We will be flying into Paris 10/10, and on to Normandy. From there we will be driving through France making our way to Nice on 10/20. We fly from Nice to Florence. After a few days, we will drive to the Tuscany region to explore, 10/23-28. Afterwards, back to Florence for a few days. My question is - what to expect weather wise? I know there is a chart in the RS book, but with weather changing and warmer temps, I was wondering if any of you may have some insight. Many thanks!
You are unfortunately not going to know the specifics until a few days before you leave. You can look at historicals of each day where you are visiting in many weather websites to give you an idea. Just use a search engine. I’m leaving for Germany today and where I’m going, it looks like it will rain nearly every single day. It’s pouring in NYC today anyway so I’m ready for it.
You can go on Wikipedia and check on each city you're visiting. They have a section that tells average temperatures high and low. Also average daily sunshine and precipitation amounts (if applicable.)
I use it quite often when planning trips.
The Weather in the south should be great. Seems as if the farther north you go in Europe after mid September that the weather can get iffy.
Rather than guessing from historical averages, you can look at any number of weather apps up until the day you leave for your trip, and see a forecast. If you're looking for info to help deciding clothes to pack, you can change things out until you're at the airport. If you might cancel due to a bad forecast, well, thats always a guess.
There are several weather sites where you can check the actual temperatures from the last couple of years. They tend to be warmer than the historical information. I find it helpful, as well as checking the current weather of where you are headed.
it will be hot... or cold...
I can only speak about Normandy. Typically, it is fairly rainy there. And that time of year is apt to be more rainy than other times, and it will be a cold rain too. Even in early summer, you are advised to always bring decent rain wear.
it will be hot... or cold.
Or in between
Thank you everyone!
I was just watching a blog from Paris. That was done about 10 days ago. They packed for historical temperatures. What they got was record-breaking heat. Unfortunately thanks to climate change. I’m not sure historical temperatures give us a lot anymore. I’m with others you just have to keep watching until the last possible second
I you have to be prepared for a range of temperatures, not just a bit of deviation from the average. I look at the actual, historical day-by-day temperatures for the places I'm going over the last five years, as reported on timeanddate.com:
Use the pull-down box at the right above the graph to change the month and year displayed. Use the Search box near the top right to find data for a different destination.
I mostly use the Wikipedia climate-summary charts for my target cities to anticipate precipitation. However, those are of questionable accuracy, given that the time period on which the averages are based cuts off in the year 2010 or even 2000. The temperatures in those charts can be very misleading.
Also keep in mind that the average high temperature for the month represents, at best, the average you might encounter during the hottest 2 or 3 hours of the day. It says nothing about what you'll face at 8 AM, 10 AM or 8 PM, much less late at night.