Hottest & Coolest Summer Cities
 

Looking for a place to escape the heat? Or is hot the way you like it? These are the world's major cities (750,000+ urban area population) ranked by the mean temperature of the hottest month. I'll be posting a few cities at the time so that the list isn't overwhelmingly long and to make it fun trying to guess what cities are next.

Cities by region

Northern America: 62
Latin America: 94
Europe: 75
Africa: 92
West Asia: 53 (includes Iran & Caucasus)
Central & North Asia: 19 (includes Afghanistan and Asian Russia)
South Asia: 97
Southeast Asia: 42
East Asia: 155
Oceania: 6

Anyone think they know the coolest city? I'll post the first few after lunch.

Coolest city is obviously Portland... or wait, is it Austin?

Everyone knows it's Jacksonville ;)

North America hottest: Las Vegas
North America coolest: Vancouver

Latin America hottest: probably Belém
Latin America coolest: probably Lima

Europe hottest: Athens
Europe coolest: Helsinki

https://picresize.com/images/tgettyi...47e96be1cb.jpg
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/article...ures-in-la-paz
La Paz, Bolivia

https://i.imgur.com/QD3t3Zn.jpg

The coolest city by far is La Paz, Bolivia is also the highest.

Despite the tropical latitude of 16.3°S, the city never gets hot, thanks to its elevation of 4058m (13,314ft) at El Alto International Airport where the city's official weather station is located. Despite being located on a plateau, the airport is at a higher elevation than the higher peaks of many mountain ranges, including the Canadian Rockies, the Pyrenees, Japan's Mt Fuji, and anything in Australia and New Zealand.

La Paz's other weather station, located near its city center, is at slightly lower elevation, and gets a bit warmer, but is still significantly cooler than Bogotá.

The warmest month in Laz Paz is November, with an average high of 17.0°C and average low of 2.1°C. The record high is 25.4°C, which is extremely mild - even cities in the coldest parts of Siberia, or on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska, Canada and Russia have record highs of over 30°C. However, La Paz's winters are still much milder than these Arctic cities. Thanks to its tropical location, the annual temperature variation is quite small, with an average July high and low of 13.5°C and -4.4°C, respectively.

Cities remaining

Northern America: 62/62
Latin America: 91/94
Europe: 72/75
Africa: 92/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 19/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 155/155
Oceania: 6/6

The real question is which is the highest city in the world. And despite what you may have heard, it's not Portland. Or Austin.

True, but perhaps misleading, as a lot of those high altitude Latin American cities have low mean/median temps bc of plummeting night temps.

But since people generally aren't out at 3 AM, they aren't experienced as cold cities. Mexico City has massive evening to mid-morning swings year-round, Bogota would be even more extreme. Glasgow wouldn't. Just bc Mexico City is 50-60 F 1/3 of the time, there's no point to jackets for most, given you're generally sleeping.

I meant to choose La Paz, lol

https://www.fodors.com/assets/destin...sa_980x650.jpg
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-a.../san-francisco
San Francisco, USA

https://i.imgur.com/s41zRC5.jpg

The next set includes more cities in Northern Europe and high altitude Latin American cities, but also the first Canadian city. Calgary is a fairly northern city, but also located at a high elevation at the foot of the Rockies. However, we also see some cities that are neither at high elevation, nor all that far north, such as San Francisco, the major city with the coolest summers in the United States, which is influenced by cool ocean currents. However, this is also true for Concepción and Valparaiso in Chile, which are at similar latitudes and low elevations. Fittingly, Valparaiso is nick-named "Little San Francisco".

Northern America: 60/62
Latin America: 87/94
Europe: 68/75
Africa: 92/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 19/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 155/155
Oceania: 6/6

Bogotá does have bigger daily swings than Glasgow, but the days are still only 1C warmer in the summer, so it's still very mild year round by global standards. There's not many major cities that have highs of only 20C during the hottest month. And cool nights are important because it means you can open the windows at night and sleep in a cool room without needing A/C. Here in the Toronto area, days are often not exceptionally hot, but it's common to get humid 20C+ all through the night in the summer, and 25C around 10pm when you might want to go to sleep, so you kinda need A/C. Not so when it's 7-8C at night like in Bogotá.

