Why is the summer always hot and dry in the mediterranean climate?
Most regions with Mediterranean climates generally have relatively mild winters and very warm summers, but winter and summer temperatures are variable depending on the region. In the case of winters for instance, Lisbon experiences very mild temperatures in the winter, with frost and snow practically unknown, whereas Thessaloniki has cold winters with annual frosts and snowfall. In the case of summers for instance, Athens experiences rather high temperatures in the summer (48.0°C has been measured in nearby Eleusina), whereas San Francisco has cool, mild summers due to the upwelling of cold subsurface waters along the coast producing regular summer fog. Because all regions with a Mediterranean climate are near large bodies of water, temperatures are generally moderate with a comparatively small range of temperatures between the winter low and summer high (although the daily range of temperature during the summer is large due to dry and clear conditions, except along the immediate coast
As others have said the summers are certainly not always “hot” in Mediterranean climates. For example San Francisco has a Mediterranean climate and has cool summers. As Mark Twain is purported to have said “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Mediterranean climates may be hot or cold, but are always dry, since they fall under the influence of the descending air coming off subtropical high pressure areas (the Bermuda High and East Pacific High) which cause cool, cloudy or foggy conditions near the coast and create a temperature inversion which suppresses convection, such as thunderstorms. Additionally the high pressure keeps the mid-latitude cyclonic storm track well to the north during the summer. Gwen may have gotten Richie’s source wrong, but she was right that his answer was plagiarized (used verbatim without reference or permission), as he admitted in his “defense.” If you were to do this in your answer your teacher would fail you. EDIT: Nice link Gwen!
