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Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,460,237 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11
General rules of thumb...coldest avg high under 50 AND a coldest average low under 30 AND at least an avg of six inches of snow
As a practical matter, the "not a real winter" almost lines up with the 36-30 latitude east of the Mississippi, but dipping South as elevations rise west of there. Out west is basically Southern AZ, Southern NV, and the entire west coast west of the Sierras and Cascades.
Nashville and Richmond are the southern edge of what I consider real winters.
I would say more west of the coast ranges in Oregon and Washington. Portland and Seattle still see freezes and snow (though not like the midwest or northeast)
That’s more like summer weather in some places with real winters.
It might feels like late spring/early summer in the afternoon but once after sunset winter returns as temperatures drop significantly from 70 to 40s. Even in some places with cooler summers, temperatures are closer to 60F at night, (London, Paris, Vancouver).
Minimum wintry weather - high temperature below 50F for at least 3 months OR highs below 60F for at least 5 months and less than 100 sunshine hours for at least 3 of those months. This definition includes all but the warmest continental climates as well as most high latitude oceanic climates with long, cool, dreary winters such as Seattle, London and Portland.
Minimum real winters - high temperature below 40F for at least 3 month OR highs below 50F for at least 5 months. This includes most of the far northern US and all of Canada besides small sections of British Columbia it also includes cool oceanic climates such as the northern UK.
For my area in the interior, southwestern US, I tend to think a real winter is the time between the first and last average lows that are a hard freeze - 28F. That falls apart in higher or colder areas, or with certain types of plant growth, though.
With almost all of the territory in tropical latitudes and without really high elevations, we basically don't have too many factors to consider in Brazil.
The cooler season of the year is something like 4 or 5⁰C colder than the warmest season? That's enough, it's a winter.
The minimum temperatures can go below 10⁰C sometimes? That's a real winter.
There's a trace of snow once a decade? Wow, almost a sub polar climate.
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