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Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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I made this map quite voluntarily few days ago, and I wondering if those places which have the least thundery month in summer and the most thundery month in late autumn, winter and early spring, this could prove to be a way to classify them as true subtropical climates.
Well, many people tend to classify that by average temperatures, tough this could help too.
As a Spaniard weather enthusiast, I always thought that Mediterranean climates being classified as true subtropical climates too are located only in the southern Iberian coast, whereas anywhere north of it is not subtropical but warm temperate, just some kind of "Mediterranean warm temperate" in most of Iberian peninsula, and temperate oceanic in the far N and NW.
In hot summer climates, convection would be the main source of thunderstorms, and that would typically slow down during the colder months.
In a climate like mine, contrasting warm/cold air masses is the main cause, and this increases during the colder months, as there are more cold fronts. Warm air masses are constant all year, so their frequency, doesn't really impact the timing of thunderstorms.
Higher latitude climate (similar to mine) that don't get frequent winter thunder, could perhaps have less warm air masses nearby? - I suppose that could be a sign of less subtropical-ness
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,573,976 times
Reputation: 1036
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe90
I guess it depends on the type of thunderstorms.
In hot summer climates, convection would be the main source of thunderstorms, and that would typically slow down during the colder months.
In a climate like mine, contrasting warm/cold air masses is the main cause, and this increases during the colder months, as there are more cold fronts. Warm air masses are constant all year, so their frequency, doesn't really impact the timing of thunderstorms.
Higher latitude climate (similar to mine) that don't get frequent winter thunder, could perhaps have less warm air masses nearby? - I suppose that could be a sign of less subtropical-ness
Maybe for NZ, but there is another way to explain it better by southern European standards:
Subsidence during summer by subtropical high is quite strong to avoid summer thunderstorms by convection, and that often happens anywhere south to 37 paralel on western side of continents, such as southern Andalusia and Morocco (except for the core of Atlas mountain range which have frequent summer thunderstorms too).
Cold fronts are frequent in winter in southern Andalusia, Morocco and Canary islands so thunderstorms reach its peak from November to February.
Anywhere north of Sevilla thunderstorms reach its peak in summer, in spite of the driest season of the year, which probably indicates there aren't true subtropical climates but warm temperates, regardless of being mediterranean (most of Iberian peninsula), or temperate oceanic (N and NW part of Iberian peninsula).
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