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648mm at Melbourne Regional office is roughly 25 inches of rain.
I could see Melbourne at times feeling semi-arid.
They do have mountains in the distance though, so VIC's green-garden image could be attributed to that. (wetter microclimates)
Toronto gets about 800mm or 30-32 inches of rain,
and because of a deeply-frozen winter, we should have a much slower evaporation rate.
The western suburbs of Melbourne are drier. Avalon Airport gets only 460mm of rain a year and the terrain around there has a distinct savannah/grassland appearance to it. The 1981-2010 30 year average is only 416.8mm, about 16.5 inches.
^^Yep the Daintree area (relatively small area around Innisfail, Queensland) is strictly speaking the only equatorial/tropical rainforest climate in Australia, as its the only one that meats the minimum 60mm / 2.36" rainfall for each month as well as temperature requirements. Winters there are noticeably drier though. Bamaga has very consistent temperatures but low rainfall in the dry season which prevents it from being termed equatorial.
I would agree with you there: Sydney, if you look an the annual mean (17 C) is about the same as Cape Hatteras (17 C) or for a bigger city/metro Virginia Beach, VA (16 C). Summers in these two spots are a bit warmer than Sydney and winters a bit cooler, but otherwise they are pretty close in climate/weather. I think it turns much more semi-tropical/subtropical south of North Carolina (Myrtle Beach south to the Gulf and west to Texas). I have been on the Outer Banks many times, and often the heat is quite nice, mostly in the middle 80's and always sunny. Also, there is always a strong breeze out of the Bermuda High, of course when you are on the Outer Banks of North Carolina you are 30 miles out to sea...so of course the wind is even stronger.
I'm gonna go with this one.
I've lived on the east coast my whole life from NYC down to Columbus, GA with 30 years of it spent living between the Jersey Shore and Charleston, SC. I've lived in Philly, Richmond, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Columbia and Charleston. I've traveled the area extensively during that period.
In coastal areas you'll find alligators as far north as the Myrtle Beach area in SC. You'll find planted palmettos growing as far north as Virginia Beach - although I've only seen them growing in the wild as far north as Georgetown, SC - and just south of there is where you also start seeing spanish moss hanging from the live oaks. In Wilmington, NC the sawtooth palmettos are everywhere. 90 miles northeast in Fayetteville they're a rare sight. During the 4 years I spent in Fayetteville we got snow or freezing rain at least once every winter. Wilmington never did. I never in my life saw a flying cockroach until I moved to Charleston.
The Outer Banks are considerably more mild (year-round) than inland areas but then, for all intents and purposes, they're islands that sit out in the Gulf Stream so as well they should be. Having surfed Hatteras a few times, north of the lighthouse the winter water temps are significantly colder than just south of the light.
In Charleston citrus isn't grown commercially but my boss's house (peninsular Charleston) had a 60 year old orange tree in the courtyard (i've seen others on the islands between Charleston and Savannah) I ate from it. He said that most winters (December/January) they freeze and explode but the rest of the year it's fine. All of my friends in Melbourne had mature lemon, orange or grapefruit trees in their yards. I was there in summer and the temps ranged from about 60F to around 110F. Everyone there described the weather as "changeable" which, spending most of my years in the Mid-Atlantic region i'm certainly used to but I never got the impression that it was a frigid place and seeing the wide variety of palms and citrus on display in & around Melb. I don't quite believe that it ever gets truly cold there.
Now, Sydney. I was there in January and I never thought to compare the weather to anywhere on the east coast of the US. My first impression was that it was a slightly warmer version of Oakland, CA. Maybe it rains more in Sydney but the temps never broke out of the low 70s the whole time I was there and I never felt anything resembling humidity except maybe for some moisture on a sea breeze. .
I will say that when I moved back up north I had a different tolerance for heat and humidity as well as a different tolerance for the cold. When I moved to Philadelphia it hadn't occurred to me that I no longer owned a proper winter coat, a hat, a scarf or a pair of gloves until I looked out the window and saw a blizzard. I was also not prepared for how much more humid it was here in the summer than just 60 miles away at the coast where i grew up.
It could be that because most Australians don't know a truly cold climate and don't know a truly humid climate they're prone to exaggerate on the chill of Melbourne or the humidity of Brisbane. I'll be in Brisbane in February so I'll be sure to weigh in.
Last edited by drive carephilly; 12-09-2012 at 07:42 PM..
