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Post by Babu on Oct 31, 2019 6:15:55 GMT -5
What place holds the European record for sunniest month?
Umeå recorded 469h of sunshine in June 1970 and holds the Swedish record. If somewhere at Berlin's latitude wanted to reach that in July (which has an extra day), they'd had to record 93% possible sunshine (and this doesn't take into account sunshine not recorded on clear skies when the sun angle is low or sun is obstructed).
It's thus safe to say the European record is in one of the Baltic or Nordic countries. Or I suppose Russia. Iceland is disqualified because Iceland. Norway's record is 430h in Tromsø and disqualifies. That leaves Finland and Estonia (and Russia). I suppose Latvia could theoretically beat 469h too considering Visby at 58°N got 458h in July 1994 with 85% recorded sunshine.
So what are the Finnish and Estonian sunshine records? Does anyone know? Or is Umeå ironically the sunniest place in Europe?
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Post by Hiromant on Oct 31, 2019 9:51:42 GMT -5
The only sunshine record shown on the national weather service site is the yearly one at 2440 h in 2011 in Roomassaare. The only confirmed monthly record I could find digging around in the monthly stats was May 2018 with a 408,4 h average. Tallinn also got 409 h in July 2006 but monthly stats only go back to 2005.
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Post by Nidaros on Oct 31, 2019 12:27:31 GMT -5
After Tromsø's 430 hours, the second highest monthly record in Norway is Kristiansand in the very south of the country with 422 hours in July 2018.
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Post by Ariete on Oct 31, 2019 12:28:10 GMT -5
The sunniest month I know of is 442 hours in July 1994, in Turku.
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Post by Babu on Oct 31, 2019 13:55:09 GMT -5
I forgot about Denmark. Skagen is far enough north and sunny enough to have a theoretically reasonable shot as well.
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Post by Dean York (Old) on Oct 31, 2019 14:35:56 GMT -5
Surely places in southern Europe have recorded 100% sunshine for summer months. Obviously less hours, but technically it's sunnier isn't it.
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Post by Babu on Oct 31, 2019 14:44:13 GMT -5
Surely places in southern Europe have recorded 100% sunshine for summer months. Obviously less hours, but technically it's sunnier isn't it. 100% sunshine in Nice would equate to about 469h. If you assume a cloud free day loses 20 minutes of sunshine due to horizon obstruction and weak sunlight close to the horizon it falls down to 459h. And I don't think anywhere north of Nice is capable of 100% sunshine. Obviously, even 400h of sunshine at 45°N is much sunnier than 470h of sunshine at 64°N though. Percent possible sunshine is much more important than actual sun hour amount |
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Post by nei on Oct 31, 2019 15:19:40 GMT -5
rather silly to use total sun hours rather than %; % reflects feel better & how cloudy a place is
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Post by Donar on Oct 31, 2019 16:12:02 GMT -5
Karlsruhe had 354 hours of sunshine in April 2007.
% of possible sun would be interesting but I'm too lazy to calculate it on my phone..
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Post by Babu on Oct 31, 2019 16:24:43 GMT -5
Karlsruhe had 354 hours of sunshine in April 2007. % of possible sun would be interesting but I'm too lazy to calculate it on my phone.. Since I'm assuning a linear daylight increase, picking the 15th as the average, it's obviously not 100% accurate, but it gives me about 410h for 100% making 354h 86% |
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Post by Crunch41 on Nov 1, 2019 0:32:49 GMT -5
Umeå is the sunniest place in Europe, it must be a tropical paradise. I'm gonna fly there and hit the beach this winter.
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Post by alex992 on Nov 1, 2019 4:36:28 GMT -5
This thread seems like a Botev attempt by the Scandinavian posters, lol.
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Post by Dean York (Old) on Nov 1, 2019 11:09:33 GMT -5
Surely places in southern Europe have recorded 100% sunshine for summer months. Obviously less hours, but technically it's sunnier isn't it. 100% sunshine in Nice would equate to about 469h. If you assume a cloud free day loses 20 minutes of sunshine due to horizon obstruction and weak sunlight close to the horizon it falls down to 459h. And I don't think anywhere north of Nice is capable of 100% sunshine. Obviously, even 400h of sunshine at 45°N is much sunnier than 470h of sunshine at 64°N though. Percent possible sunshine is much more important than actual sun hour amount The last sentence is key. Plenty of places in Southern Europe will have recorded over 90% of possible sun hours in a calendar month, I'm quite sure of that. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed by the amount of sunshine you can get up there, particularly compared to here, but % is the only meaningful measurement of sunshine hours imo. |
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Post by Hiromant on Nov 1, 2019 15:26:01 GMT -5
I disagree, absolute hours count more. Southerners have no idea what 18 hours of sunshine a day feels like. I think it's irrelevant how sunny it is on the equator when day lengths are fall-like.
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Post by alex992 on Nov 1, 2019 15:36:27 GMT -5
I disagree, absolute hours count more. Southerners have no idea what 18 hours of sunshine a day feels like. I think it's irrelevant how sunny it is on the equator when day lengths are fall-like. Nah, percentage gives you a better feel of how sunny somewhere really is. 300-400 sunshine hours really isn't that sunny when you have like 600 possible sun hours. Northerly latitudes are always gonna have an advantage in possible sun hours in the summer. What would feel sunnier to you? A place that gets 300 sunshine hours with 400 possible hours (75% possible) or a place that gets 300 sunshine hours with 600 possible hours (50% possible)? |
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Post by Nidaros on Nov 1, 2019 15:53:38 GMT -5
At very northern latitudes, sunsets and sunrises last longer, so the sun is near the horizon longer, loosing more of the actual sun time (not being recorded) than further south, where the sun spends much shorter time near the horizon. This should also be factored in.
422 sunhrs at 58°N in Kristiansand in July is anyway very sunny. If 45 minutes is subtracted from each day due to too low sun to be recorded, the sun percentage would be approx 81 % in Kristiansand that July.
In the low sun period the high latitude areas looses daylight and sunhrs, sun also a long time near horizon. Therefore pretty remarkable that Trondheim has Norway's October record (197 hrs) and not Kristiansand or other places 4-5 degrees latitude further south.
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Post by Donar on Nov 1, 2019 16:22:15 GMT -5
A place near the arctic circle, that only has a couple of possible sunshine hours in December could hit 100 % possible sun by chance (ignoring the measurement difficulties at low sun angles)
In the end, W/m² of incoming solar radiation received at the surface is what really matters imho.
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