Re: Con-geography question: can anyone help?

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 14:49:19 -0500, Thomas Leigh
<thomas@...> wrote:

> Azores, somewhere between 40°-50° north latitude, and between 20°-30°
> west longitude, and its size is "around half the size of Iceland", which
> would make it around 50,000 square km.
>
> So my question is: what sort of climate would a place like this have? I
> had completely forgotten having come up with these figures, and I'd like
> to explore where this might lead my conculturally, and the sort of
> landscape and climate the people live is obviously a major factor. Also,
> realistically speaking, if such an island existed, would it most likely
> be volcanic like Iceland and the Azores? How fertile or arable would it
> likely be? I think when I was younger I'd envisioned a magically green
> and fertile place, but now I think I'd rather leave the whole fantasy
> and magic thing behind and explore things from a more real-world point
> of view.
As these islands are in the ocean, the ocean would  moderate the
climate quite a bit. Especially with a warm water current heading
towards the area. My guess is that the climate would at least be
temperate, if not towards the mediterranean side of things. In fact,
all of the Mediterranean climates exist between 30 and 45 degrees
latitude (both north and south). Except the Mediterranean basin (which
by circumstance is affected by the warm mediterranean), all of the
Mediterranean zones tend towards the western coasts of continents.
Africa would have a much bigger zone if more of it were within 30 - 45
degrees latitude.

My guess is your islands would have a mediterranean rainfall pattern
like the Azores - from about November to March. It would also be
fairly mild, possibly warm temperate into subtropical (i'm not
climatology expert so I can only guess). They may also tend to be on
the dry side, so you'd find plants a lot like that of the Azores,
Canaries, and Madeira islands (these islands all share similar
plants).  You'd also be able to grow things like Citrus, Date palms,
and other warm climate plants (Even in California in more temperate
and less subtropical areas we can grow them). You probably wouldn't
have severe freezes due to the ocean's influence and the fact that
continental air wouldn't be a big factor (this is actually the only
reason my part of California experiences temperatures down to the 20's
-- air coming from Canada).




--
You can turn away from me
but there's nothing that'll keep me here you know
And you'll never be the city guy
Any more than I'll be hosting The Scooby Show

Scooby Show - Belle and Sebastian