#Mediterranean climate

[mapsontheweb]

Areas of the World with a Mediterranean Climate According to the Köppen Climate Classification

[pointless-letters]

“Actually, climate change is good.”

[tonytomeo]

In The Zone

Climate is regional. We all know how excellent the local climate is for gardening. As we travel around the area though, we also realize that there is more than one climate. Locally, there are at least three of the standardized ‘Sunset’ garden zones, with several more within only a few miles. There are countless microclimates too. Elevation, terrain, latitude and the proximity of the ocean or…

[alientitty]

vacation route where you only hit these places

[tenth-sentence]

North Africa enjoys a Mediterranean climate, characterized by rainfall concentrated in the winter months.

"Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years" - Jared Diamond

[serpentface]

Here's a heavily improved Imperial Wardin map, with a focus on climate and geography (uses the Koppen Climate Classification). This is an attempt to infuse pre-existing lore too established to retcon with a degree of realism, but there's only so much I can do.

The majority of the climate falls under the hot mediterranean and semi-arid classification, with small pockets of warm mediterranean and arid climes. The entire region experiences a rainshadow effect from the eastern Blackmane Mountain range, which blocks northeasterly winds from the eastern ocean and starkly divides the Sub-Viper landmass between its humid east and dry west.

Most of the interior is grassland, savannah, and scrub. Savannah heavily coincides with a history of human occupation and controlled burns, and is mostly based around oak. Grassland, scrub, and semi-desert dominates the semi-arid regions. Small pockets of high desert and salt flats occur in the arid zones.

A forest originally spanned much of the north, consisting of predominantly oak. This was gradually eliminated due to multiple factors- a warming climate, low intensity human intervention (hunter-gatherers and pastoralists clearing land with controlled burns), and high intensity exploitation (deforestation for timber). Additional woodlands found along the major riverways have been wholly eliminated by logging within the past several centuries.

The largest remaining span of woodland occurs within and north of the Highlands, and in the sparsely populated northeast, where a major and mostly intact oak forest stretches to the Blackmane mountains. A smaller pocket of woodland occurs in the volcanic highlands of Lobera. Other pockets remain, but are isolated and insignificant on the map.

Most of the geography is flat, divided by a range of hills that are the heavily eroded remains of an ancient mountain range. The highest peaks of this range comprise the contemporary Highlands, which have the highest elevations and coldest climate in the region. This is the only territory that regularly receives snowfall, and is the source of several major rivers. The rest of the range is too low to drastically affect the climate, save for the Red Hills east of the Cholemdi basin, whose rain shadow effect (heavily compounded by the basin's low elevation) renders this valley the hottest and driest part of the region. This range once formed a land bridge across the Viper into Finnerich (though this was prior to anatomically modern humans Existing) with its only remnants being smatterings of islands.

The province Lobera holds a small range of volcanic highlands, composed of a network of mostly dead volcanic craters. The volcano Odatoche is the only active site in the region, though has been dormant for centuries and has not had a major eruption in millenia. The other major geological feature is the Sons of Creation, which is the fabled site of God’s self-sacrifice from which the world was made. This is the eroded range of a very large impact crater, consisting of two impact rings (visible as a circular formation of hills) a ring lake, and an elevated center.

The most fertile land is found in Ephennos, owing to the presence of the Black River and its highly fertile delta (which contains the only major semi-permanent marshes outside of Highland river valleys). This is the second largest river in the region, being a confluence of two major river systems out of the Highlands (the Urbin/Erubin and Troibad/Nedachemi rivers). Erubinnos has the largest river, the Kannethod, which originates in the Blackmane mountains.

Agriculture around some of the other river systems is mostly or entirely dependent on their post-rainy season flooding. The most prominent is the Yellowtail river (flows south past Erub). In the very distant past, this was the longest river in the region, and carved out the Cholemdi basin and reached the sea. In the contemporary, it dries out long before even approaching the sea (though occasionally still floods the basin in abnormally rainy years). The Brilla river system out of the Red Hills (flows to Wardin) reaches the sea year-round, but has been known to run dry in exceptionally severe drought, and irrigation along its length depends on its flooding.

There are very few significant lakes in the region (small lakes are unmarked). The biggest is the volcanic crater lake Aganagarre in Lobera, the Yellowtail lake north of Erub, and the ring lake within the Sons of Creation.

[useless-catalanfacts]

A new record: temperatures are so high, that yesterday Gavarda (a town in the Valencian Country) registered the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe in January: 30.7°C (87.26°F). This would usually be the expected temperature in early May. The previous record was set in 2021 (29.8°C in Alacant). We are record after record, and it's not good.