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of cities in the Andes and Mexican Plateau that have cooler summer means than Lima.

The next set will include a city in a part of the world you might not expect to be so cool...

https://dutchwannabe.com/wp-content/...-promenade.jpg
https://dutchwannabe.com/what-to-do-...many-in-a-day/
Düsseldorf, Germany

https://i.imgur.com/Dug8bzo.jpg
This set includes the first African city, the capital of Eritrea, as well as the first Chinese city. Both are located at high elevations of about 2300m/7500 ft. Northern Europe continues to see many cities appear, with only one city remaining from the British Isles. Russia on the other hand still has yet to see a single of its 19 cities on the list appear.

Remaining Cities
Northern America: 58/62
Latin America: 87/94
Europe: 62/75
Africa: 91/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 19/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 154/155
Oceania: 6/6

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...kel_Square.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addis_...kel_Square.jpg
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia


https://i.imgur.com/60qMIhi.jpg

The biggest city to be revealed in the set is also the second reveal so far from Africa, the capital of Ethiopia. Russia also sees its first city - Tyumen, the first city built as part of Russia's expansion into Siberia. With Stockholm's reveal, Scandinavia has no more cities remaining.

Remaining Cities
Northern America: 58/62
Latin America: 86/94
Europe: 56/75
Africa: 90/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 18/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 153/155
Oceania: 6/6

Interesting. Would’ve thought Seattle and Vancouver would have cooler summer temps than SF without checking.

https://www.london.ac.uk/sites/defau...?itok=6LenFxuz
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-opinion/london-connection
London, UK

https://i.imgur.com/6BRfLcq.jpg

All but one city in this set is from Europe or Asian Russia, and with that, the British Isles and Benelux have had all their cities revealed.

Remaining Cities
Northern America: 58/62
Latin America: 85/94
Europe: 49/75
Africa: 90/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 16/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 153/155
Oceania: 6/6

Portland is cool and hot! Our all time high was hotter than both Austin and Houston, 116, set last summer.

https://picresize.com/images/rsz_joh...d4aac2d710.jpg
https://www.roughguides.com/article/...-johannesburg/
Johannesburg, South Africa

https://i.imgur.com/kouh46U.jpg

Two African metropolises appear in this set. Nairobi is located on the high elevations east of the African Rift, between Mt Kenya and Mt Kilimanjaro (the tallest peak in Africa), which means that despite being only 200km from the equator, the temperatures are consistently warm, but never truly hot. Johannesburg is located at a similar elevation, but 3000km from the equator. Although this results in Johannesburg being cooler overall, it also has more distinct seasons, so the fact that it gets 3.5 hours more daylight in its warm season than its cool season results in similar temperatures in its warmest month as Nairobi (but a cooler cool season).

Remaining Cities
Northern America: 58/62
Latin America: 85/94
Europe: 45/75
Africa: 88/92
West Asia: 53/53
Central & North Asia: 12/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 153/155
Oceania: 6/6

https://picresize.com/images/rsz_010...6xpgdt958e.jpg
https://www.trip.com/travel-guide/at...city-18700742/
Sana'a, Yemen

https://i.imgur.com/nZE8A6D.jpg

With this set, the last German and Polish cities have been revealed. Several Russian cities appear in this set too, including the capital, however, 8/12 of European Russia's cities remain, as their July mean temperatures are above 20.0C. The set also brings us the Oceanian city with the coolest summers - Auckland, New Zealand. We also get the first city in West Asia - Sana'a, Yemen, which is an oasis of mild temperatures compared to the surrounding scorching hot cities of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf.

Remaining Cities
Northern America: 56/62
Latin America: 85/94
Europe: 39/75
Africa: 88/92
West Asia: 52/53
Central & North Asia: 12/19
South Asia: 97/97
Southeast Asia: 42/42
East Asia: 153/155
Oceania: 5/6

Vancouver was 4th coolest after San Francisco, Calgary and Edmonton.

Helsinki was 10th coolest after Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Oslo, Essen and Hamburg - tied with Amsterdam, Portsmouth and Copenhagen.