SME
Physical Geography
Climate classification
Use this for “A place’s coldest month is −14 °C and its warmest 19 °C, with 600 mm of rain. Which Köppen group is it?”
Sort
Which Köppen group is this climate?
Tap a card, then tap its group.
B first: too little rain for the heat. Then A: coldest month 18 °C or more; C: coldest 0–18 °C; D: coldest below 0 °C, warmest above 10 °C; E: warmest below 10 °C.
Assumptions
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Köppen sorts climates by monthly mean temperatures and yearly rain, because those set which plants grow.
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Dry (B) is checked first: below about 20 × mean temperature + 140 mm of rain a year (rain spread evenly), a place is dry.
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A month’s temperature is its mean, in °C; rain is the total for the year, in mm.
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Daily sunlight at the top of the atmosphere
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Dry climates: desert or steppe
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