| Climate Matters, Climate Review, Rain and Snow, Temperature, Winds

What is the Ideal Climate?

By Nick Bond

The Camelot Climate Index (https://ggweather.com/ camelot.htm), created by Jan Null (Certified Consulting Meteorologist, Golden Gate Weather Services) to score U.S. locations based on an “ideal” climate, was recently discussed on the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) listserv. The index bases “ideal” on a sunny and mild climate with relatively few extremes. The ideal climate used in the Camelot Index is of course extremely subjective. One person’s perfect 85F summer day is too hot for another. Her dream of a major snowstorm is his nightmare. You get the picture.

So what do the readers of this newsletter think the ideal climate is? We have created a short survey – just 14 questions – for our readers to anonymously answer with their preferences for their ideal climate. The idea is to make our own, more detailed map of WA State, defining the ideal climate based on our reader’s responses. Our index will weigh the different parameters based on your preferences as well. For example, perhaps you’re very adamant about not liking cold temperatures, but the total annual precipitation doesn’t matter as much to you; you would rank your choice of total annual precipitation low (i.e., it would be weighted less in the final calculation) in the survey.

The map from the Camelot Climate Index is shown in Figure 1. Not surprisingly, San Diego, often noted for its “perfect” (albeit boring) weather ranked the highest using sunny and mild conditions as the ideal. The Camelot Index was only computed for 3 WA locations – Quillayute, Seattle, and Spokane. Seattle ranked the highest of the three, likely for its mild temperatures in both winter and summer. Our working hypothesis is that the residents of WA, or at least the readers of this newsletter, are made of sterner stuff and embrace conditions that make weather wimps cower.

We will compute the index based on the respondent’s choices of the ideal values for each parameter, considering their medians and ranges. In general, we will use observed data for the period of 1981-2010 in determining the normalized extent to which each parameter for each location deviates from the ideal. The ranking of the importance of each category will then be used to determine a score for the various locations across WA. We very much hope you will participate…if nothing else we expect you might find it interesting to see how your ideal weather conditions compare with those associated with our readers as a group, and which location in the state will end up taking top honors.

To summarize this hard-hitting piece, we’re interested in computing our own subjective index for WA state based on what our readers consider the ideal climate. [The survey closed in January 2021 and results were tallied in February 2021. The questions are reproduced below.] What is your ideal average high temperature during the winter?One entry per person: potential voter fraud will be litigated by an elite unit that has already been assembled, and they should have some time on their hands. The results related to our yet-to-be- named index will be included in a subsequent newsletter edition sometime in 2021, of course only after approval by WA state authorities.

Figure 1: Map of the Camelot Climate Index created by Jan Null. Higher scores equate to more pleasant climates. The index does not view favorably the climate of NW Washington.

The Ideal Washington Climate Index
1) What county do you live in?

2) What’s a good name for our Climate Index?

3) What is your ideal average high temperature during the summer?

  • Below 60, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, 85-89, 9o-94, 95-99, Above 100

4) What is your ideal average high temperature during the winter?

  • Below 20, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, Above 60

5) What is your ideal average low temperature during the winter?

  • Below 10, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, Above 50

6) How many days per year should the high temperature be 90 F or above?

  • 0, Under 5, 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, Above 20

7) How many days per year should the low temperature be 20 F or below?

  • 0, Under 5, 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, Above 20

8) How much precipitation per year is ideal?

  • Under 10, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, Over 70

9) How many days with precipitation of 0.01” or more is ideal?

  • Under 25, 25-49, 50-74, 75-99, 100-124, 125-149, 150-174, 175-200, Over 200

10) How many days with precipitation of 0.25” or more is ideal?

  • Under 5, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, Over 50

11) How much snowfall per year is ideal?

  • 0, Under 5, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, Over 60

12) What is your ideal average wind speed during the summer?

  • Calm, Under 5, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, Above 20

13) Number of cloudy days in the year?

  • Less than 150, 150-164, 175-189, 190-204, 205-219, 220-234, 235-250, Above 250

14) Please rank the previous 10 parameters by their importance to your ideal climate (highest = 1, lowest = 10).

  • Average Summer High Temperature
  • Average Winter High Temperature
  • Average Winter Low Temperature
  • Days Above 90F
  • Days Below 20F
  • Annual Precipitation
  • Days of More Than 0.01″
  • Days of More Than 0.025″
  • Annual Snowfall
  • Average Summer Wind Speed
  • Number of Cloudy Days