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Middle-latitude Climates - Climates of group are those of middle latitudes occupying the polar front zone in which both tropical and polar air masses play an important part. The latitude belt in which these climates lie is subject to cyclonic storms; most of the precipitation in these climates occurs along fronts within these cyclones.
Humid subtropical climate (Cfa) - Maritime tropical (mT) air in this part of the anticyclonic cell is engaged in a slight ascending motion combined with its flow toward higher latitudes. The air mass has a steep lapse rate. Moisture that enters the air mass by evaporation from the warm ocean surface is distributed to great heights. As this moist, unstable maritime tropical air mass moves over the eastern continental coasts in latitudes 25° to 35° and drifts inland, it brings the necessary moisture, and latent heat energy for heavy precipitation. Lifting occurs along warm and cold fronts where the tropical air encounters polar air. This general pattern of climate, here called the humid subtropical climate, is exemplified by the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast states of the United States; corresponding regions are found in the Argentina-Uruguay-southern Brazil area of South America, in eastern China and southern Japan, along a small part of the southeastern coast of Africa, and on the east Australian coast.
2. Main article
In the Koppen system, these areas lie in the Cfa climate, described as a temperate rainy climate with hot summers. The Cfa climate has no dry season, and even the driest summer month receives more than 1.2 in (3 cm) of rain. The hot summer specified by the letter a is one in which the average temperature of the warmest month is over 71.6°F (22°C).
Rainfall is ample at all times of the year, but is distinctly greater during the summer when the oceanic high strengthens and the flow of maritime tropical air is increased. Thunderstorms are especially frequent in summer. They may be of the thermal (heat) type, or of squall line or cold front origin. An occasional tropical cyclone may strike the coastal area, bringing very heavy rains. Winter precipitation, some of it in the form of snow, is of frontal type in the frequent middle-latitude cyclones that sweep over these regions.
3. References
Temperatures show a moderately strong range, of very much the same magnitude as in the tropical deserts, but without the extreme heat in summer. Humidity is, of course, very high, in marked contrast to the deserts, and summer climate on the humid east coast is at times similar to the wet equatorial climate in temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Winters show the influence of outbursts of polar air masses, which frequently penetrate into subtropical latitudes and bring be-low-freezing weather with killing frosts. We might say that this climate type is shared to some extent by both tropical and polar air masses, but that the tropical air masses prevail most of the time and dominate in summer.
In Southeast Asia the humid subtropical climate is somewhat modified by intensive monsoon development. Winter air masses from interior Asia are very dry, and a. winter scarcity of precipitation develops, whereas maritime air masses in summer, together with occasional typhoons, cause a strongly accentuated maximum in the summer.
A large winter water surplus characterizes the soil-moisture balance of the humid subtropical climate, while by comparison, the summer moisture deficiency is typically very small.
Soils of the moisture, warmer parts of the humid subtropical regions are strongly leached red-yellow soils related to the latosols of the humid tropical and equatorial climates. Rich in iron and aluminum oxides, these soils are poor in many of the plant nutrients essential for successful agricultural production.
Forest is the natural vegetation of most of the areas having the humid subtropical climate. Much of the sandy coastal region of the southeastern United States today has a second growth forest of longleaf, loblolly, and slash pine, whereas the inland region has summer-green deciduous forest. Toward higher latitudes forest gives way to tall-grass prairie such as the Pampa of Argentina and Uruguay, and the prairies of Oklahoma and Missouri. Here the soils are of dark prairie and chernozem groups, typical of a dry continental climate. These grasslands occupy regions that are sub humid, i.e., best considered transitional to the semi-arid steppes, for they have less than 40 in (100 cm) annual precipitation and a marked dryness of the winter season.
