Spring Weather at Ramstein Rheinland-Pfalz, GermanyDaily high temperatures increase by 23°F, from 45°F to 69°F, rarely falling below 35°F or exceeding 81°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 18°F, from 30°F to 48°F, rarely falling below 20°F or exceeding 56°F. For reference, on August 4, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Ramstein typically range from 54°F to 77°F, while on February 9, the coldest day of the year, they range from 29°F to 41°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Anmore, British Columbia, Canada (5,013 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Ramstein (view comparison). CloudsThe spring at Ramstein experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 60% to 53%. The clearest day of the spring is May 29, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 47% of the time. For reference, on November 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 74%, while on July 27, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 60%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Ramstein, the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 21% and ending it at 33%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 33% on May 30, and its lowest chance is 21% on February 29. Over the course of the spring at Ramstein, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 19% to 33%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 1% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 0% throughout. RainfallTo show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring at Ramstein is increasing, starting the season at 1.2 inches, when it rarely exceeds 2.4 inches or falls below 0.3 inches, and ending the season at 2.2 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.9 inches or falls below 0.9 inches. The highest average 31-day accumulation is 2.2 inches on May 30. SunOver the course of the spring at Ramstein, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 4 hours, 57 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 3 minutes, 16 seconds, and weekly increase of 22 minutes, 50 seconds. The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 11 hours, 2 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 15 hours, 58 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the spring at Ramstein is 7:11 AM on March 1 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 43 minutes earlier at 5:28 AM on May 31. The earliest sunset is 6:13 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 3 hours, 14 minutes later at 9:26 PM on May 31. Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 3:00 AM on March 31, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:22 AM and sets 16 hours, 17 minutes later, at 9:39 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:23 AM and sets 8 hours, 10 minutes later, at 4:32 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon. HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Ramstein is essentially constant during the spring, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on July 10, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 4% of the time, while on October 22, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Ramstein is rapidly decreasing during the spring, decreasing from 9.7 miles per hour to 7.6 miles per hour over the course of the season. For reference, on January 17, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.4 miles per hour, while on August 4, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.2 miles per hour. The lowest daily average wind speed during the spring is 7.6 miles per hour on May 29. The hourly average wind direction at Ramstein throughout the spring is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 42% on March 13. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Ramstein typically lasts for 5.7 months (175 days), from around April 26 to around October 17, rarely starting before April 8 or after May 17, and rarely ending before September 25 or after November 7. During the spring at Ramstein, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly increasing rising from 0% to 99% over the course of the season. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Ramstein are increasing during the spring, increasing by 366°F, from 7°F to 374°F, over the course of the season. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Ramstein is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 3.8 kWh, from 2.5 kWh to 6.3 kWh, over the course of the season. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Ramstein are 49.437 deg latitude, 7.600 deg longitude, and 761 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Ramstein contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 486 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 818 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,263 feet). Within 50 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (2,595 feet). The area within 2 miles of Ramstein is covered by trees (50%) and artificial surfaces (39%), within 10 miles by trees (42%) and cropland (33%), and within 50 miles by cropland (40%) and trees (39%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Ramstein, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointRamstein has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back include but are not limited to Zweibrücken; Idar-Oberstein; Pferdsfeld; Saarbrücken Airport; Frankfurt-Hahn Airport; Strasbourg International Airport; Buechel; and Baden Wurttemberg, Neuostheim. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . 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