Mediterranean climate (was Fritillaria raddeana)

Jim McKenney jamesamckenney@verizon.net
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 13:51:40 PDT
Those of you who attempt to define the Mediterranean climate on the basis of rainfall are missing a point: what you're counting as "rainfall" is better termed precipitation. In some of the areas you are broadly considering to be Mediterranean, that precipitation comes as snow which falls on hard, frozen earth. 

To me, a true Mediterranean climate is one where (for the Northern Hemisphere), the growing season occurs in the period September-May, one where the indigenous flora has a significant number of species which flower early in that period and slowly mature as that period progresses.  It seems to me that if the winters are too cold to support a flourishing flora, the climate is not Mediterranean. 

Jim McKenney



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