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Apparently just a bit south of Sydney it goes from humid subtropical to oceanic, which I don't understand personally. I don't draw a distinction between Sydney and Jervis Bay for instance, they have the same climate. I've been wondering though, is there any particular reason why 22C is the warm to hot isotherm? Or any of the others, like 18C for tropical?
I feel 20 C is better for subtropical (as long as the coldest month is above 2 C).
Subtropical is supposed to mean some tropical influence and if the summer is 27/13 with a mild winter (say 8/2) there certainly is some influence from the tropics in terms of the summer and what is most important to me is that an oceanic climate is not supposed to be either warm or cold. If there is a warm season, it better be subtropical. Personally I'd rate pretty much the entire Australian mainland as subtropical or above. Tasmania is a perfect example of an oceanic climate.
Of course some places have January averages below 20 C, but if they have July averages above 10 C they pass for me (Phillip Island, Melbourne etc).
This year saw a rather average summer (high 23's and high 12's in July) but with a -2/-8 January. Does that work out better?
Summer temps are still too cool (as expected at your latitude). Those winter temps are acceptable, but nothing spectacular, and I suspect that you didn't have many days with lows below -18C/0F, which can occur here every winter Correct?
Feb 2015 had an average low of 5.7F/-14.6C in Chicago, and some of the coldest suburbs of Chicago (Barrington for example) had an average low of 0.9F/-17.3C in January 2014.
I feel 20 C is better for subtropical (as long as the coldest month is above 2 C).
Subtropical is supposed to mean some tropical influence and if the summer is 27/13 with a mild winter (say 8/2) there certainly is some influence from the tropics in terms of the summer and what is most important to me is that an oceanic climate is not supposed to be either warm or cold. If there is a warm season, it better be subtropical. Personally I'd rate pretty much the entire Australian mainland as subtropical or above. Tasmania is a perfect example of an oceanic climate.
Of course some places have January averages below 20 C, but if they have July averages above 10 C they pass for me (Phillip Island, Melbourne etc).
I don't think there's anything particularly subtropical about Melbourne.
Summer temps are still too cool (as expected at your latitude). Those winter temps are acceptable, but nothing spectacular, and I suspect that you didn't have many days with lows below -18C/0F, which can occur here every winter Correct?
Feb 2015 had an average low of 5.7F/-14.6C in Chicago, and some of the coldest suburbs of Chicago (Barrington for example) had an average low of 0.9F/-17.3C in January 2014.
We had one low of -19C and one of -18C last January. Also one -17C low and three -16C lows in January, which was a very unpredictable month. Still not rising above -4C between 13th and 22nd January is pretty intense in terms of cold.
My nearest weather station did however in 2010 have a -11.4C average low in January followed by a -11.7C average low the following December. Due to a smaller UHI our cold that year probably was more like -12/-13C.
Granted, our cold generally is quite narrow in scope, due to the coastal influence and the distance to foehn winds. It is still an interesting balance of maritime and continental.
I don't think there's anything particularly subtropical about Melbourne.
Do you feel there is to Sydney then?
Granted Melbourne with a 20.2 C February mean is not typical, but compared to almost any oceanic place in Europe the 9.7 C July mean is impressive. I'd say Melbourne is a borderline climate between maritime and subtropical, leaning toward the latter, mainly because oceanic climates do not record temps above 45 C especially not on multiple occasions...
Not really comparable to Sydney though, since Sydney has much warmer lows in the summer and warmer daytime highs in the winter. The warm nights in summer would feel somewhat "tropical".
I would definitely say Sydney is subtropical, and Melbourne just a warm oceanic climate.
Not really comparable to Sydney though, since Sydney has much warmer lows in the summer and warmer daytime highs in the winter. The warm nights in summer would feel somewhat "tropical".
I would definitely say Sydney is subtropical, and Melbourne just a warm oceanic climate.
Would you define this one as subtropical like NIWA does?
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