Weather WTF

[Syt]

Vienna has started to add mist showers to some hot parts of town, and is creating incentives for adding green to roofs and facades. They're also checking which areas are specifically affected by excessive heat and add measures there, like additional trees. Plus a few spot projects, like adding sun sails to some shadeless concrete areas, or putting a swimming pool on a busy intersection:







Due to Corona, only max. 6 people are allowed in the water at the same time. Yes, there is a life guard.

[Duque de Bragança]

I thought English climate was really temperate; omnipresent rain is quite the leveler. 

London's drier than Rome or Barcelona - we only get half the amount of rain Sidney does

London's often grey but it's not very wet, probably because of temperateness. We don't often have big storms.

No real summer, no real winter etc., though Geordistan for instance might have a winter.

I don't know about Newcastle, but when I moved from the Highlands the existence of seasons was very noticeable. In the South of England there is a very clear spring and autumn and summer, but then there's just 4 months of it being generally crap but not particularly wintry. Whereas in the Highlands you could get all the weather types in one day (the only snow days I ever got was when we had blizzards in April and no-one was prepared). But you basically had winter, and then 6 weeks of nice-ish weather. Unfortunately the nice weather also coincided with the midgie season so...

English Riviera does not count.
As for having 4 seasons in a single day, that's the Azores for me, oceanic climate so close to English weather. 

[Sheilbh]

I don't mean the English riviera - I moved to Oxfordshire so about the most inland bit of the country, plus London and the West Country.

As I say it was genuinely a big difference - I remember being amazed at the first autumn seeing all the trees change colour because, where I was in Scotland, it was mainly Forestry Commission land so mostly conifers. But we had a few broad-leaf trees that would start to turn, until there was one windy day at which point there were no more leaves

[Valmy]

Those sloped roofs look ideal for solar panels Syt

Though I guess they might be covered with snow for much of the year.

40 days until October and relief from this heat! I cannot wait!

[Syt]

Though I guess they might be covered with snow for much of the year.

Snow in Vienna

If we have a week of snow, it's a lot. We're not exactly in the mountains. Vienna in general doesn't have that much precipitation. Based on Wiki, Austin, TX has 34.32 inches annual precipitation on average vs Vienna's 25.6.

[Valmy]

Well so much for my romantic image of snow covered Chistmas Markets.

We have gigantic thunderstorms, so even though we can go weeks of bone dry scorching heat there is still plenty of rain over the course of a year. I hope you like flash flooding if you live by a creek/pond/river.

So then put some panels on those roofs Vienna!

[Sheilbh]

If we have a week of snow, it's a lot. We're not exactly in the mountains. Vienna in general doesn't have that much precipitation. Based on Wiki, Austin, TX has 34.32 inches annual precipitation on average vs Vienna's 25.6.

And in my London's quite dry comments - annual precipitation in London's around 22-23 inches. Very rarely snow and if we get snow it will probably cause the city to temporarily collapse

[garbon]

BBC has just upgraded forecast to London to 34 on Friday.

And staying around there until Wednesday when, hopefully, a storm will break it.

I like hot weather, but London is not built for this

I can't wait for the predicted thunderstorms.

[Syt]

So then put some panels on those roofs Vienna!

A lot of house owners worry they will devalue their buildings. I think where attics are converted into lofts they are putting them in quite a bit, though.

[Valmy]

Huh. Over here it has the opposite effect as far as home values go.

[Sheilbh]

I can't wait for the predicted thunderstorms.

Same - but they keep pushing the estimate time back. When I was looking at the weather this weekend it was apparently going to break on Monday/Tuesday. Then this morning it's on Wednesday. Now it's Thursday.

Until then we're just going to hit 35

[Syt]

Huh. Over here it has the opposite effect as far as home values go.

Well, people like to keep their buildings the way they are for "the classic flair". There might also be bureaucratic hurdles, and then we're not even talking about buildings (like mine) which are under preservation.

[Valmy]

Pity. Maybe eventually they will make them to resemble traditional euro roof shingles.

[Syt]

I looked up the latest on it. For newly built commercial real estate, solar panels on the roof are mandatory since 2014, this will be expanded for buildings of education, and residential properties (with the exception of one and two family homes). Exception: if solar panels can't be installed for "technical, legal, or economic reasons".

I assume the rules apply to major renovations, but I'm not sure.

[Syt]

Interesting number: Vienna is offering €13.7 million in subsidies for solar panels this year. On the other hand it spent €40 million in sending restaurant vouchers to all households in Vienna to aid restaurants during Corona.