Personal climate classification systems

Ok, I adjusted my threshold down to 5 C. I think that’s a reasonable line to draw. My point was that a hot desert shouldn’t have frequent frosts, while cold desert climates see frost and freeze conditions consistently in winter. I apologize for the errors. I’ve never lived in an arid climate before.

Arica is an example that doesn’t fit either your hot or cold desert category yet it’s clearly desert. Most coastal climates in northern Chile/Peru and other mild desert climates like that also don’t qualify.

You have a really low threshold for "snowy" then. You also have to remember that for both places, years with blockbuster snowstorms are going to skew the averages. The average median snowfall is probably a fair bit lower.


DC only averages 14 days a year with a snow depth of 1" or more, or only about 15.6% of winter days. Meaning, 84.4% of winter (on average) is spent without snow on the ground. Hardly "snowy". 

Also your classification has Oymyakon and Concord, NH both as D-b.

Equatorial Savanna (Awe) and Tropical Savanna (Awt) already cover those.

Oops, didn't notice that.

• RE: Precipitation Pattern

Fairbanks has a strikingly evident monsoon, without question. However, Flagstaff does have a much trickier dry/wet season pattern—so we instead compare the combined total summer–autumn precipitation, to that of the winter–spring period. The summer–autumm total measures in at 301 mm; the winter–spring total, at 253 mm. Flagstaff, therefore, yields a Monsoonal pattern.

• RE: Aridity

My aridity labels have been applied only to the textbook Subtropical (a) subtype, as I have based them strictly upon their respective biomes (Desert, Scrubland, Bushland) straddling the Horse Latitudes—the regions which lay between the 23rd and 35th parallels, of which are chiefly influenced by the Hadley Cell. Such distinctly torrid biomes, are simply not found in cooler, more poleward-influenced climates like those of the Central-Western US (which tend rather towards a Grassland biome, although a drier variant).

The Atacama is already covered by Tropical Desert (AtH)—e.g. Lima. 

I've now added Temperate Steppe (CaK) and Continental Steppe (CdK) to my system.

However, do note that I haven't added a precip pattern letter before the K…because I have only found qualifying climates with Mediterranean and Monsoonal patterns, as seen with Reno, Winnemucca, and Albuquerque. 

Perhaps you would know of similar climates with a Uniform pattern? Requirements for both:

• CaK = Coolest month 2°–8° C; Warmest month > 22° C; ≥ 4 months > 10° C; < 250 mm annually

And

• CdK = Coolest month < 2° C; Warmest month > 22° C; ≥ 4 months > 10° C; < 250 mm annually

How does that work for my climate? Only 2 months of the year average 60mm here.