Monday, November 14, 2011

Prague, Czech Republic VS Barcelona, Spain

With both Prague and Barcelona being located on the same continent and relatively close to each other (about 1700 km), one might generalize that the two locations experience similar weather patterns. While they both can experience some of the same types of weather, because of their differences in locals, proximity's to water bodies, and mountains,  Prague and Barcelona are very much different from each other.Both cities are affected by the Continental Tropical (cT) and Maritime Arctic (mA) air masses that move across the Earth. Unlike Prague, Barcelona rarely experiences snow because of it's proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and its influence on regulating the cities temperature as well as Barcelona's low elevation (12m) compared to Prague (365m). Barcelona's major air mass influences (cT and mT) create a subtropical climate that produces very little if any snow, moderate rain, and in the winter, overcast skies.


Source: climatetemp.info

Look at the annual temperature and precipitation differences above. In the summer months, Barcelona is on average 5 to 10 degrees warmer than Prague while in the winter, Prague can be almost 20 degrees colder than Barcelona. What is also interesting above are the relative humidity differences. As you can see, Barcelona experiences dramatic changes in relative humidity during the fall months where it increases from mid-July to mid-September and decreases during the colder winter months from mid- March to July.

  Prague                                                                           Barcelona
                  
The two maps above represent the current (11/14/11 at 3:00 pm) satellite images over the two cities.






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