What do you consider to be a cool, mild, warm, etc climate? (hot, ice)

[alex985]

Based on average annual temperature, what's your scale for a cold, cool, mild, warm, etc climate? Mine looks like this:


Extremely cold: < -15 c (< 5 F) Places like Eureka, Alert, Oymyakon, etc
Bitterly cold: -15 C to (5 to 14 F) Places like Barrow, Baker Lake, Prudhoe Bay, Tiksi etc
Frigid: -10 C to -5 C (14 F to 23 F) Places like Iqaluit, Churchill, Schefferville, Yakutsk, etc
Very Cold: -5 C to 0 C (23 F to 32 F) Places like Thompson, Fairbanks, Kiruna, etc
Cold: 0 to 5 C (32 F to 41 F) Places like Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Oulu, Quebec City, etc
Cool: 5 C to 10 C (41 F to 50 F) Places like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland (Maine), Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, etc.
Transitional (mild): 10 to 15 C (50 F to 59 F) Places like St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York, London, Paris, etc
Warm: 15 C to 20 C (59 F to 68 F) Places like Dallas, Atlanta, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, etc
Very warm: 20 C to 25 C (68 F to 77 F) Places like Orlando, Tampa, Cairo, Baghdad, etc
Hot: 25 C to 30 C (77 F to 86 F) Places like San Juan, Maracaibo, Panama City (Panama), Riyadh, Juba
Very Hot 30 C to 33 C (86 F to 92 F) Places like Mecca
Extremely Hot: >33 C Only place I'm aware of in this range is Dallol.

So in my estimation, Miami which has an annual average temp of 76.9 F (24.9 C) is a borderline very warm/hot year-around climate. My dream climate has a year around temperature of 6.4 F (-14.2 C) so in my scale my dream climate has a bitterly cold climate, erring almost towards the extremely cold side . My hometown climate (Tallahassee) has an average annual temperature of 67.7 F so a borderline warm/very climate. Where does your dream/hometown climate fit on my scale? Do you agree with my scale?

[Isleofpalms85]

My scale would be about the same, only I would divide the Transitional climates into two categories, Transitional Cool and Transitional Mild followed then by Mild and all the mild to very hot climates. I consider Indianapolis to be Transitional Cool personally and Evansville,Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky to both be Transitional Mild climates. Dallas, Texas is considered Warm Climate by people like myself.

[Caleb Yeung]

Unlivable cold: Below -20C (Only Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctic Plateau)

Extremely cold: -20C to -10C (Barrow, Cambridge Bay, McMurdo Station)

Very cold: -10C to -5C (Yakutsk, Iqaluit, Esperanza Base)

Cold: -5C to 2.5C (Nain, Moosonee, Rovaniemi)

Cool: 2.5C to 8.5C (Minneapolis, Stockholm, Harbin)

Mild: 8.5C to 12.5C (Boston, London, Wellington)

Lukewarm: 12.5C to 16C (Washington DC, Melbourne, Charlotte)

Warm: 16C to 21C (Jacksonville, New Orleans, Shanghai)

Very Warm: 21C to 25C (Hong Kong, Taipei, Hilo)

Hot: 25C to 30C (Singapore, Sanya, Havana)

Extremely Hot: Above 30C (Only Mecca and Dallol)

My dream climate fits well into the 'cool' category, while Hong Kong fits well into 'very warm'.

[Ethereal]

Did you base this on their annual mean or maximum temperature?

[mar89]

<4°C very cold (Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Yekaterinburg)

4-8°C cold (Montreal, Stockholm, Moscow)

8-12°C cool (London, Berlin, Seattle, Chicago)

12-16°C mild (Milan, Rome, Madrid, New York)

16-20°C warm (Seville, Algiers, Los Angeles)

20-24°C very warm (Cairo, Phoenix, New Orleans)

>24°C hot (Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco, Singapore)

[AdriannaSmiling]

No fair to take the annual average cuz it doesn't take into account seasonality at all. Eureka, California and NYC are close in annual averages but NYC has far warmer summers and far colder winters as well as far more standard deviation.

[kronan123]

Originally Posted by alex985

Based on average annual temperature, what's your scale for a cold, cool, mild, warm, etc climate? Mine looks like this:


Extremely cold: < -15 c (< 5 F) Places like Eureka, Alert, Oymyakon, etc

there needs to be a class below this. those places are tropical in comparision to summit camp, vostok and admundsen scott.

[alex985]

Originally Posted by theropod

Did you base this on their annual mean or maximum temperature?

Annual mean.

Originally Posted by AdriannaSmiling

No fair to take the annual average cuz it doesn't take into account seasonality at all. Eureka, California and NYC are close in annual averages but NYC has far warmer summers and far colder winters as well as far more standard deviation.

Well, what other way can you measure a climate? Annual average mean is a good way to tell which climate is "colder" or "hotter" than another one year-around. You can't really say NYC has a cooler or warmer climate than Eureka because the much warmer summers balance out the much cooler winters, so it makes sense they'll have similar annual average temps.

[alex985]

Originally Posted by kronan123

there needs to be a class below this. those places are tropical in comparision to summit camp, vostok and admundsen scott.

Yeah you're right, I was thinking of making a category for below -20 C (-4 F), but I was basing my scale mostly off of permanently settled locations. But you're right because Vostok has an average annual mean of -67.8 F (-55.4 C) which is way, way below the "extreme cold" threshold. So I guess that would be in the "unthinkable cold" category.

[arctic_gardener]

I think your scale is quite good and I would go with the same. I've lived in a 27 C climate and a 2 C climate and would describe them as you did: "hot" and "cold", respectively.

I also like the fact you focused on means. Too many people focus on maximum temps. only, but minimum temps. are very important as well (for gardening, sleeping, etc.).