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I love this thread. Finally some people that think Atlanta is too cold...
Thanks... I am from California and was trying to say Atlanta and parts north were too cold and grey for me! And getting nagged about it by people. I don't really like any temps under 40s, ever. A daily low even under 60 is quite rare and only a few days a year. I don't even like those, much less Atlanta. I know it isn't Boston...but it is damn cold to me.
The RECORD low where I'm from ever is 27 (-3) Record low in Atlanta is -9 (-23) ... That is a 32 degree temperature swing... Quite a big deal in my book and creates that leafless dead tree look everywhere, depressing. I hate that kind of cold, under 50 to me is cold enough as it is. I guess it is all relative, I'm sure people who grew up in it can handle it better.
Atlanta to me is NOT sunbelt... It isn't about how HOT it gets, it is about how cold it gets. For instance, Minneapolis at 108 has a higher record high than Atlanta... Nothing like the warm cities in parts of Florida, Texas, California or Arizona. Remember it's still almost a 700 mile drive from Atlanta to Miami.
The winter in Atlanta doesn't preclude people there growing many broadleaf evergreen species that are native to China (with colder winters or similar to Atlanta). But you are right about the native forests.
I heard on another forum that the US is artificially deciduous. Meaning that after the last ice age retreated, the Gulf of Mexico and the SW deserts were seed blocks for the broadleaf evergreen forests re-colonizing their former areas before the ice age killed them off. Even Florida the tropical species are relatively new being lesss than 2,000 yrs ago. Bald Cyrpess is naturalizing now in upstate NY. Slowly but surely the southern speices are moving north again.
Eastern China at the latitude of Philadelphia is colder in winter, yet the native vegetation is heavily broadleaf evergreen with ilex, lithocarpus and camelia to name some. Places in China with the similar temps to places in Louisiana and Mississippi have almost tropical jungle like native flora.
China had no seed block since it is directly connected to the tropics of SE Asia.
Western Europe isn't exactly broadleaf evergreen abundant either. I belive their seed block was the Med. Much of northern Western Europe is warmer in winter than the northeast US, yet their native forest is deciduous (dead trees in winter) also.
Certainly Atlanta. A decent climate except for the bouts of freezing rain. Not really humid enough on average which I assume is due to the elevation, but far more comfortable than Sydney.
One thing I noticed. One marker for a sub-tropical type climate I once made up is that, if the average DIURNAL RANGE is larger than the average SEASONAL RANGE, than that climate is sub-tropical or tropical. For example, in Melbourne the average range in January is 14.0 to 25.8 - 11.8, in winter it's something like 8C. The annual average range probably around 10.5C. If the January average is 19.6C, and the July average say 10.0C, that's 9.6C, making Melbourne 'sub-tropical' in a way.
It seems more scientific to classify sub-tropical climates by their consistency...which would include climates such as Lima, which at that latitude should be tropical, but is cool enough to feel temperate.
One thing I always found peculiar was some super-continental climates, like Central Asia, tended to have small diurnal ranges but huge seasonal swings. I wonder what explains that?
Anyone think this is a valid point point ? - a bigger daily range than seasonal range = a subtropical characteristic.
Both fairly reasonable climates. I'd pick Atlanta on this one, mainly due to the higher sunshine hours. If sunshine hours were very similar, I'd stick with my home town.
US sunshine hours are overestimated by around 200-300 hours. Going by the measures according to international standards, Atlanta's sunshine hours will probably be around 2450 or 2550, lower than Sydney's 2660 hours. And no, Yuma might not be the sunniest place on earth after all.
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