Tundra

The Mediterranean climate climate regime resembles the climate of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, which includes over half of the area with this climate type worldwide. Elsewhere, this climate type prevails in parts of western North America, in parts of Western and South Australia, in southwestern South Africa and in parts of central Chile. The climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.[21] For example, the city of Perth, Australia, in the southern hemisphere winter months of June-August, experiences 450 millimetres (18 in) of rainfall and an average daily minimum of 8 °C (46 °F). Meanwhile, during the summer months of December to February, the city only averages 32 millimetres (1.3 in).[22]


[edit] Continental steppe

Steppe in MongoliaA steppe is a dry grassland, but not dry enough to be a desert. The term steppe originally comes from the Russian word /stɛp/ which means a flat and arid land. The climates of all steppes are summarized by a continental climate. Peaks can be recorded in the summer of up to 40 °C (104 °F) and in winter down to −40 °C (−40.0 °F).[23] Besides this huge temperature variation, the diurnal temperature differences are also very great. In the highlands of Mongolia, 30 °C (86 °F) can be reached during the day with temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) at night. The mid-latitude steppes average 250 millimetres (9.8 in) to 500 millimetres (20 in) of precipitation per year. In tropical locations, necessary rainfall to separate steppes from true deserts may be double this criteria due to greater evapotranspiration.


[edit] Subarctic
A subarctic climate has monthly temperatures which are above 10 °C (50 °F) for one to three months of the year, and experiences some of the largest annual temperature ranges on the planet.[24] Except for those areas adjacent to warm ocean currents, there is usually continuous permafrost due to the very cold winters. This means that building in most subarctic regions is very difficult and expensive: cities are very few (Murmansk being the largest) and generally small, whilst roads are few and railways non-existent. An important consequence is that transportation tends to be restricted to "bush" planes, helicopters and, in summer, river boats.

Precipitation tends to be low due to the low moisture content of the cold air, with no more than 15 inches (380 mm) to 20 inches (510 mm) of precipitation per year, on average.[24] Typically, there is a summer maximum in precipitation ranging from moderate in North America to extreme in the Russian Far East.[16] In drier areas, glaciers are largely absent because of the lack of winter precipitation. In the wettest areas, glaciers tend to be abundant and Pleistocene glaciation covers even the lowest elevations. Soils of the subarctic are generally very acidic largely because of the influence of the vegetation both in the taiga and in peaty bogs, which tends to acidify the soil, as well as the extreme ease with which leaching of nutrients takes place even in the most heavily glaciated regions. The dominant orders are Spodosols and further north Gelisols. Agriculture is mainly limited to animal husbandry, though in some areas barley can be grown.