Franconian Beer Message Board

Too much Kentish weather
Posted by barry on 2017-08-22 11:16:00
I wasn't making it up, you know.

At great expense (to my patience), I went back to the met office site (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/u10eu40xb) and looked again.  The only reasonable way to compare the climate in different places is to look at annual averages.  Because Britain has a maritime climate, there are funny variations according to the time of the year.  Also, we have individual hot and cold spots - as I think that I mentioned, Colwyn Bay is sheltered by the Snowdon Range and also, to some extent by Anglesey.  It benefits from the foehn effect.  That's right, it's a German word that was orignally applied in the Alpine region to the warm, strong dryish winds that descent in the lee of a mountain.

So, the average maximum temperature is 13.6C, whereas that for nearby Rhyl, which doesn't benefit to the same extent, is 13.4C (minimums 7.2C and 6.9C respectively).  Rainfall for Colwyn Bay is 808.7 mm,Rhyl has 814.1mm.  If we look at Thanet (taking Manston as the nearest weather station, just over 4 miles by car), the maximum and minimum temperatures are 14.0C and 7.4C.  It is the rainfall that is significantly different, as Manston only gets 592.5mm/annum, as are sunshine hours of 1802.4, compared to Colwyn's 1522.  I don't have a wind factor figure for Colwyn Bay but Rhyl has a monthly mean wind speed of 6.9 knots, compared to Manston's 9.7 knots, which is a very cold wind in winter!

Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
For Andy's sake: If we take the East Anglian resort of Lowestoft, it has average maximum and minimum temperatures of 13.4C and 7.4C respectively, sunshine hours of 1559.2 and rainfall of 619.9mm/annum.

As I said, really, the differences are not so great and, IMHO, what separates places in Britain is not so much climate as quality of life, which is hard to quantify and, like beauty, is in the 'eye' of the beholder.  Everywhere has its attractions (and detractions): some like the 'softness' of the southern geography, while others prefer the rugged grandeur of the north.  It's not grim up north anymore (in most cases) - actually some towns in the Thanet area are probably high up the scale of grimness nowadays.

You have to choose between town, city and countryside, and, of course the cost of living is hugely different, particularly when it comes to housing.  The following is from Rightmove (for 2016):


'in Colwyn Bay, detached properties sold for on average £251,906. Semi-detached properties sold for an average price of £156,838, overall average price of £176,944'
''in Kent, terraced properties sold for on average £288,366. Semi-detached properties sold for an average price of £348,005, while flats fetched £231,675.' overall average price of £334,519,'

So you can guess why I live in Colwyn Bay, which also has cheap and easy access to two major airports (Manchester and Liverpool) with flights all over Europe, a railway station and good bus services!  It's also a bit like Nick's assessment of Ramsgate and Margate - up and coming.  If I had the money (and was a bit younger), I'd be buying cheap property here.

For us beer enthusiasts, the huge changes in the brewing industry have meant that you can get good beer just about anywhere.

Sorry this got a bit long!
 
Followups:
                                   Too much Kentish weather by Nick B. on  2017-08-23 02:02:02
                                     Too much Kentish weather...fixed post format by Nick B. on  2017-08-23 02:06:05
                                       Too much Kentish weather...fixed post format by Jason  on  2017-08-23 03:04:32
                                         Too much Kentish weather...fixed post format by Andrew H on  2017-08-23 08:21:03
                                         Too much Kentish weather...fixed post format by barry on  2017-08-23 09:09:40