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Hello everyone!
We all encounter many stereotypes about climates of different places, which ones do you know?
I live in Russia, and here we mostly have stereotypes about Russian cities, especially about Saint Petersburg. It is often considered rainy, dark, cloudy and cool (but not cold) year-round...
Something like this:
In reality it is "quite" different:
(still rainy and mild though)
Hello everyone!
We all encounter many stereotypes about climates of different places, which ones do you know?
I live in Russia, and here we mostly have stereotypes about Russian cities, especially about Saint Petersburg. It is often considered rainy, dark, cloudy and cool (but not cold) year-round...
Something like this:
In reality it is "quite" different:
(still rainy and mild though)
Which stereotypes do you know?
Nobody in the United States would imagine St Petersburg that way. The american stereotype of russian climates would be roughly equivalent to Yakutsk, long bitterly cold winters and short mild/warm summers
Nobody in the United States would imagine St Petersburg that way. The american stereotype of russian climates would be roughly equivalent to Yakutsk, long bitterly cold winters and short mild/warm summers
That's obvious. We in Russia have different stereotypes compared to you in America, and I'm talking about Russian stereotypes)
And yes, the stereotype of "Russia Is Completely Siberia" is terrible. We have subtropics, oceanics and relatively warm continentals. And the weirdest thing is.. Siberian winter even feels warmer than winter somewhere in Western Russia, because of humidity. Siberian winters are extremely dry (because monsoon climate), and wetter winter feels colder.
I know London has the stereotype of constant mist/fog/rain and cloud most the year and then snow at Christmas thanks to Charles Dickens' inaccurate portrayal as such. Not sure what Sheffield would be. Being in Northern England probably as a sunless constant-rainy climate.
As for St. Petersburg Russia, I would have imagined a stereotype a bit like the following:
I know London has the stereotype of constant mist/fog/rain and cloud most the year and then snow at Christmas thanks to Charles Dickens' inaccurate portrayal as such. Not sure what Sheffield would be. Being in Northern England probably as a sunless constant-rainy climate.
Some of the more common ones that I've encountered:
Canada=cold all of the time and a frozen tundra. Some climates are cold but most of them are continental climates with warm summers. I found it really funny when someone expressed shock that fruits were grown extensively around Lake Ontario/Lake Erie in Canada.
South America=All of it is tropical/warm. No, there is a big variety of climates from tropical rainforests to tundra.
I've also heard the stereotype that all of Russia is cold and has Siberian winters , all of Australia is hot & sunny constantly and of course the one about the UK being rainy all of the time.
Hello everyone!
We all encounter many stereotypes about climates of different places, which ones do you know?
I live in Russia, and here we mostly have stereotypes about Russian cities, especially about Saint Petersburg. It is often considered rainy, dark, cloudy and cool (but not cold) year-round...
Something like this:
In reality it is "quite" different:
(still rainy and mild though)
Which stereotypes do you know?
a lot of people think the whole state of Texas is desert climate but we have lots of different types of climates in reality.
Here in Serbia there is a stereotype that Montenegro has Med climate.
In reallity Med climate in Montenegro is only on the coast and about 30 km from central/southern part of coast.
Some stereotypes I've come across over the years...
Stereotype: New York is cold, snowy and icy all winter.
Fact: Wrong. While most of the Upstate is like that, New York City has as many mild days as subfreezing ones even in January. December and February aren't quite as cold.
Stereotype: Sydney is extremely hot and dry year-round.
Fact: Wrong. While most of the year is hot, it isn't arid, and the winters are merely warm.
Stereotype: Los Angeles is extremely hot and dry year-round.
Fact: Wrong. It's mildly warm year-round, slightly warmer than San Diego in all seasons. Also, while it borders on a semi-arid climate, it's only dry in some years, or during summers in a rare average-rain year.
Stereotype: The Nordic countries are nothing but frozen tundra.
Fact: VERY wrong. Iceland is the only Nordic country that's predominantly tundra, and even most Icelandic tundras are too mild for permafrost. In fact, there are even portions of every Scandinavian country except Finland where Chinese Windmill Palms can survive.
Stereotype: Canada and Alaska are nothing but frozen tundra.
Fact: VERY wrong. While the majority of both are covered in permafrost, they have a wide variety of climates from tundra through subarctic to temperate maritime, semi-desert and warm continental.
Stereotype: Russia is nothing but frozen tundra that gets as cold as Antarctica.
Fact: Siberia is full of permafrost, but European Russia and the Russian Far East are more hemiboreal. It even turns subtropical near the Black Sea. Even most of Siberia still has very warm to hot summers with forests of Dahurian Larch and Silver Birch. However, it is true that Siberia is the coldest non-Antarctic region during winter, as winter averages and records in Oymyakon are colder than at Summit Camp, Greenland (the coldest non-Antarctic non-Siberian place).
Stereotype: San Francisco is cold in summer, so it must be cold all year, right?
Fact: VERY wrong. It's not even cold in winter, let alone other seasons. Tree growth can happen all year, and the winter highs are just as warm as your beloved Dallas, Las Vegas, Charleston and Savannah. Also, even if you do consider summers too cold, good news: autumn is actually the warmest season on the Californian coast, not summer.
Stereotype: Montana and Idaho are cold year-round everywhere.
Fact: WRONG. Look at Billings and Boise. Even the dominating cold-winter parts of the states still have a very warm summer season.
Stereotype: All of the U.S. South is a tropical paradise.
Fact: Wrong. VERY wrong. Subtropical isn't quite tropical. Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland aren't even remotely tropical. Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma bear little resemblance during winter despite being mild and having tropical-like summers (they can grow hardy palms with ease, however). Only areas near Miami, in the Everglades, south of Tampa and around Key West are tropical.
Stereotype: It rains every day in Seattle.
Fact: Wrong. It is physically close to the Hoh Rainforest, but Seattle itself has a rain-shadowed Mediterranean climate.
Stereotype: Patagonia is full of tropical plants, like most of South America.
Fact: VERY wrong. Does this climate look tropical to you?
Stereotype: Hawaii is entirely tropical rainforest.
Fact: Incorrect! Half of it is, but the other half is either dry-summer tropical or hot semi-arid. Rain shadow effect!
Stereotype: Antarctica and Greenland are entirely ice cap.
Fact: What? NO... Esperanza Base and Nuuk are tundra, among certain other coastal places. As extreme as they are, Vostok Station and Summit Camp can't be applied to their whole landmasses.
Stereotype: Colorado is humid forest, right?
Fact: Wrong. That's only some of the high mountains. The lowlands are steppe in the east, with the western and south-central parts of the state being mostly cold-winter semi-desert.
Stereotype: Arizona is all hot though, isn't it?
Fact: Wrong. You can't apply tropical-like Yuma and the sprawling Valley of the Sun to an entire state, either. Given its high elevation, Flagstaff is part of the cold-winter Colorado Plateau Desert shared with Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, starkly contrasting with the subtropical Mojave and semi-tropical Sonoran.
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