Weather or not
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:31 am
It's what draws millions of expats and holidaymakers year-on-year.
But it seems Australia's famous climate is in fact more like scores of others around the world than first thought.
Sydney is in fact more akin to Argentina's Buenos Aires while Melbourne is like Freemont in western California, according to a new analogue map.
It was created by comparing each of the city's average highest and lowest temperatures alongside its Koppen Classification which is the universal tool for categorising climates.
According to the results, Uluru has the same climate as the Sahara Desert which can soar to more than 40C in summer.
Brisbane, which has an average summer temperature of 26C, has a similar climate to Sao Paolo in Brazil while Cairns, a haven for beach bums and wildlife, is like Miami.
North-west Queensland, the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia suffer the same searing heat as India, according to the map, with Darwin likened to Mumbai.
Perth is like Los Angeles with its coastal summer heat while Adelaide, in South Australia, is comparable to San Jose.
Tasmania, which is exposed to less sun and lower temperatures, is more like Britain.
Hobart has the same climate as the UK and Ireland while the eastern part of the state is like Southern Chile.
Australia has six climatic zones which experience two main seasonal patterns. They are the temperate zone, grasslands, desert, subtropical, tropical and equatorial zones.
The temperature zone applies to the coastal cities of NSW, Victoria, most of Tasmania, Perth and some coastal cities in South Australia.
Desert is found at the heart of the continent and stretches into parts of Queensland, north west NSW, NT, SA and WA.
Cape York in far north Queensland is among the most tropical of locations, with parts of the Kimberley region also falling in to this zone.
The Equatorial climate applies only to the tip of Cape York and the islands north of Darwin.
