It never rains but it pours and it’s certainly been bucketing down here in our part of the world, the Lucchesia. More bucketing days are expected. Rain in our part of Italy isn’t that boring London drizzle – it’s insistent and often dense and just carries on and on. Umbrellas are an absolute must!
In Lucchesia and Garfagnana, the rain falls mostly in the winter, with relatively little of the wet stuff in the summer. Our climate is considered to be C (Temperate), s (Dry summer), b (Warm summer) according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average temperature ranges from 14 down to 12.7 °C. The rainfall here averages 921 mm per annum.
(The view from our house today)
The climate is warm and temperate in my birth-town. London has a significant amount of rainfall during the year. This is true even for the driest month. The climate there is classified as C (Temperate), f (Without dry season), b (Warm summer) by the Köppen-Geiger system. The average annual temperature is 11.1 °C in London. The average annual rainfall is 621 mm.
These facts lead to some interesting points.
Annual Rainfall in London is roughly just two thirds of what it is here ‘under the Tuscan sun’.
Most London rain falls in summer whereas here most of it falls in winter.
When it comes to annual hours of sunshine, London has 1481 hours, which means an average of a little over 4 hours a day. Lucca has 2273 hours, which means an average of a little over 6 hours a day. That’s a third more than in London.
Of course, these are average, not seasonal sunshine figures. Combined with the quirks of rainfall in the two different regions it means that Lucca’s average daily summer sunshine hours are 8 hours compared to London’s 3 hours. More than double….to say nothing of the higher temperatures.
Sunshine can also be measured in different ways. Is the day going to be described as ‘cloudy with sunny intervals’ or ‘sunny with cloudy patches’?
Finally, the London weather is so much more volatile than Lucca’s weather. Visitors to the UK’s capital say they never know what to wear and that every day seems to bring forth all four seasons.
It’s all about the difference between a maritime and a continental climate.
Lucca is also surrounded by hills on its southern and mountains rising to over 6,500 feet on its northern sides so that the city is often protected from the following winds which can greatly affect its temperatures. True, London has its Chilterns and North Downs but the highest point, at Leith Hill, is still under 1000 feet, offering little temperature variation and climate protection.
Now for your Italian lesson on the names of winds. No ‘sou-westerlies’ here. Learn these names if you want to understand what the weather-person is saying about ‘ventilazione’ in the forecast.
La Tramontana–north, from the Latin expression intra montes or Trans montes (beyond the mountains) referring to the fact that this wind blows from the Alps
Il Maestrale—North west.
Il Ponente–west, where the sun sets
Il Libeccio – South west, from Libya
L’Ostro (or il vento di Mezzogiorno)- South.
Lo Scirocco–-southeast, from the Arabic word shulùq, wind from the south
Il Levante–east, where the sun rises
Il Grecale–northeast, from Greece
London, on the other hand is an estuary port – a geographical feature excellently described in Stephen Liddell’s post at:
https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2018/01/27/busting-the-myth-of-london-being-a-rainy-city/
Actually, regarding the weather, I realise I’ve already written one post on it this year. It’s at https://longoio3.wordpress.com/2018/02/07/our-winter-weather-so-far/
But that was winter. Now it’s the end of happy spring and a little less than two months from glorious summer.
Our more venerable locals state that there used to be four seasons a year in this part of the world when they were younger. ‘Where’s our spring and where’s our autumn gone?” they ask me.
Food for thought and certainly weather for the ducks as I look around our garden…..
PS In case you were wondering, the Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used classification systems. It was first published by Russian German climatologist Wladimir Köppen(1846-1940) in 1884.
This is the full classification system. How would you describe the climate where you live?
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| A (Tropical) | f (Rainforest) | |
| m (Monsoon) | ||
| w (Savanna, Wet) | ||
| s (Savanna, Dry) | ||
| B (Arid) | W (Desert) | |
| S (Steppe) | ||
| h (Hot) | ||
| k (Cold) | ||
| n (With frequent fog)[9] | ||
| C (Temperate) | s (Dry summer) | |
| w (Dry winter) | ||
| f (Without dry season) | ||
| a (Hot summer) | ||
| b (Warm summer) | ||
| c (Cold summer) | ||
| D (Cold (continental)) | s (Dry summer) | |
| w (Dry winter) | ||
| f (Without dry season) | ||
| a (Hot summer) | ||
| b (Warm summer) | ||
| c (Cold summer) | ||
| d (Very cold winter) | ||
| E (Polar) | T (Tundra) | |
| F (Eternal winter (ice cap |
From London to La Costa (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three 