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The Mid-Atlantic and the Lower Midwest have the most distinctive and balanced four seasons.
Most places have four distinctive seasons, but the question of how balanced they are climatologically is a very different one.
Disagree, most of the Lower Midwest and Upper South hardly see winter weather most of the time during the winter season, therefore it doesn't have four distinct well defined seasons.
The Mid-Atlantic and the Lower Midwest have the most distinctive and balanced four seasons.
Most places have four distinctive seasons, but the question of how balanced they are climatologically is a very different one.
I disagree; the Upper Midwest has substantially more pronounced seasons (particularly summer and winter). Minnesota for instance is reliably hot in the summer but also reliably cold and snowy in the winter. The Lower Midwest doesn't really have much of a winter at all to speak of.
England does have a mild winter, but its climate is very mild/oceanic, as it is moderated by the Gulf Stream. Due to its higher latitude, it has a much larger difference in length of day in the winter compared to the summer.
Winter/summer are really astronomical seasons more than meteorological ones, hence why we use the astronomical benchmarks in our calendars.
The idea of winter as being demarcated by reliable snow cover and constant sub-freezing temperatures is novel and limited to one corner of the world - and almost certainly more the byproduct of the romantic association of snow with Christmas in popular culture the last 100 or so years.
Winter/summer are really astronomical seasons more than meteorological ones, hence why we use the astronomical benchmarks in our calendars.
The idea of winter as being demarcated by reliable snow cover and constant sub-freezing temperatures is novel and limited to one corner of the world - and almost certainly more the byproduct of the romantic association of snow with Christmas in popular culture the last 100 or so years.
I see winter in most of the South and the lower Midwest to just be an extension of fall. There isn't that much a difference between winter and fall and spring and summer compared to the upper midwest.
I-40 isn't maybe a good spot for defining "winter" but the "harshness" of winter can certainly be defined by I-40.
You get north of I-40 you are likely to get some pretty cold weather in winter. South of it you can usually count on mild winters.
In my state this can be illustrated by two towns on I-35 that are about 100 miles from I-40 in each direction. Blackwell (north) OK has an average high of 46 to 47 degrees in the winter. Marrietta, OK averages in the mid 50s in the winter. Blackwell gets nine inches of snow per year. Marietta gets four.
I remember talking to a contractor here in OKC years ago and he made this comment. He said one of the most frustrating things about being a contractor in OKC (on I-40) is that you never knew how much you were going to be able to work in the winter. He said, "in Wichita you pretty much know you are going to be limited in how much winter work you are going to get done. In Dallas you can be pretty confident that you can work all winter. In OKC there is no telling."
Last edited by eddie gein; 02-24-2023 at 09:14 AM..
I'd argue that even Indianapolis is only a three-season climate. Winters are so warm there people can grow Southern Magnolias, which is almost a tropical species.
The odd caveat of Indiana is that I can grow many northern trees well in my yard in southern Indiana. This is because of being double the elevation of the Ohio River, and milder summer temperatures with 55 inches of precipitation a year. I have Eastern Hemlocks, White Birch, Sugar Maple, Red Pine, White Pine, and Canaan Fir (very similar to Balsam Fir).
I disagree; the Upper Midwest has substantially more pronounced seasons (particularly summer and winter). Minnesota for instance is reliably hot in the summer but also reliably cold and snowy in the winter. The Lower Midwest doesn't really have much of a winter at all to speak of.
I see winter in most of the South and the lower Midwest to just be an extension of fall. There isn't that much a difference between winter and fall and spring and summer compared to the upper midwest.
All seasons extend into each other because there's nothing in nature that would lead to conditions just changing from one status to another on a date marked in a calendar. There's gradual change and the idea that this change is steady and reliable, and allows you to clearly define its stages is rather far-fetched. There's a variety of conditions affecting these changes, such as altitude and proximity to large bodies of water, and things can vary wildly from year to year because specific multi-week weather patterns can lead to perceived 'early springs' 'late winters' etc.
Really, seasons are caused by astronomical realities which affect areas of the globe in different ways with the strongest effect being toward the poles and the smallest toward the equator. But someone might say that the poles have 'no summer' because there's permanent snow cover and it's almost always below freezing and yet they actually have the 'purest' seasons. The only places on earth without summer/winter type seasons are around the equator. A place like Belem, Brazil for instance would be an example. But of course those places tend to have dry/wet season differentiation.
No area inside the U.S. is in that zone though - even South Florida has pretty notable seasonal variation following the classic astronomically-caused winter/summer dichotomy with temperatures peaking in August and bottoming out in January.
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