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is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters.
Precipitation is relatively well distributed year-round in many areas with this climate, while others may see a marked reduction in wintry precipitation and even a wintertime drought. Snowfall, regardless of average seasonal totals, occurs in all areas with a humid continental climate and in many such places is more common than rain during the height of winter. In places with sufficient wintertime precipitation, the snow cover is often deep. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms and a very occasional tropical system. Though humidity levels are often high in locations with humid continental climates, the "humid" designation does not mean that the humidity levels are necessarily high, only that the climate is not dry enough to be classified as semi-arid or arid. Very few areas with a humid continental climate fall in the Dsa or Dsb categories; generally these are adjacent to Mediterranean climates where the elevation precludes such classification due to colder winters.
Humid continental climates tend to be found above 40° N latitude to 65° N latitude, within the central and northeastern portions of North America, Europe, and Asia. They are much less commonly found in the Southern Hemisphere due to the larger ocean area at that latitude and the consequent greater maritime moderation. Even in the Northern Hemisphere some of the humid continental climates, typically in Scandinavia (for example the Swedish capital of Stockholm)[1] and Nova Scotia & Newfoundland in Canada, are heavily maritime-influenced, with relatively cool summers and winters being just below the freezing mark.[2] Areas with less maritime influence with similar summer temperatures often become subarctic due to cold winters or areas with similar winters tend to be hot-summer humid continental. More extreme humid continental climates, for example found in southern Siberia and the American Midwest combine hotter summer maxima and colder winters than the marine-based variety found in the aforementioned areas. In some areas there are both strong subtropical and subarctic air mass influence depending on season, for example the humid and hot summers and the frigid winters of Minneapolis, Minnesota[3] in the Upper Midwest of the United States.
The Köppen definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below −3 °C (26.6 °F) (some climatologists prefer to use the freezing mark), and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C (50 °F). In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid.
The warm summer version of the humid continental climate covers a much larger area than the hot subtype. In North America, the climate zone covers from about 44°N to 50°N latitude mostly east of the 100th meridian. However, it can be found as far north as 54°N, and further west in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and below 40°N in the high Appalachians. In Europe this subtype reaches its most northerly latitude at nearly 61° N. Areas featuring this subtype of the continental climate have an average temperature in the warmest month below 22 °C. Summer high temperatures in this zone typically average between 21–28 °C (70–82 °F) during the daytime and the average temperatures in the coldest month are generally far below the −3 °C (27 °F) isotherm.
Such high-altitude locations as South Lake Tahoe, California and Aspen, Colorado in the western United States exhibit local Dfb climates. The south-central and southwestern Prairie Provinces also fits the Dfb criteria from a thermal profile, but because of semi-arid precipitation portions of it are grouped into the BSk category.
In Europe, it is also found in central Scandinavia. In eastern Central Europe (eastern Austria, (small parts of) Germany, most of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, northern Romania) and in coastal areas of central Scandinavia is a warm summer subtype with less severe winters, more similar to the winters of the hot summer subtype found in eastern North America – the winters here are modified by the oceanic climate influence of western Europe.
The warm summer subtype is marked by mild summers, long cold winters and less precipitation than the hot summer subtype, however, short periods of extreme heat are not uncommon. Northern Japan has a similar climate.
Much of Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia have a thermal regime fitting this climate, but they have steppe- or desert-like precipitation, and so are not really considered to have a humid continental climate.
In the Southern Hemisphere it exists in well-defined areas only in the Southern Alps of New Zealand[citation needed], the Snowy Mountains of Australia, Kiandra, New South Wales, and perhaps[vague] as isolated microclimates of the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina.
Finland lies on the northern brink of the humid continental climate, and it is characterised as a hemiboreal climate, with both continental influences of Central Europe and with subarctic influences from the north. The actual hemiboreal climate spans much further than in the Köppen system (it's 100 years old with lacking data). As we have numerous lakes which warms the air, it's difficult to define where the subarctic climate border is.
Anyway, the growing season is short, with some 180-200 days, which don't allow maize to mature, and permits very limited small-scale wine production. Also, you only get only one harvest of wheat a year, while in the Mediterranean you can get two. (Spring and Autumn.)
However, what Köppen didn't even think about was that the growing season is very intense, as in summer the days are long with often generous sunshine, the growing degree days accumulate quickly. For example during a good summer we can get more GDD's than the Scilly Isles, which is annually the mildest place of Britain.
Being a hemiboreal climate means that species like oak and ash will grow freely, but species like beech cannot survive the winters other than planted in good spots, or the competition in forests, while in Central Europe beech forms whole forests. Here the forests are dominated by spruce and birch, with some aspen.
As the climate seems to be warming, also the flora and fauna will be adapted. Migrating birds tend to stay for longer and come earlier, and eventually deciduous trees will take over the forests. First it is birch and aspen, then it will be accompanied with lime/linden, as those are plentiful here, rather than the oak, which were valued for their wood and were mostly cut down.
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Please don't move these to the weather forum, there these will be the same jerkfest, while here we can get actually some valuable info.
Yes..but for coppen 1950-2000 I'm oceanic...this is strange
Florence is Cfa (humid suptropical) according to the figures I've seen. Warmest month is above 22C. There may be higher altitude areas nearby that are Cfb though- the Summers are too wet to be Mediterranean (Csa/Csb) like in a surprising amount of Italy.
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