How well do you know your climates?
January 18, 2021 8:39 AM   Subscribe

I love the Mediterranean climate. What other climates might I enjoy and why?

Things I like about the Mediterranean climate, ordered from most important to less important:

- sunny
- few bugs
- mild winters
- low-lowish humidity
posted by aniola to Science & Nature (15 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Depending on the specific microclimate, the Bay Area, particularly the South Bay.

Ludicrously sunny, no real bugs besides ants and termites who mostly leave you alone, a cold day in winter is 50F (today it'll be 64F), and the humidity is just about always 30% unless it's actively raining.
posted by aramaic at 8:49 AM on January 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


Maybe the high desert, since you didn't mention disliking heat. But for the most part, 'none' of the others. Definitely not the tropics, the north or the south. Bugs and humidity go together so if you dislike bugs, stay away from places where it rains.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:50 AM on January 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Anywhere where a dry climate/desert meets a large body of water: Southern Coastal California, Northern Coastal Mexico, Coastal Portugal etc. Deserts get cold too but the water works to moderate the temperature in both directions.

Once you get too close to the tropics, you'll get bugs. Too far and you will get harsh winters.
posted by vacapinta at 8:58 AM on January 18, 2021


Santa Barbara, CA is called the California Riviera for a reason (and it isn't just the hill above the city overlooking the ocean). It isn't cheap but it is the Mediterranean climate. I grew up there and I've lived elsewhere for 15 years and I'm still amazed by the concept of "seasons" because Santa Barbara is basically just the same temp and sunny all year with the exception of May and June which are foggy ("marine layer" because we're too fancy for fog) during the mornings and sunny in the afternoon.
posted by magnetsphere at 9:08 AM on January 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Parts of Eastern Washington and Oregon (after the Cascades) feel very Mediterranean to me, for example Lake Chelan. A lot of lower altitude Colorado is also like this. Technically, Seattle area is classified as having a Mediterranean climate, which I've heard other residents laugh at. But it really does remind me of aspects of the Mediterranean, especially the wet and mild winters (summer is not humid, but a lot cooler here, thankfully).
posted by Corduroy at 9:24 AM on January 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


Koppen climate classification system. Much of Italy is classified as Csa.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:28 AM on January 18, 2021 [6 favorites]


Parts of southern Texas, like Harlingen.
posted by Melismata at 10:15 AM on January 18, 2021


It might be worth having a look at some "hardiness zone" maps - like this one for Europe. Hardiness zones are based on the minimum typical winter temperature - a major influence on what grows in a given place. You will note that the Mediterranean area actually encompasses 2 hardiness zones: the first one is for places like the south of France which might get down to about -7 centigrade, the second for areas like the Andalusian coast only get down to -1. Here is a global map showing that sort of data. You can see that there are actually a fairly large number of places which would meet the "sunny" "mild winters" part of your criteria.
posted by rongorongo at 10:21 AM on January 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


From kevinbelt's link, it appears there's a decent-sized chunk of Csa on the western coast of Australia (around Perth), and tiny patches in Chile and Argentina, South Africa (around Cape Town) and Ethiopia, and, to my surprise, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Uzbekistan.
posted by box at 12:16 PM on January 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


(My mistake--some of these are Csb, Csa's Southern Hemisphere sibling.)
posted by box at 12:42 PM on January 18, 2021


In New Zealand one of the (the) primary controls on outdoor comfort is the presence / absence of sandflies (Austrosimulium). Low humidity reduces them to nothing, so...

NZ is two main islands spanning 12° of latitude ~34°30' to 46°40' with a mountain spine dividing the South Island, and a mountainous core through the North Island. Winds are mainly from South (freezing) and West (wet, very wet for the South Is.). But the mountainous South Is. spine generates really severe föhn winds, into the mid 40°'s C for the South Is. with ultra-low humidity (a windy dry oven - kills people, plants, animals).

Essentially everything in the lee/east of the mountains is low-humidity, medium (~1metre a year) to very low rainfall (to less than 250mm year). Nelson at top of South Is. is about perfect (only warm föhn's, can swim is sea and see snow on mountains, min/max C -5 to 30 ). Gisborne, East North Is. where RocketLabs launches from is nice and stable, and where I live in East Otago, (E 169°, S 45°. sheltered by mountains, insig. föhn's min/max C -10 to 30, humidity supports very few sandflies) is normally very nice (but this years is the wettest spring and summer, and had the driest winter on record).

Much of NZ has a range of horrible climates in my experience. Sweet spots take a while to find.
posted by unearthed at 1:06 PM on January 18, 2021


You might like the Oceanic climate (Cfb), typified by Western Europe (Britain, most of France, northern Spain) but also in the Pacific Northwest, NZ, Tasmania, parts of New England, and patches elsewhere. If you were in France below Brittany, northern Spain or northern NZ or Tas it would be sunny particularly in summer with a mild winters and low-ish humidity and not too many bugs. But it can be dependent on exact topography as unearthed explains. And actually, reading their answer I think many good wine regions have these sorts of features.
posted by plonkee at 1:39 PM on January 18, 2021


I was unfamiliar with the Koppen climate classification system - thank you for that link.
posted by COD at 3:55 PM on January 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


SE Arizona's climate is quite pleasant. I moved here from NE Missouri and don't miss the winters there.
posted by Agave at 4:48 PM on January 18, 2021


New Mexico
posted by autolykos at 7:15 PM on January 18, 2021


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