This adds on the drought that the Catalan Countries have been suffering for 3 years. We have water use restrictions and many farmers have lost the harvests for months because they're not allowed to water the fields. And there's no prospect for generous rain any time soon. Experts have been warning that for every degree Celsius that temperatures rise in the Mediterranean region, annual rain will reduce by 4%, and since we're a region that is already naturally prone to summer droughts, this will mean 20% less water resources.

The Mediterranean region is one of the places in the Earth that heats the most because of climate change. There will be 40% more days with extreme heat (days with temperatures higher than 35°C=95°F), which will have effects on health, particularly on open-air workers, and will suppose a 17% decrease in agriculture produce. That is, without counting rising sea levels.

The Mediterranean region is inhabited by 400-500 million people, out of which 150 million live on the coast. Experts calculate that the sea will have risen 1 meter (it's not out of the question that it might have risen even more if polluting emissions aren't reduced) by the end of the century. Considering that 37% Mediterranean coast is very low, on sea level, this means that this rise of the Mediterranean sea will put about 42 million people in extreme danger. One of the first victims will be (and is already suffering the early effects) the Delta of the Ebro river, a mostly-agricultural area in the South of Catalonia which is also a Biosphere reserve due to its great biodiversity.

And some people still say climate change isn't real 🤦

[arctic-hands]

You ever be totally immersed in a story and then you come across a line about a subject and you realize you know more about this subject than the author and what the author wrote down was completely wrong and it's not even that the author didn't do research so much as the author didn't even think this was something that even needed to be researched? And it drives you absolute cuckoo bananas?

[copepods]

the difference between the art and science courses at my college so far is so funny. even the entry-level art courses are like “how does the abstract expressionist movement use large brushstrokes as coding for femininity” meanwhile entry level science classes are like. do you guys know where the northern hemisphere is.

[mpregspn]

my dumb lily white ass did not pack anything to throw on my shoulders so i'm just nervously slathering myself in sunscreen

[mapsontheweb]

The places around the world where a Mediterranean climate can be found.

[graveyardrabbit]

the view from the geographic center of California

North Fork, CA

[tonytomeo]

Superbloom Highlights Local Mediterranean Climate

Rosemary can bloom longer with irrigation. It does not happen often. The average frequency is about ten to fifteen years. However, it occurred in both 2017 and 2019, prior to this spring. That is enough for thirty to forty-five years! The current superbloom is only now finishing locally. It may continue through most of May near the coast farther North. The best bloomers enjoy the Mediterranean…

[elbiotipo]

There's a very deep and fascinating alternate history project, Doomsday; 1983, about a WWIII that happens by accident in 1983 and how things go from that, that I've been following for years, and it's very interesting, but they're now cleaning up a lot of crap that grew over the years (like Greece somehow colonizing North Africa and restoring the Byzantine borders, all the monarchies restored for no reason, the Argentina-Uruguay union for no reason with the ugliest flag I've ever seen, I could go on and on) Some things, are, again, very well done, there's a reason why I'm a fan.

But one thing about that setting that always made me laugh is that well, both the US and the USSR (and Europe and lots of other places) get bombed to hell, right? And in the US, every survivor town is like, "oh we survived, time to make a new constitution and a quirky flag and political parties and roleplay and now we're fighting wars against other quirky microstates!"

It's an almost delusional denial of the damage a nuclear war would cause. Millions dying horribly, and the survivors burned, blind, deaf, traumatized both physically and mentally. The complete collapse of any and all institutions and supply chains. No time to heal or feed the millions who somehow survived, no possibility to organize anything beyond small platoons of soldiers. Nuclear plants spewing radioactive waste, like fifty open Chernobyls. With no help forthcoming for years, even decades. And in the long term, who would bring and raise children into this world, if they are even born?

I actually have my doubts if agriculture would be possible at all in the Northern Hemisphere, even assuming survivors get organized enough to plant something. A nuclear war, especially with the arsenals of the 1980s, wouldn't mean towns surviving and making new quirky city states with cute little flags. It would be quite probably the complete extinction of not only civilization, but of the human race, in the Northern Hemisphere.

[useless-catalanfacts]

A barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo), one of the most common jellyfish species in our coast.

Because of the rising temperature of the Mediterranean sea resulting of global warming, every time there are more jellyfish. In the last 3 years, the number of jellyfish in our coast has reached an all-time high. Because of the higher water temperature, jellyfish reproduce more, more species go to the northern parts of the sea, and they approach the coast for many months when they used to only do so for 2 weeks to 2 months. Overfishing has also increased the number of jellyfish, because it has decreased the population of many of its natural predators such as sea turtles.

Video by Club de Pescadors de l'Espigó de Garbí in Vilassar de Mar (Barcelona Metropolitan Ambit, Catalonia). Information from La Vanguardia.