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Why is that? Does the air it falls through turn into ice with it? Here actual snowfall is very rare below -6 C so hard to judge any such effects where I live
Even if their averages are much colder places like Schefferville and Matagami still get winter days with temperatures between -5C and 0C which is conducive for snowfall.
They also get a lot of snow during the shoulder seasons like Oct-Nov and Mar-Apr when temperatures are more regularly around 0C or just below.
But they're still too far south, humid and mild :-)) to be in the zone where there is very little snow in the winter.
That’s a reasonable point, but how much does dryness due to rain shadows really makes places like the Cook Inlet region of Alaska (Anchorage, Kenai) that different from much wetter subpolar oceanic regions with milder winters. Geologically, these regions could not escape glaciation as the very cold (and dry) hypercontinental regions of Asia could, and at least in winter none of them are as dry as inland East Asia.
The description of Mo i Rana given suggested there is much deciduous forest (more typical of temperate regions), rather than evergreen taiga, so I am not sure that even that is essentially different from what one sees in more continental subarctic regions with mean annual temperatures below freezing. And as I noted the Pacific rainforest of the permafrost-free subpolar zones extends well below the -3˚C (26.4˚F) winter isotherm. Reading about Saltdal, even with its low rainfall it still had heather-type vegetation typical of maritime subpolar zones rather than something typical of equally dry, but much severer, continental subarctic regions. I do feel that my revisions of Köppen’s classification suggested previously are not invalidated entirely, though I am open to further evidence and suggestions.
Another problem with the subpolar climate zone is subalpine climates at lower latitudes – I wonder why they could not have a capital H added after the climate classification (e.g. DfcH)? Subalpine climates are varied in themselves, from extremely snowy in western Europe, and North America, New Zealand or Southern South America to almost snowless in parts of the Tibetan Plateau.
I do agree with you on your main point.
Wet subarctic climates are in many regards the opposite of the typical subarctic climates (winter precip maxima, permafrost absent, glaciation, annual mean above 0°C).
I have earlier made a point about how extreme wide the subarctic climate zone (Dfc) is in Köppen's system:
From a coldest month mean of -3°C, or even 0°C like many here prefer, to coldest monthly mean of -39°C like in Yakutsk. In other words, from a climate where you can go outside all year (with some proper clothing) all winter without fear (like in Steigen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steigen) - to a climate where winter cold is extreme and dangerous, precluding most normal outside activities, for month after month, and with continous and extremely deep permafrost, like in Yakutsk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakutsk.
I very logical way of dividing the zone would be to use annual mean 0°C as permafrost pretty much impacts everything (nature, infrastrusture etc). Although permafrost usually does not appear untill annual mean reaches a little below 0°C, depending on insulation by snow.
Interesting that the Nordland, Troms and Finnmark counties in Norway combined have a larger population (around 480k) than Norrbotten County and Lapland Province in Sweden and Finland respectively put together (around 430k).
The Norwegian counties have a combined land area of 107,000 km2 while Norrbotten and Lapland are around 99,000 km2 each.
Lovely! I wonder how many precipitation days they have. I also like Ketchikan and Juneau, but they're above the threshold for subarctic. My one beef with subarctic climates is the cool summers...I generally prefer highs in the 60s and 70s, but the other characteristics are great (i.e. the cloudiness, wind, and rain).
Honorable mentions to Reykjavik and the Shetlands.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lommaren
Schefferville is a monster. But how on earth can there be 60 cm of snow in a month with 29 mm precipitation? SMHI says 1 mm rain = 1 cm snow in most cases???
Above all most of Eastern Canada gets a rotten deal for latitude, winter temps, snowfall, summer temps, high summer rainfal et cetera. It really says a lot that Moncton is one of the better climates in the region and yet it sounds like it tests gordo's life force every single winter
Lovely! I wonder how many precipitation days they have. I also like Ketchikan and Juneau, but they're above the threshold for subarctic...
Juneau has over 220 precipitation days, so I'd imagine Whittier would be at least 240 or so.
Another wet place in Alaska that is borderline subarctic would be Yakutat. It's adjacent to the largest non polar ice field in the world, and shows 240 precipitation days, with 155 inches.
What makes Schefferville such an awful climate for me is that it still gets the springs that take forever arrive, followed by very cool summers, despite being well inland. The winters you would expect to be cold, but why does it not warm up properly? It has much cooler summers than coastal Newfoundland, which is right by a cold ocean current. And its so cloudy as well, where it surely can't get coastal fog. Its definitely subarctic.
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