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I never said barren and rocky. As for no storms, the West coast averages fewer than 5 thunderstorms a year, so many years will have none. The Mediterranean probably gets more, but a significant amount of Mediterranean climates get hardly any. And most places with these climates average no snow in year or maybe 1-2 days. Sure, snows can happen, but it is rare in most places with med climates.
The U.S. west coast looks like a whole different beast despite being labelled as "mediterranean". Seriously the mediterranean zones have no shortage of violent events, but like I said before heavy rain / storms happen more during transitional periods like september / october. Although I remember an intense storm and a flashflood in Montpellier, France, in August 2015 which caused several deaths.
If people in the US prefer seeing their summer vacations ruined by constant thunderstorms that's their problem. For snow, sure, it's not very common or extremely rare depending on where you are. Cold rain ? Well yes, winters can see rain, but it's not like a winter in the Shetlands. There are many sunny days in winter actually, at least compared to where I live.
People from the mediterranean zone in France usually complain about the overcast rainless days in the more northern, non-mediterranean zones in the country. They associate overcast skies with imminent rain. I see the mediterranean zones as pretty lively climates, with interesting flora and nature smells.
Med climates might grow a good range of plants, but they pale in comparison compared to Oceanic climates at comparable latitudes. I doubt there is a Med climate that can grow as many species as my climates, simply due to my area getting more precipitation.
Dry tolerant species handle wet conditions better than moisture loving species handle dry conditions.
I doubt it is that easy For example, in wet conditions "moisture loving species" often grow faster than the dry tolerant ones, and so they tend to win. At least this is what I observe in here.
Here in Italy we have Mediterranean flora along the coasts, but in the inland areas the broad-leaves forest predominates (in particular on the Apennines and at the base of the Alpine range). So we can compare quite different vegetation pattern from locations which are really close one to each other.
First of all, I would say that broadleaves forest has more trees, tall trees in particular, but I'm not sure at all that it has a larger number of plant species overall.
This is what I see in here, probably forests in New Zealand are different from ours under many aspects.
Med climates might grow a good range of plants, but they pale in comparison compared to Oceanic climates at comparable latitudes. I doubt there is a Med climate that can grow as many species as my climate, simply due to my area getting more precipitation.
Dry tolerant species handle wet conditions better than moisture loving species handle dry conditions.
A good deal of the plants that grow here are native to the Mediterranean. There are also a lot of plants native to the Balkans, China, and the eastern US.
I'm okay with Med climates, but I don't see the hype either. My favorites would be the ones with warmer winters and a slightly more even distribution of precipitation; it's just a bit weird to me to average 200 mm of rainfall one month and none in another, regardless of the time of year (though I have experienced one-year anomalies even more extreme than that: where I live we saw 13 inches of rain in July 2010 alone but next to nothing in March just four months prior).
What surprises me is that there are some dry Med climates like Athens that are close to the semi-arid border but still have iffy summer dew points. You'd kind of expect that low rainfall means low humidity and vice versa, but that's not always the case.
My ideal climate, however, remains unchanged: a sunny, warm tropical climate with highs in the 80s year round, pretty consistent 3.5-4" of rain each month, constant trade winds to avoid excessive perception of heat/humidity, and average relative humidity of about 40%
I prefer Lerwick, it has more people living in it I don't like places with less than 1,000 inhabitants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwoByFour
Tropics. Maui. Daytime temps are 75-82 year around. Ocean temp is 78-79 year around. Trade winds keep the humidity in a comfortable range.
I've looked the data for Kahului. I understand why people like that: beach and surf everyday. It's exciting to them, okay. I don't like it because it's too hot and sunny, I like having average highs below 10 °C (50 °F) in winter, because it feels good to me
Quote:
Originally Posted by muslim12
I prefer a 20/33 rule, med climates sound great to live in but terrible for a weather enthusiast unless sunshine and cold rain make you enthusiastic.
Frost is good. Frost is beneficial. Frost kill all the hideous things.
True
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