I've lived on the east coast my whole life from NYC down to Columbus, GA with 30 years of it spent living between the Jersey Shore and Charleston, SC. I've lived in Philly, Richmond, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Columbia and Charleston. I've traveled the area extensively during that period.
In coastal areas you'll find alligators as far north as the Myrtle Beach area in SC.
In Charleston citrus isn't grown commercially but my boss's house (peninsular Charleston) had a 60 year old orange tree in the courtyard (i've seen others on the islands between Charleston and Savannah) I ate from it. He said that most winters (December/January) they freeze and explode but the rest of the year it's fine.
I will say that when I moved back up north I had a different tolerance for heat and humidity as well as a different tolerance for the cold. When I moved to Philadelphia it hadn't occurred to me that I no longer owned a proper winter coat, a hat, a scarf or a pair of gloves until I looked out the window and saw a blizzard. I was also not prepared for how much more humid it was here in the summer than just 60 miles away at the coast where i grew up.
Intersting post.
Actually there are thousands of gators, between 4k and 5k in North Carolina, some as far up as the VA border on the coast (Dismal Swamp).
I actually spent a week vacation once near this place ( I was at Long Beach, NC).
There is a guy living near Charleston that started the citrus growing forum. Most people growing citrus around Charleston to Savannah grow early season ripening oranges so that they are picked from the tree before temps go below 32F in late December. In Charleston County alone USDA inspectors located over 3,000 backyard citrus trees. Quite a few more most likely went uncounted according to ag experts.
Citrus grows easily in Charleston, SC and points south. Charleston city itself was once the site of an orange grove. Many people have trees grown from seeds in their backyards. No special root stock even used.
I'm not sure I agree about the humidity in Philly vs 60 miles away at the coast. My parents live in Sea Isle City, NJ, so I'm there at all diff times of year. In summer the air feels much more humid at night than in Philly, particularly in August. I think the diff is that Philly is hotter due to the lack of a sea breeze so the heat and humidity feels more oppressive than along the coast with the sea breeze.
Interesting. I would expect that they'd also be up around Wilmington since it's really not much further north than Myrtle but I've never seen them for myself any further north than Huntington Beach State Park which is just south of Myrtle.
Quote:
There is a guy living near Charleston that started the citrus growing forum. Most people growing citrus around Charleston to Savannah grow early season ripening oranges so that they are picked from the tree before temps go below 32F in late December. In Charleston County alone USDA inspectors located over 3,000 backyard citrus trees. Quite a few more most likely went uncounted according to ag experts.
I always assumed this but had no way to be sure. If I see a few orange trees in side yards or front yards there must be many more hidden in backyards as well. I'm just saying what i've seen based on casual observation.
Quote:
I'm not sure I agree about the humidity in Philly vs 60 miles away at the coast. My parents live in Sea Isle City, NJ, so I'm there at all diff times of year. In summer the air feels much more humid at night than in Philly, particularly in August. I think the diff is that Philly is hotter due to the lack of a sea breeze so the heat and humidity feels more oppressive than along the coast with the sea breeze.
Yeah, I guess i'm talking about the heat index and relative comfort. I know it's more humid along the shore at night. If you look at any night at light you can often see the mist blowing past it. You can feel it on your clothes. But there's just no question that during the day it's far worse here. During the last heat wave here when the temp was around 102 in the city it was 78 degrees at the beach. Maybe the relative humidity at the beach was a little higher that day but given a 24 degree difference there's really no point to that argument. Like I said, i grew up there, 2 miles inland even and we used a/c maybe 10 days per year. When it got hot in the house during the day we went to the beach. At night we would switch on the attic fan for a few minutes and the house would cool right off. On the rare night with a humid, southwest wind we would put the a/c on.
Let's compare how many climates Australia has vs how many California has based on Köppen:
Australia:
Aw - Tropical Wet and Dry
Af - Tropical Rainforest
Am - Tropical Monsoon
BSh - Hot summer steppe
BWh - Hot summer desert
Cfa - Humid subtropical
Cwa - Humid subtropical dry winter
Cfb - Oceanic
Csa - Hot summer Mediterranean
Csb - Cool summer Mediterranean
Cfc - Subpolar oceanic
California:
Csb - Cool summer mediterranean
Csa - Hot summer mediterranean
Dsa - Continental mediterranean hot summer
Dsb - Continental mediterranean cool summer
BSh - Hot summer steppe
BWh - Hot summer desert
BSk - Cold summer steppe
11 for Australia vs. 7 for California.
Australia wins... now of course to be fair Australia is almost 18 times larger...
Exactly my point.
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