Everything about Microthermal totally explained
In
climatology, the term
microthermal is used to denote the
continental climates of
Eurasia and
North America.
The word
microthermal is derived from two
Greek words meaning "having little heat." This is misleading, however, since the term is intended to describe only the
temperature conditions that prevail during the
winter months, rather than those of the entire year.
The characteristic feature of the microthermal climate is cold winters — specifically, winters that are cold enough to ensure that
snow will remain on the ground continuously for a fixed period of time every year. Conceptually, an average temperature of −3°C or colder is assumed to be necessary to bring this about; thus the climate of a location where at least one full month is this cold is classified as microthermal (however, at least one month in the summer must average 10°C or higher; otherwise the climate would be reckoned as
polar). This definition places all of the world's microthermal climates in the
Northern Hemisphere, as the absence of broad land masses at upper-middle latitudes in the
Southern Hemisphere precludes the existence of such temperature conditions there.
Microthermal climates are typically subdivided into three categories based on the temperature characteristics of the
summer season. The southernmost of the three is frequently referred to as the
temperate continental climate, and has hot summers — that's to say, at least one month has an average temperature of 22°C (71.6°F) or above. The middle zone is often labelled
hemiboreal, and no summer month there has an average temperature as warm as 22°C, but at least four months will average 10°C (50°F) or higher. The northernmost of the three microthermal zones is the subarctic, or
boreal zone; there only one to three months will have average temperatures of at least 10°C.
In
North America, microthermal climates commence at roughly 43° North latitude along the Atlantic seaboard, this line drifting gradually southward further inland, reaching approximately 38° at the eastern edge of the
Rocky Mountains, then curving dramatically northward near the
Pacific coast, reaching the Pacific Ocean just south of
Juneau, Alaska. In
Asia, the latitude at which these climates begin is several degrees lower due to the pervasive influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone, or high-pressure system, and in continental
Europe the line actually runs longitudinally rather than latitudinally, cutting through central
Poland after beginning north of the
Arctic Circle along the Norwegian coast, thereafter moving diagonally across
Scandinavia.
The boundary between the microthermal and polar climate zones is furthest north in western Europe (actually within the Arctic Circle there), and furthest south along the east coast of North America (at about 56° North latitude on the central coast of
Labrador); it then trends northward across
Canada before dropping south again as it courses through
Alaska. Throughout most of
Siberia, the boundary tends to follow the Arctic Circle fairly closely.
In addition to having various summer temperature regimes, microthermal climates also differ from one another in how much
precipitation they receive — such climates may be
humid,
semiarid or
arid. Most of the
Turkestan-Gobi desert system has an arid microthermal climate, while the best-known example of the semiarid microthermal climate can be found in the "
steppes of
Central Asia" immortalized by
Russian
classical music composer Alexander Borodin.
Further Information
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