Omegaraptor Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 The Pacific Northwest has a lot of weird climates. Some are simpler than others: most places in the Willamette Valley fall perfectly into a dry-summer temperate or "cool Mediterranean" category. However, the southern Oregon - far northern CA region, starting roughly at the 44th parallel, is where the climates get weirder. The elevation increases on both sides of the Cascades, and the diurnal ranges in summer become huge. The Klamath Mountains have such an extreme diurnal range that I'm having trouble classifying them. Let's take Happy Camp, CA as an example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Camp,_California(It doesn't cite a source, but based on the weather app and other locations in the Klamath Mountains, I have no problem believing the summer averages.) The winters are fairly typical PNW fare, with more frequent hard frosts and large amounts of winter rainfall/snowfall typical for the coast range. The July/August diurnal range is a remarkable 44ºF between day and night, with very hot summer highs and very cold summer lows. The elevation is only about 1660' so it can't really be classified as highland, which is what I attempted to do with climates that have extreme diurnal ranges. Köppen classifies it as Csa (Mediterranean climate), but close to Csb (dry-summer temperate or cool Med). Trewartha (humorously) classifies it as Do, or temperate oceanic. What would you classify it as? Mediterranean? Highland? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wx_statman Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Hot summer Mediterranean (Csa), exactly as classified, with obvious elevation influences. I don't see a better fit for that region. Any climate zone on earth will have terrain-influenced quirks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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