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Which of these are your favorite climates to live in and why? Favorite cities in these climates? What do you feel makes these climates edge out the competition?
"Aw"
- rarely-to-never cold, even in winter
- I probably wouldn't find the weather "too rainy"
For cooler climates, I'd prefer the summer sub-designation "a"
Scientists call this "hot summer", but I probably enjoy it because I disagree with their classification
My definition of hot is 95+ F dry or heat index above 100 F; anything cooler is very-easy to handle for me.
I think scientists on this climate map consider hot an average between day and night above 22 C (72 F)
Any climate without what scientists call "hot summer" doesn't really have a summer, imho.
Last edited by ColdCanadian; 01-11-2010 at 07:46 AM..
The "Csa" classification looks like it would be really nice, and it's actually pretty close to where we were thinking. We were thinking Arizona, but the dry doesn't agree with either of us. And Colorado is supposed to be really cold. Sorry. I'm rambling.
The Classical Mediterranian climate for me; Csa wins hands down. Failing that, the cooler summer version of that climate would be my second choice. The area where I live has that cooler version with summer rain falls averaging under an inch per month and day time temperatures around 80F.
-Csa - Mediterranean climate (sunny, mild temps year round)
-Cfa or Cfw - Humid subtropical (hot wet summers, cool to slightly cold winters)
-No letter - Subtropical highland climate such as in San Jose, Costa Rica. It is close to Aw but elevation makes temperatures moderate.
-Maybe BSk such as in Colorado or New Mexico. I like to keep things green though.
Dfb all the way! A nice, snowy winter, and a warm, but not too long summer... I regularly dream of living in that type of climate. Dfa would be fine if the 90 degree stuff only shows up for about a week or so. I would just stay inside during that time.
I choose my native CFA climate. Cool/mild/warm Winters with long-hot Summers, I want to move to the Southern part of the climate which has warmer Winters & longer Summers.
My next choice would be AF of course, it was very close between the two.
I think a far northern (around 22 – 25 latitude) coastal Aw climate like Miami, Rio De Janeiro, Hong Kong (shown as Am on the above map) is as close to perfection as you can get: 12 months of summer, normally sunny beach weather 12 months of the year, a warm/tropical ocean current, breezy, a good wet season for a green and lush environment (May to September in NH), and a nice dry and sunny winter season (November through April in NH). I also agree with ColdCandian that any location that doesn’t have a mean temperature of at least 72 F (22 C) doesn’t even have a real summer. To call a sub 70 F month “summer” seems totally unfair IMO.
Here are the other climates and their biggest drawbacks –
Af (Tropical Rainforest – Amazon, Central Africa…etc) – too long of wet season, too much rain, cloudier (in winter too), high humidity/heat all year and feels worse do to frequent cloud cover.
BWh (Hot Desert – Tucson, Cairo…etc) – too barren, dry, dead looking environment, no green, no life.
Cfa (Humid Subtropical – Charleston, SC, Sydney, Buenos Aires…etc). Nice long summers (5 hot months, 7 warm months) and warm tropical ocean currents, but winters are a bit too cold, with occasional very sharp cold snaps.
Cfb (Subtropical Dry summer, cool summer coastal – San Diego, Perth…etc) - too cool of summers, frigid ocean waters, too wet winters, winters a bit too cold, not green enough, only 2/3 hot months, only 7 warm months.
Dfa (Temperate-warm summer -Chicago, Bucharest, Mukden…etc) - Fleeting summers, only 2/3 hot months, only 4/5 warm months, long , severe cold winters with deep snow and cloudy.
Dfb (Snow –cool summer – Moscow, Fargo, ND, Harbin…etc) –not hot months, only really 4 warm months, very short summers, long, very severe winters with extreme cold (often goes down to 40 F below zero, poor solar angle -too high in latitude (above 45 N/S). Dry and sunny in winter however, is a plus.
E (Polar) – too cold, too dark, no green, little life.
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