The cities with the most weeks a year of comfortable, dry weather for being outdoors. Of 86 towns and cities that draw visitors in East Asia, 86 have at least one Good stretch; these are the ones where it lasts longest.
The shortlist
- 1Good 20 of 36NagoJapan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 20 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about six and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 1, Poor. At its best in late November.
- 2Good 18 of 36MiyakojimaJapan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 18 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about six months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late November.
- 3Good 15 of 36TaipeiTaiwan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 15 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about five months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late November.
- 4Good 14 of 36MacauMacau
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 14 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 1, Poor. At its best in mid March.
- 5Good 12 of 36TateyamaJapan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 12 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in mid May.
- 6Good 12 of 36KujwaSouth Korea
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 12 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late May.
- 7Good 12 of 36SeoulSouth Korea
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 12 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late September.
- 8Good 12 of 36HakodateJapan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 12 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about four months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late September.
- 9Good 11 of 36MitoJapan
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 11 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in early June.
- 10Good 10 of 36SokchoSouth Korea
Easy outdoors rates Good or better for 10 of the year’s 36 ten-day sections, about three and a half months in all. Its weakest stretch still averages 0, Poor. At its best in late September.
How this list is worked out
The data
Every figure comes from a decade of weather-station observations, blended into one typical year and read at midday, local solar time. Scores here are across the whole year; a city missing a reading for any part of that stretch is left out rather than scored on part of it.
The rating
Easy outdoors: A comfortable feels-like gates the score — best 16–26 °C for an easy day out (strolling, sitting out, sightseeing). Dryness matters most; strong wind knocks it back. Sun is a bonus, not required.
The spread
To keep one warm corner from filling the list, entries are at least 150 km apart, no more than three sit within 1,000 km of each other, and no more than three come from one country unless the list would otherwise run short.
Only places that draw visitors
Towns and cities with plenty of hotels, guest houses and holiday lets nearby for their size, or a great many of them in all, counted from Overture Maps Places, an open dataset. That keeps out places the weather favours but nobody travels to. Where two places share one resort or city, the one a visitor would name is kept.
The dotted links open the map at that place and time of year, on the same layer. The map remembers the time of day you last chose there; set it to midday to see these exact numbers.