Sunshine Atlas
Where is it sunny in January? Spin the globe
14 followers
Where is it sunny in January? Spin the globe
14 followers
An interactive weather map of the world: spin the globe and see where it's sunniest, warmest, coldest or rainiest in any month — 3,800+ destinations, every one with its own airport.
question on the underlying data since that's what actually matters for trip planning: is "sunny in January" based on long-term historical climate averages, or something closer to real recent-year patterns? asking because climate averages can quietly lie to you now, a place that was reliably dry in january for the last 30 years isn't necessarily still dry in january given how much regional weather patterns have shifted in just the last several years. and how is "sunny" itself scored, percentage of clear-sky days, hours of sunshine, something else
@galdayan Thank you for the comment. I am not a very tech person but this is the answer I got from Claude for the data:)
honest answer: it's long-term climate normals, not recent-year — so it's exactly the "averages" case you're wary of. every score is built from ~30-year gridded climatology (CRU / NASA POWER) for temperature, rainfall and sunshine hours.
You're right that those smooth over recent drift, so i treat the scores as a comparison tool ("is January reliably drier in Faro than Nice?") rather than a forecast for next January.
@flightmussy that's a genuinely honest answer, most tools in this space would just say "sunny" and let you assume it means something more current. comparison-tool framing is the right way to sell it too, "reliably drier" is a claim 30-year data can actually support, "will be sunny" isn't. might be worth putting a line like that directly in the UI somewhere, since most users won't dig into a comment thread to learn it's climatology and not a forecast.
How does it handle destinations where the nearest airport is actually a few hundred miles away, like remote islands or mountain towns?
@memetj9cn Great question!
At the moment I am a bit unsure on how it should handle not flyable destinations. There are some points where you can see some relevant information and the distance to the closest airport. Hence, this is an area which is still under work.
The spinning globe feature is genuinely fun to play with, especially jumping between destinations to compare December weather in Sydney versus Reykjavik. I appreciated seeing every spot tied to an airport, which makes it practical for planning actual trips.
@cemre46338 Thank you!
Spun the globe to random places and it instantly showed airports and weather patterns, which is way more useful than I expected for trip planning.
@yazkrmazvmqc Thanks! I am glad that you found it useful:)
Spent way too long spinning the globe looking for the sunniest spots in February, smooth and fast with real airport info right there. The rain vs sun toggling is genuinely fun to mess with.
@zmravbal Thanks a lot!
Love that every destination has its own airport listed. Such a small touch but it makes the whole thing feel usable instead of just pretty.
@canselgzeyahv8 Thank you!
The globe spin feels so natural and the airport detail for every destination is a clever touch, makes it actually useful for trip planning.
@krebole88711 Thank you very much:)