. Raykjavík's climate has absolutely no redeeming qualities to offer, only frigid cold, gloominess and tissue decay ........


As a scandinavian I dont see the atrocity about the Reykjavik weather. Today they have +14 C in mid september which is only a few degrees colder than Linköping, Sweden, located 650km to the south. Stavanger, Norway 570km to the south is only 1-2 degrees warmer than Reykjavik.

On average Reykjavik is 3-4 degrees colder than Linköping this time of the year, december-february Reykjavik temperatures are slightly higher than in Linköping rarely reaching below zero.

Nuuk, Greenland is on the same latitude as Reykjavik, but Nuuk has +5 C max temperature today, while Reykjavik is +14 C.


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## Blah (Sep 13, 2002)

Going back to major cities....how about Glasgow, Scotland? Looks pretty bad on paper. 1260 hours of sunshine, 170 rain days, and cold.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Still better than Stockholm. Just remember this figure - 5 hours of sunshine for the whole month of November last year. 5 hours. 5. No more. Suicide inducing I can tell you.


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## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

When my missus lived in Glasgow in autumn 2007, it didn't rain for two months! Her workmates were thanking her for bringing the sun. :lol: Even when we visited together in September 2012, half the time was still sunny, and when it's sunny it's really beautiful. 

There are ways to overcome the effects of bad weather and a lively urban vibe is one of them, therefore I don't understand why Glaswegians don't seem to be interested in staying out for the evening. Most restaurants and other places where you can eat stop cooking at around 7pm, there were exceptions who stopped taking orders at 8pm. That's extraordinary. It would seem that after work, people only stop to take in a beer at a pub then all they want to do is to go home for the rest of the day.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

That seems normal. At least in my workplace you don't even go for beers with Swedish coworkers - it's only us immigrants that mingle. The Swedes don't associate with us so much.


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

Sounds like Swedes are reserved to the point of being anti-social.


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## Adde (May 8, 2011)

Yeah, but last November was not average. It was an outlier. The mean for Stockholm in November is 54 hours of sunshine. Of course winters in Sweden are dark, but they are usually not _that_ grey.


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## Adde (May 8, 2011)

Svartmetall said:


> That seems normal. At least in my workplace you don't even go for beers with Swedish coworkers - it's only us immigrants that mingle. The Swedes don't associate with us so much.


Ok, I dont want to bitch and we've been talking about this before, but don't you think you're group are at least partly responsible as well? I mean, it's a two way streak. I'm swedish, and my experience is not that swedes are that antisocial at all. At my workplace we socialize a lot. I think there's a bit of a cultural miscommunication going on often - for instance swedes are unlikely to invite themselves so if you're planning something, don't just assume any swedish coworker who wants to come will show up - invite them explicitely. When cliques have formed (as they tend to do at any place of work) they can be difficult to break. It's rarely one groups fault though. 

At my place of work there are a lot of Muslims. Some of them obviously generally won't come to bars with us. Doesn't mean they're antisocial, but the end result is that my group of friends at work doesn't see them as much outside of work as we do others.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Adde said:


> Ok, I dont want to bitch and we've been talking about this before, but don't you think you're group are at least partly responsible as well? I mean, it's a two way streak. I'm swedish, and my experience is not that swedes are that antisocial at all. At my workplace we socialize a lot. I think there's a bit of a cultural miscommunication going on often - for instance swedes are unlikely to invite themselves so if you're planning something, don't just assume any swedish coworker who wants to come will show up - invite them explicitely. When cliques have formed (as they tend to do at any place of work) they can be difficult to break. It's rarely one groups fault though.
> 
> At my place of work there are a lot of Muslims. Some of them obviously generally won't come to bars with us. Doesn't mean they're antisocial, but the end result is that my group of friends at work doesn't see them as much outside of work as we do others.


Most Swedes I work with only want to speak Swedish, and that excludes new immigrants or temporary migrants (there are a lot in my workplace), and that alone means that they don't associate with us as well. Not only that, but they are cliquey and want to stick to their friendship groups outside of work and not involve work people mostly. That's great if you were born here and grew up here and have friends here, but not so great for us immigrants.

Before you say it, yes, I have had friendship groups that are not native English speakers before - the Chinese/HKers back in NZ, and yes, I was good friends with them (married one from my friendship group). They made an effort to include me and other non-canto/mandarin speakers in their groups so I know what it is like being a linguistic minority too in a friendship group so it's not like I am uncomfortable in this situation, it is simply that the Swedes I work with do not like being in a similar situation for whatever reason.

Anyway, you can label it as "cultural miscommunication" if you like, but when it comes to chit-chat, talking to neighbours, talking to shop workers, to anyone that isn't a direct acquaintance and things like that as well, Swedes are as cold as I have ever encountered, and no it's not just me, it's other immigrants that feel this way. There is a bit of an "us and them" mentality on both sides, which is not particularly nice to be honest. This lack of mixing also doesn't help us to learn the language much either as when we try, the default answer is to switch to English so many of us give up if we're not staying here long term. Perhaps if I were in a different field without such a high turnover of people coming and going it would be different, but where I work, this is how it is and thus this is my impression of Sweden as an immigrant.


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## Debbielo (Sep 23, 2015)

I just wonder where


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## zaphod (Dec 8, 2005)

I haven't read through this thread so maybe it has been mentioned..

Dharhan, Saudi Arabia had a heat index of 174 F on a day in 2003. This is much worse than just high air temps by themselves. Basically at high levels of humidity and extreme heat the body cannot cool down with sweat. But usually humidity and heat are self limiting because of cloud cover so its kind of rare to experience such a climate. Only the Persian Gulf do you see dew points in the high 90s AND air temps of 108 F.

So yeah, that is the worst in the world to me. That is literally the least comfortable climate that anyone could possibly imagine. You could be completely naked and in the shade with fans running and you would still die of heat exhaustion.


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