Humid continental climate Totally Explained

Everything about The Humid Continental Climate totally explained

The humid continental climate is a climate found over large areas of land masses in the temperate regions of the mid-latitudes where there's a zone of conflict between polar and tropical air masses. The humid continental climate is marked by variable weather patterns and a large seasonal temperature variance. The seasonal temperature variance can be as great as 33° Celsius, but is typically about 15 - 22°C (27-40° Fahrenheit). The temperature difference between the warmest and coldest months increases as one moves further inland and away from the moderating influence of the ocean. Places with a hottest month temperature above 10 °C and a coldest month temperature below -3°C, and which don't meet the criteria for an arid climate, are classified as continental.

Dfa: Hot (or very warm) summer subtype

Within North America it includes much of the eastern and midwestern portions of the United States and extreme southern Ontario,Canada from the Atlantic to the 100th meridian west and generally in the range of 39°N to 44°N latitude; precipitation increases the further eastward in this zone and is less seasonally uniform in the west; this area includes the following regions:

pockets of Western and Central New York, Southern New York State (except for upland areas of the Allegheny Plateau, Long Island and New York City proper)
Most of Pennsylvania (except for its southeastern region and some highland areas)
Northwestern New Jersey
Extreme western and southwestern Virginia (in higher elevations)
Most of West Virginia (except valley areas at lower elevations)
Most of Ohio
Most of Indiana
Most of Illinois
Most of Missouri
Iowa
Eastern Nebraska
Eastern Kansas
Southeastern South Dakota
Extreme Southern Minnesota
Southern Wisconsin
Southern Michigan
Southern Ontario (south of and including the city of Toronto)
Most of Connecticut
Rhode Island
Parts of Massachusetts
extreme southern Vermont
extreme southern New Hampshire
extreme southwestern Maine

Some of the major North American cities in this zone:

Albany, New York

Buffalo, New York (central city)

Hartford, Connecticut

Indianapolis, Indiana

Kansas City, Missouri

Lansing, Michigan

Madison, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Omaha, Nebraska

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Reading, Pennsylvania

Rochester, New York

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Toledo, Ohio

Toronto, Ontario (central city) The 0°C (32°F) isotherm (freeze line) or the -3°C (26.6°F) isotherms (persistent snow line) are the possible lines dividing the humid continental and the humid subtropical climates. The Koppen climate classification, the most popular climate classification, uses -3°C (26.6°F). In between these lines are the following places:

Boone, North Carolina

Boston, Massachusetts

Cincinnati, Ohio

Long Island

New York City

St. Louis, Missouri

Providence, Rhode Island Some states in this zone:

The far south of New York State

Southwest Connecticut

Most of New Jersey

Western Maryland (due to higher elevations)

Central West Virginia (due to higher elevations)

Western North Carolina (due to higher elevations)

Northern Arkansas (due to higher elevations)

Northern Tennessee(due to higher elevations)

Parts of Indiana The western states of the central United States (namely Montana, Wyoming, parts of southern Idaho, parts of Colorado, western Nebraska, and western areas of North and South Dakota) have thermal regimes which fit the Dfa climate type, but are quite dry, and are generally grouped with the steppe (Bsk) climates.
   Outside of North America the Dfa climate type is present near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, the Southern Federal District of Russia, Moldova, and parts of eastern Romania, but tends to be drier, or even semi-arid, in these places. Tohoku in Japan between Tokyo and Hokkaidō also has a climate with Köppen classification Dfa, but is wetter even than that part of North America with this climate type. A variant which has dry winters and hence much lower snowfall with monsoonal type summer rainfall is to be found in north-eastern China including coastal regions of the Yellow Sea and over much of the Korean Peninsula; it has the Köppen classification Dwa. Much of central Asia, northwestern China, and southern mongolia have a thermal regime similar to that of the Dfa climate type, but these regions receive so little precipitation that they're more often classified as steppes (BSk) or deserts (BWk).
   It appears nowhere within the Southern Hemisphere, which has no large landmasses so situated in the middle latitudes that allow the combination of hot summers and at least one month of sub-freezing temperatures.
   Cities outside North America with this climate include:

Kharkiv, Ukraine

Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Chişinău, Moldova

Bucharest, Romania

Yerevan, Armenia

Beijing, China - Dwa

Tianjin, China - Dwa

Shenyang, China - Dwa

Pyongyang, North Korea - Dwa

Seoul, South Korea - Dwa

Dfb: Warm summer subtype

The warm summer subtype (Köppen: Dfb) lies north of the hot summer subtype; in North America, from about 44°N to 50°N in the east but places of adequate precipitation as far north as 54°N in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and below 40°N in the high Appalachians, separated by the 22°C isotherm for the warmest month from the Dfa climates (which passes near Minneapolis, Minnesota and Grand Rapids, Michigan). Summer temperatures in this zone typically average between 70 F and 85 F (21°C-29°C) during the daytime. It includes the following places:

Central and Northern New England

Northern and Central New York

Northern Michigan (including the entire Upper Peninsula)

Northern and central Wisconsin

Northern and central Minnesota

Eastern parts of The Dakotas

Highest elevations of the central Appalachians

Some high-altitude areas of the Sierra Nevada In Canada, it includes these areas:

Most of Atlantic Canada

Southern Quebec

Most of Ontario except south of Toronto and far northern regions

Southern Manitoba

Central and southeastern Saskatchewan

Central (latitudinal) Alberta Some of the major cities in this zone:

Barrie, Ontario

Binghamton, New York

Buffalo, New York (outer suburbs)

Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario

Montreal, Quebec

Toronto, Ontario (outer suburbs)

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Traverse City, Michigan

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Truckee, California It is also found in central Scandinavia. East central Europe (east of Germany and Hungary) is a warm summer subtype with less severe winters, similar to the winters of the hot summer subtype - the winters here are modified by the oceanic climate influence of western Europe.
The warm summer subtype is marked by mild summers, long cold winters and less precipitation than the hot summer subtype, however, short periods of extreme heat are not uncommon. In this region, summers shorten and are cooler, and winters become longer and colder toward the north parts of this zone. Northern Japan has a similar climate.
Much of Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia has a thermal regime fitting this climate, but it has steppe or desert like precipitation and so isn't really considered to be a humid continental climate. Countries with this climate:

Eastern Poland

Most of Ukraine

Belarus

Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia

Central European Russia

Southern areas of Far Eastern (as dwb) and Siberian Federal Districts, Russia

Northern North Korea (as dwb)

Northern Japan

Central regions of Sweden and southern part of Finland

Southeast Norway

Most of Slovakia

Parts of Austria and Hungary

Northeastern Romania

Mountainous areas in the Balkans

Italy and Switzerland's Alps, between 1100 and 1600 meters (Western Alps) and between 900 and 1450 meters(Eastern and Central Alps) In the Southern Hemisphere it exists only in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and perhaps as isolated microclimates of the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina. Cities with such climates outside North America include:

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Dobbiaco, Italy

Wanaka, New Zealand A dry-winter variant (Köppen: Dwb) is to be found in northeastern China, northern Korea and the Southeastern region of Russian Far East, as at Vladivostok and Chongjin, North Korea, and Harbin, China. This variant doesn't exist in the Southern Hemisphere.

Subarctic climate

Near 50°N in North America (except north of 55°N in Alberta and British Columbia) and eastern Asia (60°N or further north in Europe), the climate grades into a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc, Dwc), poleward of which the summers (seasons with temperatures above 10°C) are shorter than four months.
This climate appears nowhere in the southern hemisphere because of the complete absence of inland areas isolated from oceanic waters between 45° and 55° south latitude.

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