What are some What are facts about the Marine west coast?

Answer 1

Oceanic climate

also called marine west coast

An oceanic climate (also called marine west coast climate and maritime climate) is the climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of all the world's continents, and in southeastern Australia; similar climates are also found at coastal tropical highlands and tropical coasts on leeward sides of mountain ranges. Generally, they fall into Köppen climate classification Cfb or Cwb. A marine climates winters are relatively warm while the summers are relatively cool.

Oceanic climates are characterized by a narrower annual range of temperatures than are encountered in other places at a comparable latitude, and differ from

Mediterranean climates

in that significant amounts of precipitation are received in summer. This means that precipitation is both adequate and reliable at all times of the year in oceanic climates, except in certain tropical highland areas, which would have tropical savanna climates (with a dry season in winter) if not for the high altitude making them cooler. Another partial exception is in the Pacific Northwest, where summers are relatively dry but the rainy season is wet and long enough to avoid the summer droughts associated with traditional Mediterranean climates.

Overall temperature characteristics vary among oceanic climates; those at the lowest latitudes are subtropical from a thermal standpoint, but more commonly a mesothermal regime prevails, with cool, but not cold, winters and warm, but not hot, summers. Summers are also generally much cooler than in areas with a humid subtropical climate. Poleward of the latter is a zone of subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc), with relatively mild winters and cool summers and a summer season (average temperature at least 10°C or 50°F) of less than four months; examples of this climate include much of coastal Iceland in the Northern Hemisphere and extreme southern Chile in the Southern Hemisphere (the fact that this form of climate exists in both hemispheres ruling out the use of such terms as subarctic or boreal to denote it; even though these terms are used to refer to climates characterized by short summers, they are also synonyms for "northern" and therefore inappropriate).

The British Isles experiences a typically maritime climate, with prevailing south-westerly winds from the Atlantic Ocean. The annual average temperature range in the UK is only about 10°C. Although the west coast of Alaska experiences a maritime climate, the absence of an equally significant warm Pacific current in the upper-mid latitudes means that these regions are generally colder in winter, with more precipitation falling as snow.

With one significant exception, oceanic climates are classified as humid with respect to precipitation, the only major example of a dry oceanic climate being that of Patagonia.