Temperate zone

Earth's climate belt:
cool temperate zone (green), cold temperate zone (purple)

The temperate zone on both hemispheres is the climatic zone that lies between the subtropics (annual mean temperature above 20  ° C ) and the cold zone (mean temperature below 10 ° C in the warmest month). One also speaks of the moderate latitudes or the moderate climate .

The temperate zone corresponds geomathematically to the term middle latitudes - in each case between the tropics at 23 ° 27 ' latitude and the polar circles at 66 ° 34' north or south. This term is also applied to other celestial bodies in planetology .

The temperate zone is divided into the cool temperate (nemoral) zone and the cold temperate (boreal) zone . In some publications, the Mediterranean climate can also be found as a warm temperate zone , which is otherwise assigned to the subtropics. In addition, the so-called warm - temperate rainy climates of the Köppen and Geiger climate classification with the sea ​​climates Cfb and Cwb extend into the cool-temperate zone . There is a risk of confusion between climatic zones and climates .

The cold temperate zone includes all areas that have a mean temperature below −3 ° C (according to another definition, 0 ° C) in the coldest month and a mean temperature above 10 ° C in the warmest month.

vegetation

The vegetation in the temperate zone consists mainly of coniferous , mixed and deciduous forests . In the interior of the continents there are also steppes and deserts (semi-deserts and full deserts).

The rainfall in the oceanic areas balanced throughout the year and take to the continental areas back from.

See also

• Low latitudes , high latitudes - both with a similar range of meanings

Web links

Commons : Temperate climate  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Temperate zone. In: Bildungswiki: Klimawandel, June 16, 2013
• Matthias Forkel: The temperate climate zone. In: klima-der-erde.de (overview)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See, for example, Mars has thousands of glaciers ( Memento from April 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: scinexx.de, accessed on August 22, 2020.
2. ^ Burkhard Hofmeister: The moderate latitudes: especially the cool temperate woodlands (= Geographical Seminar Zonal. Volume 2). Westermann, Braunschweig 1985, ISBN 3-89057-313-4 , p. 14 ( limited preview in the Google book search).