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Why don't you use some? If it isn't humid subtropical than what is it? Is it not Cfb in the Koppen-Geiger classification system?
I told you it is way different from Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Those classifications were designed by European scholars and had some bias. People decide which features weigh more. For example, I can also define a "warm winter cool summer subtropical zone", ignoring the monsoon or subtropical high. It makes sense too, for agriculture and tourism.
Kunming can have the same plants as SF, not as Shanghai. Even rice cannot grow in Kunming.
I told you it is way different from Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Those classifications were designed by European scholars and had some bias. People decide which features weigh more. For example, I can also define a "warm winter cool summer subtropical zone", ignoring the monsoon or subtropical high. It makes sense too, for agriculture and tourism.
Kunming can have the same plants as SF, not as Shanghai. Even rice cannot grow in Kunming.
Do you really think this has to do with European bias? That is absurd. Utter nonsense.
I misspoke earlier, China has three temperate climates: fully humid, warm summer as found in Kunming; fully humid, hot summer as found in Shanghai; winter dry, hot summer as found in Qingdao. It wouldn't be far fetched to call all of these humid subtropical.
Last edited by logiclover; 05-01-2015 at 01:07 AM..
Do you really think this has to do with European bias? That is absurd. Utter nonsense.
I misspoke earlier, China has three temperate climates: fully humid, warm summer as found in Kunming; fully humid, hot summer as found in Shanghai; winter dry, hot summer as found in Beijing. It wouldn't be far fetched to call all of these humid subtropical.
You call Beijing subtropical? Do you know lakes in Beijing are solid frozen in winter and people actually skate there?
European scholars were not intentionally biased but in reality they lumped very different places in Asia together.
I told you it is way different from Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Those classifications were designed by European scholars and had some bias. People decide which features weigh more. For example, I can also define a "warm winter cool summer subtropical zone", ignoring the monsoon or subtropical high. It makes sense too, for agriculture and tourism.
Kunming can have the same plants as SF, not as Shanghai. Even rice cannot grow in Kunming.
Kunming is indeed very different from Shanghai or Hong Kong. If Kunming is lumped with Shanghai, then coastal California should be lumped with southern Florida.
The human created categories all have their flaws due to our own limitation, and blindly sticking to them assuming whatever falls into the same category must be quite similar is stupid. Even NYC is considered sub-tropical by many, and to say it is similar in climate to Kunming is just ridiculous.
But China does lack the Mediterranean climate zone but it is the only one I can think of. On the other hand, China probably have some climate the US doesn't too.
China has very stable winters. Chongqing is located at 30 N but its extreme low on record is just about -3 C. In contiguous America you have to go to the south tip of Florida or south California to find places with such high extreme lows. On the other hand, Chongqing's average in winter is much lower than Houston's.
Of course Chongqing is not really typical even in China, but it illustrates the idea.
But it doesn't change the fact that China's subtropical region is colder on average, and averages matter more than extremes. Even in extreme winters, you're unlikely to feel biting cold for extensive periods in such regions in the USA. Subtropical climates encompass a wide variety of diverse conditions, so you aren't always going to find warm winters wherever you go, however, the entire Deep South subregion has an extremely warm winter climate, and south and some parts of central Florida and far south Texas have a variety of Tropical climates, so those are especially mild. The Chinese Subtropics are still colder in a normal year than the American Subtropics. Even the northern fringes of the subtropics in the USA, around the Ohio River, experience the same general conditions that the Northern Subtropics around the Yellow (or Yangtze, I can't remember which) River experiences. The latitudinal differences don't necessarily mean a place will have a colder or warmer climate. Even so, The USA's southernmost continental point is 23 degrees north (the TOC) on a small, southern key, and China's is 21 in southern Guangdong, so not a world of difference. Hainans southernmost point is 19 degrees, Hawaii's is 18. The USA is also just as warm as China, if not warmer, at slightly higher latitudes. China isn't tropical until southern Hainan. The USA is tropical in Florida, Far South Texas, and Hawaii.
