Climate Battle: Amarillo, Texas vs Xi'an, China (average, rainfall, days)
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China is not like Europe or even America, the seasonal variation
in China is huge, and the weekly and daily variation is huge too.
In terms of high temperature days (35+ C by Chinese definition), Xi'an is the single hottest provincial capital city in North China. This year it had been continuously over 40+ C for nearly two weeks. Xi'an is cloudy, but not evenly so. It's not like Europe where you have 3 cloudy days in a week and then 4 sunny days. Xi'an can be sunny for 20 days in a row and then cloudy for 20 days.
China has detailed records for all major cities since 1950. For Xi'an it started even much earlier. If you check old data before industrialization, you will find the same pattern. Xi'an has always been cloudier than Zhengzhou. It is a well known fact for local people.
China always sets national weather stations far from the central urban area. It is true for all major cities. The reason is China has a slogan "meteorology serves agriculture", suggesting the tradition to use weather reports to help suburban and rural farmers.
Xi'an has a lower extremely low than Zhengzhou simply because it had heavy snow in that particular very cold year. If you check Wuhan, a southern city by Yangtze River, it has a lower record than Zhengzhou as well, also because it had heavy snow there but Zhengzhou did not.
Daily and weekly variation is huge in China compared to America? I would think its the opposite.
If the weather station is far from the urban area of Xi'an, that would increase the likelihood of mountains blocking the sunshine recorder in Xi'an compared to Zhengzhou.
Why does very cloudy Xi'an has such hot average highs compared to Zhengzhou in every month, adjusting for elevation difference? Do you have old cloud cover data for Xi'an or any other city in that region?
Here is the hardiness zones of China. You can see Xi'an is different from around.
But Xi'an is in a valley while the surrounding areas are at 3000 feet above sea level or higher. Zhengzhou being at a low elevation like Xi'an has the same hardiness zone as Xi'an according to the map.
Daily and weekly variation is huge in China compared to America? I would think its the opposite.
If the weather station is far from the urban area of Xi'an, that would increase the likelihood of mountains blocking the sunshine recorder in Xi'an compared to Zhengzhou.
Why does very cloudy Xi'an has such hot average highs compared to Zhengzhou in every month, adjusting for elevation difference? Do you have old cloud cover data for Xi'an or any other city in that region?
Xi'an has lower afternoon temperatures than Zhengzhou in September, October, November, December and January. As I said Xi'an is mainly cloudy in fall and winter, which temperature data reflects. In summer, the sunshine hours make no difference.
In Xi'an city you cannot even see mountains. They are still 20km away, and the high peaks are even farther. Also nobody will choose a location to build a weather station where it is shaded by mountains, in any country. Even in truly mountainous regions, the station will be on top of a hill, or in a relatively wide valley. China has very strict rules. Airport stations usually do not qualify as national stations, unlike in America.
Maybe China does not have a higher variation than America Midwest in a day to day base. But if you use a 10-day average window to "filter" the temperatures and precipitations, then China has a higher variation.
Last edited by Bettafish; 11-24-2017 at 01:32 PM..
But Xi'an is in a valley while the surrounding areas are at 3000 feet above sea level or higher. Zhengzhou being at a low elevation like Xi'an has the same hardiness zone as Xi'an according to the map.
That maps shows Xi'an is an isolated place in terms of climate. You cannot use data of surrounding cities to infer Xi'an. I use hardiness zones, but you can also use the map of other indexes to observe the isolation.
China is not like Europe or even America, the seasonal variation
in China is huge, and the weekly and daily variation is huge too.
In terms of high temperature days (35+ C by Chinese definition), Xi'an is the single hottest provincial capital city in North China. This year it had been continuously over 40+ C for nearly two weeks. Xi'an is cloudy, but not evenly so. It's not like Europe where you have 3 cloudy days in a week and then 4 sunny days. Xi'an can be sunny for 20 days in a row and then cloudy for 20 days.
China has detailed records for all major cities since 1950. For Xi'an it started even much earlier. If you check old data before industrialization, you will find the same pattern. Xi'an has always been cloudier than Zhengzhou. It is a well known fact for local people.
China always sets national weather stations far from the central urban area. It is true for all major cities. The reason is China has a slogan "meteorology serves agriculture", suggesting the tradition to use weather reports to help suburban and rural farmers.
Xi'an has a lower extremely low than Zhengzhou simply because it had heavy snow in that particular very cold year. If you check Wuhan, a southern city by Yangtze River, it has a lower record than Zhengzhou as well, also because it had heavy snow there but Zhengzhou did not.
That maps shows Xi'an is an isolated place in terms of climate. You cannot use data of surrounding cities to infer Xi'an. I use hardiness zones, but you can also use the map of other indexes to observe the isolation.
It only shows that the area around Xi'an and Yuncheng is at 1000 feet and that the surrounding area is at over 3000 feet, which would explain the difference in hardiness zone. Yuncheng at the same elevation as Xi'an has 2200 hours of sunshine. Same as Zhengzhou. And same hardiness zone as Xi'an and Zhengzhou. 700 hours less sunshine is huge when there is so little difference in average highs and humidity levels so I am not convinced it is really that cloudy.
Xi'an has lower afternoon temperatures than Zhengzhou in September, October, November, December and January. As I said Xi'an is mainly cloudy in fall and winter, which temperature data reflects. In summer, the sunshine hours make no difference.
In Xi'an city you cannot even see mountains. They are still 20km away, and the high peaks are even farther. Also nobody will choose a location to build a weather station where it is shaded by mountains, in any country. Even in truly mountainous regions, the station will be on top of a hill, or in a relatively wide valley. China has very strict rules. Airport stations usually do not qualify as national stations, unlike in America.
Maybe China does not have a higher variation than America Midwest in a day to day base. But if you use a 10-day average window to "filter" the temperatures and precipitations, then China has a higher variation.
Xi'an does not have lower afternoon temperatures than Zhengzhou in any month when you factor in the elevation difference. It can explain the entire difference. In the spring, it is significantly higher than Zhengzhou, factoring in elevation, while being far cloudier.
Much sunnier...warmer winter highs ...more variable (contrary to earlier comments in thread)
Both are at about the same latitude...
interestingly Amarillo is slightly farther north and way higher but
has a warmer winter....superior North American climate
I’ve been to Amarillo many times, my jumping off point for NM,
I always eat at the Big Texan Steak Ranch
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