Northern town grimness calculator

Last updated 03 February 2012 at 12:00

This is an experiment to objectively determine if the North of England really is grim. Each day the weather from a number of towns is compared with a baseline (London) and determined to be better, worse or the same. For example, 'sunny' is better than 'cloudy' and so on (temperature is not considered). From this data a measure of grimness is calculated as follows:
grimness = (days worse than London - days better than London) / total number of days
This measure is known as the Morrissey factor for the town. A Morrissey factor of 1.0 means that the weather is always worse than London, while -1.0 means the weather is always better. For example, a Morrissey factor of 0.23 means the weather is worse than London 23% of the time. It is hoped that in the long term (100's of samples) the Morrissey factors for the different towns will settle and we'll finally know for sure if Londoners have been right all along.

Birmingham

The weather on 97 days out of 1008 days was worse than London
The weather on 81 days out of 1008 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Birmingham is 0.02

Barcelona

The weather on 67 days out of 898 days was worse than London
The weather on 140 days out of 898 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Barcelona is -0.08

Carlisle

The weather on 146 days out of 952 days was worse than London
The weather on 113 days out of 952 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Carlisle is 0.03

Leeds

The weather on 176 days out of 1008 days was worse than London
The weather on 130 days out of 1008 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Leeds is 0.05

Liverpool

The weather on 179 days out of 1008 days was worse than London
The weather on 132 days out of 1008 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Liverpool is 0.05

Manchester

The weather on 189 days out of 1008 days was worse than London
The weather on 124 days out of 1008 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Manchester is 0.06

Maryport

The weather on 153 days out of 952 days was worse than London
The weather on 116 days out of 952 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Maryport is 0.04

Sheffield

The weather on 187 days out of 1008 days was worse than London
The weather on 128 days out of 1008 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Sheffield is 0.06

Newcastle

The weather on 174 days out of 986 days was worse than London
The weather on 121 days out of 986 days was better than London
The Morrissey factor for Newcastle is 0.05