Climate Classification

Here are links to some sites that have useful information about the Köppen clasification of climate zones.

Climate Classification

Chapter 7, section v of Fundamentals of Physical Geography, an online geography textbook compiled by Michael Pidwirny of the University of British Columbia Okanangan.

World Climates

Part of Blue Planet Biomes, a site apparently created by or for sixth-graders. It is a readable and complete, though brief, list and description of Köppen climate classes. This particular page cites Strahler and Strahler’s textbook Understanding Physical Geography (Wiley, 1984).

Köppen Climate Classification from Wikipedia

Wikipedia’s article on the Köoppen climate classification scheme. It contains more classes and sub-classes than you may ever hope to sift through, and the descriptions are not very detailed, but there is a lot here.

Climate from Jetstream, the National Weather Service's online school for weather

Describes the main broad climate types (A, B, C, D, E, H) in the United States. Links to a “further subdivisions” page with the full list of Köppen types and a world map with climate types labeled.

Köppen Climate Classification for the Coterminous United States

from the University of Idaho. Color-coded map of all zones in the lower 48. Clicking on some states (mostly the western ones) gives the climate zone map for that state.

Quiz yourself!

Here is an online quiz applet that will test your knowledge of the world climate zones. It “calls out” a climate zone classification and asks you to select the zone on a color-coded world map. Accompanies Ackerman and Knox’s textbook Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere.