Ch-6:   "The Rest of Them" 
(Mid and High Latitude Climates)

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(9) Dry Midlatitude Climate Type (Köppen BWk and BSk)

Köppen BSk:  Interior of North America

Designated "9" on the Map = Type-9s, Semiarid.  9a, Arid is not evident in the Western Hemisphere.  Regions are in rain shadow of mountain ranges (steppes), or very distant from moisture sources (interior Asian deserts)

South Dakota Short Grass Prairie

Short bunch grass in steppe zones (as opposed to tall grass prairies of moister U.S. agricultural heartland, the American Middlewest.

Commercial Agriculture:  Grazing the Short Grass Prairie

Grazing animals for commercial agriculture.  Low productivity per unit of land area.

(10) Moist Continental Climate (Köppen Dfa, Dfb, Dwa, Dwb)

• These climate regions are "breadbaskets of the world"

• Central and eastern Europe, and far east-central Asia

• Central and eastern U.S. and south eastern and central Canada

• Summers warm, but winters cold to exceptionally cold; at least three months with below freezing averages

• Very large annual temperature range

• Ample precipitation; summer precipitation maximum -- convectional

• In Polar Front zone -- cP air in winter; mT in summer

• Can experience severe, Arctic Outbreak, invasions of cP, Polar, and cA, Arctic, air in winters

• Summers can be uncomfortably humid from mT, maritime tropical, air

• Weather can be very changeable

• Temperatures can change several 10's of degrees, in a few hours, when polar and tropical air masses replace each other

• Spring and summer thunderstorms can be severe

• Tornadoes are known in the U.S. in this climate zone

• Climate gets harsher, in poleward directions

• Madison, WI, lat 43 N, is an example   

• Annual temperature range = 56° F (31° C)

• Annual precipitation = 32 in (81 cm)

• "Breadbasket" of US Middle West

• Natural vegetation of the moist continental climate zone was

• Broadleaf forests where moist enough

• Tall grass prairies where drier -- E.g., Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska

• Throughout much of the world, the natural vegetation has been replaced with cultivated agriculture, in some places, for centuries

High-Latitude Climates are mostly in the Northern Hemisphere because there are no massive, continental land masses at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere

(11) Boreal Forest Climate (Köppen Dfc, Dfd, Dwc, Dwd)

• The Boreal Forest climate is a true continental climate

• Long, bitterly cold winters

• Short, cool summers

• This is the source region for cP air masses -- cold and dry in winter

• Very cold, cA, continental Arctic, air invades, often

• Greatest annual range of temperature of any climate type

• Very long, winter nights

• Often distant from moderating water bodies

• Greatest temperature range of all in Siberia (east-central Russia)

• Very long summer days permit many hours of solar heating, for a few weeks -- due to high latitude

• Annual precipitation is small; maximum in summer

• In summer, cyclones can bring some mP air

• Named for dominant vegetation --The Boreal Forest, also known as the Northern Forest and as the Taiga

• Trees stunted. There are wet bogs.

• Some permafrost -- permanently frozen subsoil.

• Grades northward into an almost treeless zone

• Some agriculture can be practiced

• Dairying

• Grain growing

• Yakutsk, CIS, 62° N lat  

• Annual temperature range is about 108° F (60° F) !

• Precipitation is very meager, about 7.5 in (19 cm), per year

• Fort Vermillion, Alberta, Canada, 58° N lat  

• 74° F (41° C) annual temperature range

• Annual precipitation = 12 in (31 cm)

(12) Tundra Climate Type (Köppen ET)

Northern hemisphere, only. On land, in the far north. 

• Named after the limited vegetation association present

• Tundra = treeless -- beyond true trees, even at sea level

• Just low-growing plants

• The temperature regime is severe

• No true summer -- short mild season

• Otherwise, cold to very cold

• Partly in land of the "Midnight Sun"

• Maritime influence prevents extreme cooling

• Very little precipitation -- very cold

• Precipitation statistics look like desert

• Because so cold, dryness not as intense as if in subtropical latitudes

• Upernavik, Greenland, 73° N lat

• This is north of the Arctic Circle about 450 miles

• Temperature range is not as extreme = 50° F (28° C)

• Equivalent to being beyond tree line in midlatitudes at high elevation !!

• Alpine tundra, Mt Washington (5000')

(13) Ice Sheet Climate Type (Köppen EF)

• Ice sheets are the source regions for cA and cAA air

• Antarctica, Greenland, frozen Arctic Ocean

• All months below freezing; no vegetation

• But some animal life!

• Lowest Earth temperatures during long, dark Antarctic winter

• Very low precipitation

• Snow accumulates because always below freezing

• Several stations shown on the climograph -- mostly in Antarctica

• Vostok very cold

• Maybe coldest place on Earth

• 800 miles from the South Pole

• 11,500 ' (3500 M) altitude

• World low temperature of -127° F (-88.3° C) observed in 1958

Non-classifiable: "H" Climates

Climatologists have adopted the capital letter "H" to stand for highland, mountainous climates

• Climate changes in short horizontal distances in hills and mountains

  • Elevation effects on temperature and precipitation

  • Effects of different exposures to the Sun as on sunny versus shady sides

  • Rainy side versus rain shadow effects

• Climates which change in very short distances cannot be mapped at world, continental and country levels

• Hence, mountains and highlands are depicted on maps as "H" climates without internal differentiation