{
  "schema_version": "immigrationdb-research-article-v1",
  "slug": "country-city-climate-choice",
  "url": "https://immigrationdb.com/research/country-city-climate-choice/",
  "title": "Does Choosing a Country Decide Your Climate?",
  "headline": "How much climate choice remains after choosing a country",
  "question": "How much of the seasonal climate a person experiences is decided by the country, and how much still varies between cities inside it?",
  "summary": "Does choosing a country decide your climate? Across 17,843 cities in 32 countries, city-level differences account for 50.4% of seasonal-spread variation.",
  "published": "2026-08-06",
  "updated": "2026-08-06",
  "author": "Maksim Streltcov",
  "license": "https://immigrationdb.com/legal/terms/",
  "sections": [
    "What we measured",
    "What the data shows",
    "Where it breaks down",
    "What this means if you are moving",
    "Limits",
    "Method",
    "Sources"
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "Does choosing a country decide what climate you will live in?",
      "a": "Only partly. Across 17,843 cities in the 32 countries with at least 20 observations, 49.6% of the variance in seasonal temperature spread lies between countries and 50.4% lies within them. The balance is not identical everywhere: city choice changes little in Ireland but changes the result substantially in the United States."
    },
    {
      "q": "Which country has the greatest city-to-city climate variation?",
      "a": "The United States has the widest observed city range among the 32 reportable countries: 41.8°C, from Roosevelt at 50.6°C to Koolauloa at 8.8°C. Both records use the 1991–2020 period. This is a range in seasonal temperature spread, not a ranking of which city has the best climate."
    },
    {
      "q": "Which country has the least city-to-city climate variation?",
      "a": "Ireland has the narrowest observed range in the reportable sample. Seasonal spread runs from 15.4°C in Carrigaline to 17.6°C in Celbridge, a difference of 2.2°C. Both rows use city-grain 1991–2020 normals, so the choice between those places changes this particular climate measure only slightly."
    },
    {
      "q": "What does seasonal temperature spread mean?",
      "a": "Seasonal spread is the warmest month’s average daily high minus the coldest month’s average daily low. It describes the temperature range built into a typical year. It is not the annual mean, a comfort score, or a forecast for the next summer or winter."
    },
    {
      "q": "Why can climate normals not predict next winter?",
      "a": "A climate normal summarises a reference period, usually 1991–2020 in this dataset. It describes the long-run monthly average observed at a city or linked station. A future season can differ from that average, so the normal is useful for comparing typical conditions but cannot forecast a particular year."
    }
  ],
  "countries": [
    "australia",
    "belgium",
    "canada",
    "germany",
    "hungary",
    "ireland",
    "japan",
    "luxembourg",
    "netherlands",
    "new-zealand",
    "portugal",
    "saudi-arabia",
    "spain",
    "united-kingdom",
    "united-states"
  ],
  "answer": "The packet covers 17,892 cities in 39 countries; the variance analysis uses 17,843 cities in the 32 countries with at least 20 observations. Of the variation in seasonal temperature spread, 49.6% lies between countries and 50.4% within them. In this city-weighted sample, choosing the city can matter about as much as choosing the country, although the balance differs sharply by destination."
}