around here: summer showers.

June 17, 2011

Rainy day in Prague

Generally speaking, April shower bring May flowers, but that's not really the case for Prague. In April it's still in the forties, and with any luck, it will probably snow. The weather stays wintery from about November to March, but overall the city has a pretty cool climate. 

Sitting about ten latitude lines closer to the North pole than New York City, the city is known for its extreme weather patterns. The winters can be brutally cold, and the summers can be just as brutally hot, and you know Europeans, there's definitely no fans, let alone some air conditioning. That appears to be an excessive luxury, only required by Americans...not sure why, because it's pretty grand. Anyways, the heating systems in Prague are pretty intensive with double windows, not double-paned like in the U.S, but actually two sets of windows about 8 inches apart. The Czechs really have the insulation thing figured out, I think, because they seem to be pretty well stocked in the heating department. They probably consider A/C pointless in necessity when compared to a heater, and if you've lived through a winter here, you'd probably know why.

Just as much as it snows in the winter, it rains in the summer. With rainfall highest from May to August, July sees the peak of rainfall reaching on average 18 mm per day. In addition, as a result of its global placement, Prague sees the daylight hours last from 4am to 9pm during the summer, and from about 8am to 4pm in the winter. 

I took this picture on a rainy afternoon in Prague, while waiting for the tram....in the rain. It gets rather annoying expecting rain every day, but generally it cools off after the rain. If you can find a good place to hide, it's actually quite nice. I took this picture because I liked the motion of the tram, contrasted with the stillness of the umbrella. I thought it captured a rainy day nicely, even though you can't really see the rain. Many people that live here, still don't carry umbrellas and just brave the rain.