There Must Be A Change In The Weather Quiz

Answer: Pasadena

Up to ten states in the USA are drier than California on an annual basis. The state gets about 23 inches of rain annually.

Pasadena gets about 21 inches of rain each year, about 500 mm. That is well ahead of Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and San Diego, in that order. According to the city authorities in Pasadena, February is the wettest month, but July is the driest.

Los Angeles gets about 15 inches of rain annually (379mm); San Diego about 10 inches (260mm) and Bakersfield 6.6 inches (164mm).

If you like to go "Singing In The Rain" then New Orleans, Louisiana, is the US place for you, 115 days of the wet stuff giving 62.7 inches, or 1,592mm.

Answer: False

There is no reason for lighting not to strike the same spot over and over again, particularly if that spot is tall and higher than many others around.

All of this can be testified to by those familiar with the Empire State Building in New York City, which gets around 100 strikes a year.

Answer: Dallas-Fort Worth

A cricket ball measures at least 8.81inches, that is 22.4 centimetres, according to the Laws of the game. They also weigh in at 5.75 ounces, or 163 grammes.

Those hailstones in the Dallas-Fort Worth area came from a thunderstorm. Wind speeds of up to 160kmph have been measured in thunderstorms.

Official figures place the average number of deaths due to hailstones in the USA at 24 each year. In April 1888 an estimated 246 people were killed by hailstones near Moradabad, India.

Answer: Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica

Based on average annual windspeed, Guinness World Records has recorded the average annual wind speed at 50mph. The highest recorded was over 150mph.

Wellington, New Zealand, is the world's windiest city, with 29mph as the average wind speed. Chicago may have been the "windy city" for Doris Day, but it averages only 10mph.

Answer: Galveston, Texas

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane made landfall near the city. There had been little warning of its approach and between 8,000 and 10,000 people died. Just over a century later, up to 5,000 people died when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rica.

In December 2019, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that there had been 158 named Atlantic storms in the previous ten years. Hurricane season in the USA is reckoned to be between June 1 and November 30.

Answer: Northern China

According to Guinness Word Records, the estimates for death were between nine and 13 million. A lack of rainfall over three years caused crops to fail.

At about the same time, an estimated five million people died due to drought in India.

Answer: Furnace Creek, California

Specifically, that temperature of 134.1 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at Furnace Creek Ranch, California, (close to Death Valley) on July 10, 1903. That figure comes from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

We need to take these figures with a pinch of salt since there are difficulties in the meteorology of recording temperature. In early August 2020, similarly high temperatures were recorded in Death Valley, but had not been validated at the time this quiz was written.

While Furnace Creek was claimed to be the highest ever on earth, measurements on September 13, 1922, at El Azizia, Libya, gave a temperature of 58.0°C (136.4°F).

Answer: Glasgow

On average, Glaswegians need to reach for their umbrellas on around 170 days each year. Those days give 1,125mm (44 inches) of rainfall each year, although some other cities get more.

Manchester gets 36.6 inches (930 mm) of rain each year, on an average of 143 rainy days.

Answer: St. John's, Newfoundland

St. John's, Newfoundland, gets 131.9 inches of snow, that is 335 centimetres annually, on average. Of Canada's top ten snowiest cities, five are in Quebec. Montréal, is number ten on the list, with 82.5 inches, 209.6 centimetres.

Those figures are for gross snowfalls. The city that get the most days of snow is Saguenay, Quebec, with 93. Snow lies there for 155 days a year.

If you do not like snow - and can you call yourself Canadian if you hate the white stuff? - then British Columbia is the place to be. Victoria is the least snowy city, getting a comparatively paltry 13.3 inches, 133.4 centimetres.

Answer: Perth, Western Australia

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Perth gets 147 sunny days annually and 121 partly sunny. Poor old Melbourne only has 46 sunny days, that is a few days ahead of Hobart. Darwin gets 110 sunny days.

Australia, as a whole, is one of the world's sunniest countries. The World Cancer Research Fund puts Australia number one for worldwide skin cancer rates, 33.6 per 100,000 of population in 2018. Women are better than men at protecting their skins, 27.5 per 100,000 as opposed to 40.4 for men. Kiwis, meanwhile, should not get too complacent, their figures are high too.