Climate in Pramousquier

Though geographically, Pramousquier (43.15°N, 6.45°E) is not the most southern place in continental France, it sets the record for sunshine and temperature in this country with nearly 2900 hours of sun per year, and an average annual temperature of 15.9°C.

One may wonder how this can be, at a latitude identical to that of Vladivostok (Russia), Milwaukee (WI-USA), Hobart (Tasmania), Sapporo (Japan), Concord (MA-USA) or Trelew (Argentina). Pramousquier is located quite a bit north, rather than south, of colder places like Tokyo (latitude 35.6°N - avg. temp. 14.7 °C), New York City (lat. 40.7°N - avg. temp. 12.6°C) or Chicago (lat. 41.9°N - avg. temp. 10.5°C).

We have searched through all available meteorological and climatic data (30 years averages 1961-1990)) of cities and places around the world in order to find the most similar climate to Pramousquier/Hyères County. The result seems surprising at a first glace, but it is not really unexpected when we look at the vegetation of the garden or of the Rayolgardens just at the east of this place: In Capetown, South Africa, average annual temperature is exactly the same, 15.9°C, average monthly temperatures are in the same range (seasons are adjusted in the chart on the right), and sunshine is nearly the same (5% difference in favour of Capetown) as in Pramousquier. However, Capetown (lat. 33.9°S) is almost 10° closer to the equator than Pramousquier, and just like Pramousquier, Capetown benefits from an even stronger climatic influence from the sea.

The wonderful climate in Pramousquier is due to the conjunction of 4 major influences :

1) the major influence of the Atlantic Gulf Stream that warms up entire Western Europe; 

2) the Mediterranean Sea with its marine climate and its proper circular stream that warms up the southern coast of France. This circular stream (nicely visible from space near the Rhone delta), counter clockwise enlacing the entire Mediterranean Sea at a pace of one circle per year, flows north from the eastern shores of the African Mediterranean to reach the western Italian coast, the Genoa Gulf and then the Riviera/Côte d'Azur;

3) the Mistral wind clears the sky from any cloud trying to approach the Rhone valley;

4) the Maures mountain range (the most southern outlays of the Alps) protect the coastline from clouds from the north and the west.

The conjunction of these influences reaches its highest climatic power right in Hyères County. Even sunny Nice and Cannes, with 2694 hours per year of sunshine, though doing better than Monaco (2583 h/yr), cannot equal Marseille (2835h/yr) or Hyères (2899 h/yr) (chart on the left). The same is true regarding temperatures (chart on the right).

On a world scale, there are not so many places out of the desert that do better than Pramousquier/Hyères regarding sunshine (chart on the left) - all of them are quite a bit closer to the equator. Still, no need to use an air conditioner here : temperature, though the highest in France when taken at its monthly or annual averages (chart), is never excessively hot in summer. Neither obviously could it be cold in winter (chart). On a world scale, many places are warmer (chart on the right), though none at this latitude, but can they do without air conditioning in summertime?

There is a huge demand in Europe for getting a place to stay in our region during summertime (with place for "only" 30 million people on the entire Côte including the less sunny north-eastern part near Cannes and Nice...). However, insiders and owners prefer the 3 other seasons. This is thought to be due to having more space to live, and not being stuck in traffic jams during these seasons. But are these the only reasons? Let's take a look once more at our climatic data. Not only is it a lot warmer throughout the year than anywhere else in France (especially in winter), also the "sunshine bonus" (percentage of extra sun in Hyères when compared to other places in France) is much greater during the fall and winter than during summer and spring (chart on the right), except for the south-western Mediterranean coast of France where this sunshine bonus is higher during summer.

All data are mean values over 30 years (1961-1990). New data over the time span 1991 to 2000 are starting to be published but they are not yet complete enough to be presented here. The global tendency in France is toward higher temperatures and 10% less sunshine, except on the Mediterranean seashore. Therefore the data presented herein are even more striking at the present time than they were during the period 1961-1990.

Taking the same calculation of sunshine bonus on a world scale, we find 3 patterns in the northern hemisphere (click on the chart below if you wish to see a more detailed chart including all data table):

1) a U-shaped pattern (London, Paris, Vienna, Moscow) with twice as much sun or even more in Hyères County than in these cities during the cold winter months; this pattern is found in cities generally located further north ;

2) a flat pattern with more sunshine in Hyères County throughout the year (Chicago); this pattern is found in cities with continental climate and located on a more southern latitude ;

3) an inverted U-shaped pattern, found in east-coast cities on more southern latitudes (NYC, Tokyo), and also in high mountain regions whenever they are above the clouds in wintertime (Mont Blanc - Pic du Midi in France, Zugspitze in Germany). Compared with Tokyo and to a lesser extent NYC, the sunshine bonus in Hyères County is quite clear in spring, in summer, and in early fall. Versus Tokyo, it remains above 50% from May throughout October, and even above 100% in June and July, but it turns negative during the winter. This means that there is more sun in December and January in Tokyo or NYC than in Hyères County/ Pramousquier, due to the southern latitude of these east-coast cities.

These patterns show that except when living in a few east-coast cities at latitudes lower than 43°N, or in very high altitude mountain regions (>2500m), the highest sunshine bonus when coming to our county from the northern hemisphere is during the seasons of fall, winter, and early spring. This is exactly what owners and insiders do!