It generally has the same divisions as China: Humid Subtropical Seasonal, and Humid Subtropical Mild, which are the only subcategories climatologists recognize.
But it doesn't change the fact that China's subtropical region is colder on average, and averages matter more than extremes. Even in extreme winters, you're unlikely to feel biting cold for extensive periods in such regions in the USA. Subtropical climates encompass a wide variety of diverse conditions, so you aren't always going to find warm winters wherever you go, however, the entire Deep South subregion has an extremely warm winter climate, and south and some parts of central Florida and far south Texas have a variety of Tropical climates, so those are especially mild. The Chinese Subtropics are still colder in a normal year than the American Subtropics. Even the northern fringes of the subtropics in the USA, around the Ohio River, experience the same general conditions that the Northern Subtropics around the Yellow (or Yangtze, I can't remember which) River experiences. The latitudinal differences don't necessarily mean a place will have a colder or warmer climate. Even so, The USA's southernmost continental point is 23 degrees north (the TOC) on a small, southern key, and China's is 21 in southern Guangdong, so not a world of difference. Hainans southernmost point is 19 degrees, Hawaii's is 18. The USA is also just as warm as China, if not warmer, at slightly higher latitudes. China isn't tropical until southern Hainan. The USA is tropical in Florida, Far South Texas, and Hawaii.
Overall, the USA is a warmer country.
Yes, there is no doubt that the US is warmer than China in terms of winter averages, for the same latitudes. On the other hand, China has higher extremes in winters, so plants are preserved better.
Geographically, maybe so, but in terms of the population?
56 million of Americans - that's 1/6 live in Northeast US. Plus millions in the Great Lakes area. All these places have quite cold winters, much colder than East China, where most Chinese live. China definitely doesn't have 1/5 of its population living under that kind of climate zone.
Beijing, a cold Chinese city is still warmer than Chicago or Boston in January, and with much earlier spring. Average highs in March and April is 8F higher than Chicago/Boston. Actually Beijing has warmer March and April than even Washington DC.
Yes, 100 million Chinese live in northeast China with weather similar to Minneapolis, but that's still a small percentage of the Chinese population, equivalent of a single province of Guangdong. The vast majority of Chinese live in the east and south, where weather is more moderate.
Inland large cities such as Chongqing and Chengdu all have pretty mild winters, while in the cold northwest, simply not many people live here.
I think percentage-wise, fewer Chinese live under frigid weather than Americans. China doesn't have cities with Mediterranean climate, but cities such as Xiamen,Fujian, Kunming, Yunna, and Zhuhai, Guangdong etc all have very moderate temperature all year around. Nanjing, Guangxi province, has similar temperature year round as much of Southern California.
Yes, there is no doubt that the US is warmer than China in terms of winter averages, for the same latitudes. On the other hand, China has higher extremes in winters, so plants are preserved better.
Higher extremes only for this recent interval of record, the last century or so. In previous centuries there have been cold events that brought intense cold to China, far colder than anything ever seen in the US; Beihai, in China, holds the record for the lowest latitude snowfall and freeze at sea-level on record. However, such cold only became possible due to a phenomenon known as the Cold Epoch, which alters atmospheric components in a away that allows for arctic weather systems to come in strong, and bring bouts of abnormal cold.
This same phenomenon is in effect over North America, especially the Eastern portion of the continent, and has been since this recent time of weather recording; it is responsible for "polar vortex" style outbreaks that have occurred in these recent winters. In a natural climactic state, without the Cold Epoch, North America will be as stable as China, in fact, even more so if the Gulf influence keeps up.
Lots of subtropical/tropical landscaping, including many types of palms, can be seen in the American subtropics, from Houston to New Orleans, down the Florida peninsula, and up through coastal North Carolina, and it shows a lot. In contrast, I never hear much about tender subtropicals and palms growing in Chinese cities.
Lets put it this way, US has a tropical climate outside of the tropics; China is not even tropical in many areas within tropics.
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