- Portugal; Izmir, Turkey (Csa); Rasht, Gilan Province, Iran; Los Angeles, California, Perth, Australia. In these places, between 30-45° (latitude) north or south, weather is influenced by polar climate, during winters, producing moderate temperatures and changeable, rainy weather, and by the subtropical high pressure systems, during summers, that are hot and dry, except in coastal areas, where summers are milder.
- Csb - If you go norther, you will find dry, cooler summer months and the Oceanic climate (Cfb), like in Coruña, Spain; Porto, Portugal; Potenza, Italy; San Francisco, California; Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Cape Town, South Africa;
- Csc - Cool-summer Mediterranean climate
- Cfc - Oceanic Subpolar climates ....
- D (cool-no-frost) - as in C but colder during the year, they have an average temperature above 10 °C their warmest months, and a coldest month average below 0 °C, they usually occur in the interiors of continents and north of 40°N, while in the Southern Hemisphere, group D climates are extremely rare. We use the same couple of letters to identify arid periods and summer characteristics:
- Dfa - Continental Climates with hot summer (average temperature in the warmest month >22 °C) occurs in Kazakhstan (Almaty, Oral), Japan (Aomori, Nagano, Sapporo, that is a little more cold and may be classified also Dfb), as well as in north America (Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal, but canadian are very close to Dfb) in Europe (Bucharest, Romania; Rostov-on-Don, Russia) and Asia (Pyongyang and Seoul, Korea; Beijing and Harbin, China).
- Dfb - if, from a Cfb with warm summer, we go norther (or souther, in austral emisphere), generally in the high 40s and low 50s latitudes, in North America or Asia, and in higher latitudes, in central and eastern Europe, you usually find a continental equivalent of a maritime temperate climate. Few examples: Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan; Stockholm, Sweden; Oslo or Lillehammer, Norway; Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Saint Petersburg on the baltic; Kiev, Ukraine; Budapest and Moscow; but also Calgary, Quebec City, Ottawa, in Canada; Buffalo, Portland and Marquette, in US; Heihe, China ...
- Dwa (cold - and dry - winters with hot summers is characteristic especially of China)
- Dwb (cold - and arid - winters with warm summers).
- Dsa (Dry summer) climates are found at higher elevations adjacent Mediterranean (Csa) climates like in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Saqqez and Arak, Iran; Hakkâri and Muş, Turkey; Cambridge, Idaho, United States (Dsa).
- Dsb (continental climates) arises from the same scenario as Dsa, but at higher altitudes or latitudes, mostly in North America (Mediterranean climates extend further poleward than in Eurasia). Few examples: Sivas, Turkey; Roghun, Tajikistan; Dras, India; Flagstaff, Arizona (US).
- E (polar). Polar climates are characterized by average temperatures of any month below 10 °C and divided in, tundra climates and icecap climates:
- Tundra climates (ET and ETf): have average temperature of the summer months between 0 and 10 °C. These climates occur on the northern edges of the North American and Eurasian land masses (generally north of 70 °N), and on nearby islands.
- Ice cap climate (EF): This climate is dominant in Antarctica and inner Greenland, but also occurs at extremely high altitudes on mountains, above even tundra. Monthly average temperatures never exceed 0 °C.
- Ice cap climate (EF): This climate is dominant in Antarctica and inner Greenland, but also occurs at extremely high altitudes on mountains, above even tundra. Monthly average temperatures never exceed 0 °C.
The architecture point of view
Vernacular architecture
The term "vernacular" has a linguistic origin: the latin vernaculus means "native idiom". But we frequently use linguistic analogies also in architecture: grammar, style, expression, even syntax and language are terms that may be used to analyze a building, as well as linguists analyze the structure of a text.
As a local dialect, the vernacular architecture is the local «common speech of building» [Olivier 1997, p.xxi].
Architecture (the vernacular in particular) may be strongly influenced by climate, but the environment is not the only force that influence the form and the structure of a building. The site (e.g. the presence of water but also the presence of natural defences and physical boundaries), the most incumbent risks (those that can be reminded by people, like landslides and flood, earthquake and singular meteorological events), the economic development of a region and its effect on urbanization, the social and cultural uses (the property ownership system, the social structure, from the family and the food production, to the political organization, the dwelling stability, the rites, the traditions and the symbolic values); the available technologies (from the available materials to the available labour forces and their organization): all these factors have a strong influence on the architecture.
But «climates stimulate needs for shelter and influence local cultures, but provide the conditions of local building materials».
Climate data and variables
Air temperature
Relative Humidity
Solar power
Sky vault temperature
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Wind velocity
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Air pressure
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