Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I consider climates with a coldest month between 0°C and 5.9°C, but also with 4 or more months 18°C+ to be temperate transitional. Too warm to be continental, but too cool to be tropical, and too warm in summer to be oceanic
I consider climates with a coldest month between 0°C and 5.9°C, but also with 4 or more months 18°C+ to be temperate transitional. Too warm to be continental, but too cool to be tropical, and too warm in summer to be oceanic
Transitional is not a helpful term. Everywhere is transitional except, perhaps, for the two poles and the equator.
Trewartha drew the line, so Philly is not humid subtropical in the first place.
I pretty much agree with his line, 8 months with daily averages above 50, that line is moving further north though because of warming.
What if I find odd about the typical subtropical Koppen classification is that no one who lives in places like Philadelphia or NYC consider their climate sub tropical. No one.
How can a classification be useful when only climate nerds use it? Is DC subtropical? Ask non climate professionals, ya know, like ordinary residents that live there and there answer is usually a resounding NO. Most people in he NE USA know what a subtropical climate looks like.
Barcelona is a great example. Not nearly as hot as DC in summer, yet the landscape supports citrus, date palms, etc etc. People in DC would say Barcelona is, but DC is not. Vegetation plays a huge role in that. Joe90 is right about that.
Koppen never used the term humid subtropical, Trewartha first used the term and NYC and Philly was not included, of course Cfa and humid subtropical are used synonymously but their origins are different. What adds greater confusion to these discussions is that humid subtropical is supposed to be a warmer form of temperate but some people use temperate to describe a classic four season continental climate.
Laypeople don't use the word "subtropical", they'll just describe a place as being tropical, I've heard people call California tropical, I know they're using it in a nonscientific way.
Only people familiar enough with climate terminology will split these hairs over muh subtropical.
Koppen never used the term humid subtropical, Trewartha first used the term and NYC and Philly was not included, of course Cfa and humid subtropical are used synonymously but their origins are different. What adds greater confusion to these discussions is that humid subtropical is supposed to be a warmer form of temperate but some people use temperate to describe a classic four season continental climate.
Laypeople don't use the word "subtropical", they'll just describe a place as being tropical, I've heard people call California tropical, I know they're using it in a nonscientific way.
Only people familiar enough with climate terminology will split these hairs over muh subtropical.
Australians use the term subtropical all the time.
Trewartha's approach moves lots of continental climates into the oceanic category and lots of oceanic climates into the subtropical category for very little gain. It's much cleaner just to divide Koppen's Cfa zone in half.
Australians use the term subtropical all the time.
Trewartha's approach moves lots of continental climates into the oceanic category and lots of oceanic climates into the subtropical category for very little gain. It's much cleaner just to divide Koppen's Cfa zone in half.
If it's to the point where you're trying to excluded places like Myrtle Beach then what does subtropical even mean anymore. It's been turned into a meaningless term that used to have a clear definition.
I cannot see Las Vegas as anything other than subtropical.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
