Climate Classifications Flashcards
What is climate?
The annual pattern of temperature, rainfall, sunlight, humidity, and wind averaged out over several years (usually 30)
What is the point of climate classification models?
They help in the comparison of different global vineyard areas and the resulting wine styles that they can make. However, the only give a broad picture as they don’t account for all the natural and human factors.
WSET climate definitions
Continental: extreme temp difference between summer and winter, often short summers and cold winters with rapid temp change in the spring and fall.
Maritime: low differences in temp between summer and winter, rainfall all year
Mediterranean: low differences in temp between summer and winter, rainfall in winter months
Cool: 16.5C and below
Moderate: 16.5-18.5C
Warm: 18.5-21C
Hot: 21C and above
Growing Degree Days (GDD)
- a model of heat summation during the growing season
- created by Amerine and Winkler in 1944 for California
- 5 bands (1 being the coolest)
- does not account for terrior
((Avg mean temp of a month) - (10C or 50F)) x # of days in that month
- repeat for every month of the growing season and add = GDD
- don’t use any months with negative values
Huglin Index
- created by Huglin in 1978
- accounts for mean and maximum temps
- accounts for increased day length at higher latitudes
Mean Temperature of the Warmest Month (MJT)
- created by Smart and Dry in 1980
- July in NH, January in SH
- measures continentality, humidity, and hours of sunshine
Growing Season Temperature (GST)
- mean temperature of the whole growing season
- correlates to GDD but is easier to calculate
- does not account for terrior
