Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well yea, I know that Europe is far more than just the Mediterranean region. I was just speaking of the Mediterranean region because I was talking about LA and that is the part of Europe that LA shares some similarities with. Personally, most of my favorite areas in Europe aren't on the Mediterranean coast. They're places like Prague, Brussels, Dublin, Glasgow, Munich, Vienna, London, Seville, Krakow, and Stockholm.
Clifornia's landspace is not an an eception. Almost every place on the planet shares some similarities with Europe: it's a vast and very diverse continent: from arctic Finland to Alps, real desert and palm trees in Spain.
Clifornia's landspace is not an an eception. Almost every place on the planet shares some similarities with Europe: it's a vast and very diverse continent: from arctic Finland to Alps, real desert and palm trees in Spain.
Yet very few regions of the world specifically have a mediterrenean climate and that sort of nature.
Med climate i.e. long hot dry summers and short humid mild to cold winters are all located on the western portions of that big land masses called continents , from about 30° to 40°.
So we have California , Central Chile , Cape Province (and I'd add Namibia too) , the area around Perth and Adelaide in Australia and of corse the Mediterranean basin.
All this is due to the distribution of land masses that drive oceanic currents in a specific way.
As the summers approach land masses get warmer faster than the oceans do so this creates gigantic low pressures (called cyclonic areas) in North America and Eurasia and high pressure areas (called anti-cyclonic areas) over the oceans , in the Northern hemisphere due to the Coriolis force the air is being pushed out of the anti-cyclonic areas clockwise and enter the cyclonic areas anti-clockwise , that's why we have in summers the California current , running from north to south , and refreshing coastal California , but keep in mind that all the air coming from an anti- cyclonic area is dry and cold , while the oppoiste is said for cyclonic areas.
So to sum it up , the Mediterranean climate zonea are the zones where during the summers the air come from the oceans relatively cold and dry , while the opposite areas (located on the easters parts of the continents say north eastern US and norheastern Asia) call in hot humid airs.
In the southern hemispher Coriolis force works the other way aorud , pushin the air out the anti-cyclonic areas anti-clockwise but the result is the same.
This maps says it all better
the blue currents work in the summer and keep the areas mild and dry , Californa Cape Province Morocco etc
how it works , let's imagine North America in summer is the low pressure areas and H is the pacific ocean , so you will have on the west "cold" (since it come from Alaska) and dry air , on the east (Washington to Boston) hot humid air , also imagine another High pressure area on the right of the L area , of course , that is to say the Atlantic ocean.
In that regard, yes. The debate weighs many factors. No single aspect will tell the whole story.
Too bad you are not pitching LA versus Helsinki: as we all know, not Mediterranean hence less European than LA Following your logic not only New York but most of Europe's cities would lose to LA as less European Don't you see how absurd you point is?
Last edited by insomniac123; 12-21-2009 at 05:33 PM..
Big fat Harry deal, LA is more like the Mediterranean part of Europe and NY is more like Northern Europe. LA's Architecture looks more like the Architecture of its corresponding European region, but NY functions more like a European city in terms of walkability, and having buildings from every era of it's regions history.
Clifornia's landspace is not an an eception. Almost every place on the planet shares some similarities with Europe: it's a vast and very diverse continent: from arctic Finland to Alps, real desert and palm trees in Spain.
That's somewhat inaccurate. Most of Europe has a Marine West Coast Climate and the landscapes to go with it. A lesser portion has Mediterranean, and even less has Continental climates (limited to Eastern Europe). There is a minor amount of Marine Subarctic and a scant sliver of tundra. Pretty limited.
The well known popular places are mostly Marine West Coast and Med.
Big fat Harry deal, LA is more like the Mediterranean part of Europe and NY is more like Northern Europe. LA's Architecture looks more like the Architecture of its corresponding European region, but NY functions more like a European city in terms of walkability, and having buildings from every era of it's regions history.
NY has a Humid Continental climate and the biota in and around it match that. The only place in Europe with such a climate is small portion of Eastern Europe. You need to go to NE Asia to see major examples of the type of area NY sits in. And that's a fact Jack.
Why is it Europe has to be identified only by the Mediterranean countries? IIRC, the greater part of European economy is based upon the colder, more dreary landscape nations. Countries like England, Netherlands, France, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, etc contributes a larger percentage of economy than the southern regions as the hypothesis says that colder climate force them to become more productive inside. The first country that people think in Europe has to be either UK or France. Italy & Spain trail behind them. So it's quite erroneous to say that European is identified by its warmer region, when the countries that people recall as Europe's foremost are the colder nations. There's a reason why most times Boston are called European, because it feels like in a GB city with the cobble stone houses and narrow roads.
The more northerly part of Europe is like OR and WA.
Marine West Coast Climate.
NYC is not Marine West Coast, it's Humid Continental. Like parts of China, Japan, Korea.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Following your logic not only New York but most of Europe's cities would lose to LA as less European 
