Anecdotally, where I live in northern Europe, the weather seems to be stormier in winter, and this seems to be backed up by hard data. For example, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0078323411500193?via%3Dihub discusses the meteorology of the North Sea, confirms storms are more prevalent in winter because of stronger winds. And https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022526619886061 analyzes British coastal trade over the last few centuries, confirms this pattern historically.
But looking at weather patterns in other temperate regions, I seem to be seeing different results; Virginia and Japan are both said to have peak storm season in late summer, August-September.
What's the reason for this difference? I can think of a few possible explanations:
- The seasonality of storms is different at latitudes 35-40 compared to 50-55.
- It's different if you're on the west side of a large continent versus the east side.
- It's influenced by quirks of local geography such as the layout of the North Sea versus the Sea of Japan.
- The sources are talking about different things. Virginia and Japan are indeed stormiest in winter just like northern Europe if you talk about midrange storms driven by local meteorology; the peak in August-September is not for those kind of storms at all, but for hurricanes that come up from the tropics.
What is the explanation for the differing patterns?