Weather or Not

Last week I discussed how environmentally conscious citizens had helped shaped the two cities of Boulder and Bremen in similar ways, in particular with respect to bicycling, for instance. One thing that the local politicians cannot control, of course, is the weather (and we are not talking about global politicians dealing with global warming, a completely different subject!).  Comparing the weather in these two cities is not too difficult.  The winters are colder in Boulder, and the summers are hotter than in Bremen.  Fall and spring are very similar temperature-wise.  In fact, Boulder weather is more like that of southern German close to the Alps, where the Gulf Stream doesn’t have the strong influence it does on northern Germany, moderating the extremes in temperature a great deal.

There is a huge difference in psychology however.  If a Boulderite wakes up to a sunny day, they might well  say to themselves, “Ah, another sunny day. How nice .”  See the photo above.  If a Bremer wakes up to a sunny day, they might well say,” Wow, the sun is shining.  This is really great!”  There are just a lot more sunny days in Boulder (more than in San Diego or Miami, reckoned at 300 sunny days per year).  Complacency can set in, and when it is overcast, one knows that it is just for a day or so, and a major storm can last longer, of course.  I recall how last November and December in Bremen, there were almost no sunny days at all.  Between Christmas and New Years there were a few sunny (and crisp and cold) days, which were memorable, because they were memorable.  In Boulder, where I am now writing this, it’s is sunny almost every day, and therefore recalling a particular day as having been a sunny one would not be easy at all.  

Living in Germany half time, as we do, one can very much appreciate why the Greeks created the sun god Apollo, as when the sun does shine there, one feels one should worship the sunshine itself.