A Method of Determining the Warmth and Temperateness of Climate

Abstract

frigid zones. That arrangement clearly implies a gradation of warmth in which the temperate zone lacks extremes of tropical heat and polar cold. As judged by mean annual temperatures such a gradation is accurate enough for general application to lowlands of the midlatitudes. Judged by seasonal behavior of temperature, however, the Greek zonal scheme loses its accuracy and appeal. Although some sort of reduction in warmth of climate must take place between equator and pole, the manner of change is complicated by the progression of the seasons. Midlatitude regions, admittedly intermediate in warmth, are not necessarily free of wide swings of temperature, even though hot weather be confined to a few months of summer, and cold weather to a few months of winter. Thus it is mandatory to separate the concept of temperateness from that of warmth, at the same time destroying any simple geographic zonation which combines both properties equally well. By warmth of climate in this study will be meant some one thermal level expressed in degrees of a temperature scale, which best characterizes a given temperature regime. Temperateness of climate, in contrast, refers to a rating of a given temperature regime that measures its freedom from extremes of heat or