Italy´s Wonderful Weather: Legend or Reality?
I was born in Bologna, Italy, and I am now working near Schwäbisch
Gmünd, 50 Km East of Stuttgart, 60 Km North of Ulm, Germany.
This simple fact originates a lot of friendly jokes between colleagues
about "sunny Italy" and "rainy, cold Germany". As my
personal contribution to the destruction of a legend, I would like to present
the following data, collected from www.worldclimate.com:
A few interesting remarks:
-
Bologna is located at 52 meters above sea level, in the biggest italian
plain, the river Po plain; Stuttgart is at 207 m a.s.l and Ulm 479 m a.s.l.
This should be considered when comparing temperatures and weather in general.
-
Although admittedly there is a difference in average temperature, the average
daily minimum temperature in Bologna (shown by the lower orange curve)
is comparable with the mean in Ulm.
-
The total annual rainfall is higher in Bologna (757 mm) than in Stuttgart
(700 mm); Ulm data not available at the compilation time.
-
As a matter of fact, there are only four months when in Stuttgart it rains
more than in Bologna: May, June, July and August: admittedly, the best
of the year :-)