BMI-type measure for a place's "goodness of weather"

If you're familiar with BMI (body-mass index), read-on:

I am trying to develop a single score, similar to BMI, for a place's "goodness of weather".

Yes, I am well-aware that BMI is flawed. But its simplicity is useful.

The data available to me are:

- MAX TEMP (°F)

- MIN TEMP (°F)

- AVG TEMP (°F)

- PRECIP (IN)

- SNOW (IN)

- Standard Deviation of each of the above.

Data are available for tens of thousands of weather stations in the USA, and are available in the following bin-sizes: annual, monthly, daily, hourly.

I think I want to use monthly data.

BMI is calculated as: weight in kilograms (kg) divided by height in meters, squared (m2).

In your opinion, what should the formula for "goodness of weather" look like?

(Of course, people will disagree on what constitutes good weather. Some like San Diego weather, some like Denver weather. So, what would your formula look like?)

3 points | by profsummergig 4 hours ago

7 comments

  • brudgers 19 minutes ago
    people will disagree on what constitutes good weather

    There is no bad weather, only the wrong clothes.

  • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
    https://weatherspark.com/ might help you with arriving at some sort of climate scoring system.
  • sn9 1 hour ago
    Relevant metric: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_globe_temperature
  • codingdave 3 hours ago
    Humidity is missing from your list. As is wind chill. Really, you could almost make a score based on just those missing 2, because I can live with a great variety in all the others if I know those two.
    [-]
    • profsummergig 3 hours ago
      Good point. I'm guessing these 2 must be measured by the weather stations. I'll check the variables available.

      Update: dew point and wind chill are collected by the weather stations. So yes, I will now aim to incorporate them.

  • necovek 4 hours ago
    Those values are not independent variables, so some of them are superfluous (like snow strongly correlates with min and avg temp).

    But "good weather" is different for a farmer, a surfer, a skier or a city dweller.

    [-]
  • idbnstra 2 hours ago
    if I were creating a BMI for weather, another data point I would add would be max UV index. And ofc, have my 'ideal temperature' (I'll say 70) and then a max and min preferred temperature. And then maximum precip and snow inches. And then the formula for me would be how far each of those preferred numbers are from the places actual numbers (e.g. how far below my preferred min, above my max etc.)
  • JumpinJack_Cash 3 hours ago
    Dump precipitation, add hours (or minutes rather) of sun .

    London gets very little precipitation compared to Miami but gets 1500h of sun which is about 1300h of sun less than Miami which gets huge showers and then 2hrs later you are ready to hit the beach again.

    Also some of my favorites climates:

    Sydney, Cape Town, Aruba, Mexico City, Cabo San Lucas, Cotè Azur, Canary Islands

    [-]
    • profsummergig 3 hours ago
      You lucky person, you've seen a lot of cool places. You're right about hours / minutes of sun. I'll check if the weather stations collect that data.
      [-]
      • JumpinJack_Cash 3 hours ago
        not everyone of them, some just have good weather stats that entice me to go one day