Friends from Bordeaux, if you feel like you can’t remember what the sun looks like, don’t worry, it’s not just your imagination playing tricks on you! Since the beginning of November, the Beautiful Sleeping City has been blessed with only 69.9 hours of sunshine according to weather records dated November 15, 2024. For the whole year of 2024, we’ve counted a total of 1735 hours, which is about 13% less than usual.
Readings Below Seasonal Norms
If our calculations are correct, Kevin, those 69 hours of sunshine represent about 4 hours per day when averaged over the first half of November. That means to catch those fleeting rays, you needed to be in the right place at the right time—and have a lot of luck!
Normal numbers for the autumn season? Not at all! According to the same tables, these hours of sunshine are 30% lower than usual when compared to seasonal norms.
The Rest of France Under Gloom
But the residents of Bordeaux are far from...ecirc;tre les plus mal lotis. Paris records only 9 hours of sunshine, Lille less than 7 hours, Dijon just 6 hours, and the title of dreariness goes to the Venice of the West... On November 5th, the city of Nantes recorded just 1 hour and 17 minutes of sunshine over the last 10 days. This phenomenon was intensified by thick fog, which completely prevented the planes from the Nantes-Atlantique aeroclub from taking off for nine consecutive days.
In the end, the pearl of Aquitaine seems to shine much brighter than its French counterparts.