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Comment by thih9 | Hacker News Reader

> We’ll ignore any other weather characteristics like humidity, rain, wind, diurnal temperature difference, etc.

If the author ends up moving to Edinburgh based on this, we can count on seeing a follow up analysis that doesn’t ignore rain.

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Edinburgh isn't particularly wet - there is a lot of variation in rainfall levels in the UK and as Edinburgh is on the east coast its not that bad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Europe_by_pr...

Yeah guys here like to joke about how we're having "Scottish" weather when it's raining, so it's funny to see Edinburgh (704mm/year) isn't really that much wetter than Prague (587mm/year)

Edinburgh is drier than Monaco (743.6mm/year) :-)

I have never been to Edinburgh, but mm/year isn't the best way of saying if a place is wet or not. A city that has that horrible misty rain two thirds of the year may not score high a mm/year measure, but in reality you'll be wet two days out of three.

"in reality you'll be wet two days out of three."

I walked and cycled to work in Edinburgh for ~20 years and I really didn't get wet that often, although I did certainly get drookit a few times.

Edit: I spend quite a lot of time in the areas of Scotland that are pretty wet (> 3000mm/year) - Edinburgh isn't anything like those.

Yeah, I don't know how Edinburgh is specifically, just that in general I think using this measurement is hiding part of the truth. In places with wet and dry seasons, you might get rain for a month and the rest of the year is dry, but mm/year might still be very high.

The wikipedia article Arethuza posted shows average precipitation for European cities by month as well, so you can actually see how this breaks down. For example Istanbul definitely has this - it has more rain than Edinburgh overall but it's concentrated in the winter months. Interestingly (and as a total aside) I was there in February once and was shocked when the temperature was below zero, it was a relief when we escaped to Izmir and it was >15C :D

I've noticed it rains differently on the continent. When it's raining here people will often shelter in doorways or bus shelters because they know it'll usually be done in a few minutes and they can wait it out. Scottish rain is very much a "today it is raining, and that's just how it's gonna be" thing. If I'm honest it never bothered me that much - a brolly will suffice in the city or a waterproof on a walk in the countryside.

Edinburgh's not so bad for rain. Not compared to Glasgow, at least.

The wind, however, is incessant from October to Easter, and somehow is always blowing into your face. When it does rain, it comes down sideways. Add wind chill to the already cool temperatures and it's absolutely bitter.

I love Edinburgh, lived there for a few years, but it's tough going.

> somehow is always blowing into your face

This might sound ridiculous but I can confirm it, really peculiar

I'll tolerate any amount of rain if I never have to sweat through another shirt.

And daylight hours…

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