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Your own rating system would have to have some kind of logical basis to be any good. What is your basis for using freak record lows over averages?
I just count a place as pure tropical if Coconuts never get burned or killed from cold or if temps never get in the 40's. I think even Cuba has seen 40's when we had our super freezes in the 1980's. Once you get south of Cuba then i call it 100% tropical.
I just count a place as pure tropical if Coconuts never get burned or killed from cold or if temps never get in the 40's. I think even Cuba has seen 40's when we had our super freezes in the 1980's. Once you get south of Cuba then i call it 100% tropical.
Then that's not a logical basis, South Florida that has normal minimums in USDA zones 10-11 and has seen freak frosts is absolutely tropical. Period.
I just count a place as pure tropical if Coconuts never get burned or killed from cold or if temps never get in the 40's. I think even Cuba has seen 40's when we had our super freezes in the 1980's. Once you get south of Cuba then i call it 100% tropical.
Freaky weather happens. It doesn't change climate classifications. We had a high of 58 with thunderstorms in Minneapolis for December 2021 and the first ever recorded tornadoes in MN. It doesn't suddenly mean we have the same climate as Alabama. Climate and weather are not the same.
I don't think it's so much that trees don't grow well under 10C, and more that at high latitudes by the time the coolest month is that cool the growing season has become extremely short, too short to support tree growth. Typically the annual mean is cold enough for permafrost to form too.
Obviously neither of those apply to high altitude equatorial ET climates. I would expect trees to grow OK in climates with all months ~10C.
That is a good question, how well trees could actually grow in these alpine ET climates. There are a lot of factors involved on these climates besides temperature that could come into play.
Since they can only happen in a tropical place at high altitude, I would expect they often have poor soil in these areas. In some of these regions I believe it is also too dry for large trees, but it will depend on the topography and other things , may not apply to all.
On the other hand, a high altitude place will get more solar radiation from the same temperature, which, if other factors are not preventing, could allow trees to grow at a colder temperature than they would at sea level.
Also in these very high altitudes there can be isssues related to the air density at these elevations. CO2 concetration at altitude may not support growth of large trees, even if the temperatures are suitable.
I think they are mostly not growing large trees in these mild temp ET alpine climates, but it is hard to say if it is the weather alone or other factors. In some exceptional cases we could see climates that are too cold to support large tree growth at sea level, but capable of doing so at some elevation based on the improved solar radiation at altitude in situations where that can outweigh the other negative factors of altitude.
One other factor is high wind speeds, which can be devastating to growth of large trees. This is an interesting factor because wind speeds tend to increase with altitude, but the actual impact of a given wind speed decreases with altitude too. Again going back to the air density. A wind speeds of 100kmph at sea level is far more powerful than at an elevaion of 3000m. Air density also decreases with higher temperature too, which can be yet another factor to consider as most places at 3000+ are much colder than these equatorial alpine ET climates..
Really interesting to think about everything, and yet the tree lines in the Andes are quite high, containing the highest in the world and some places extremely higher than the majority of other tropical regions, which typically only have tree lines similar to or modestly higher than the Colorado Rockies at 40n
Last edited by Space_League; 01-08-2023 at 09:12 PM..
The maximum temp was for Miami. And it was only a few weeks ago.
Still not even on the same planet vs our real winters in the 1980's year after year. First time i had a high in the 40's for years and i am north of Tampa bra. I have not had a temp below 33f in many years and used to see 19 to 24f year after year when i lived in Tampa...
Still not even on the same planet vs our real winters in the 1980's year after year. First time i had a high in the 40's for years and i am north of Tampa bra. I have not had a temp below 33f in many years and used to see 19 to 24f year after year when i lived in Tampa...
But that is Tampa. I was mentioning temps for Miami.
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, South Florida that has normal minimums in USDA zones 10-11 and has seen freak frosts is absolutely tropical. Period.
