{"id":23907,"date":"2025-12-08T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/?p=23907"},"modified":"2025-12-08T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:33:48","slug":"more-cartographic-misinformation-on-global-climate-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/08\/more-cartographic-misinformation-on-global-climate-zones\/","title":{"rendered":"More Cartographic Misinformation on Global Climate Zones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In searching the internet for climate maps that might be useful for educational purposes, I have continued to be disappointed and occasionally dumbfounded. Many highly ranked maps provide outright misinformation. Consider, for example, the two maps posted below, both of which divide the world into climate zones based simply on latitude. As explained in previous posts, this expedient is problematic, although can be useful in certain circumstances. But these two maps make the inexcusable error of labeling the subtropics as \u201cdry climates.\u201d (The two maps might seem to have identical content, but they differ slightly, as the first puts the outer limit of the northern subtropical \u201cdry\u201d zone at 35\u00b0 N, the most common definition, whereas the second puts it at 37\u00b0 N.)<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23908\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23908\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23908 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-1024x571.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-1024x571.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-1536x856.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-2048x1142.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bad-1-1320x736.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23908\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map Labeling the Sub-Tropics as Dry, 1<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23909\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23909\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23909 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-1024x561.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-1024x561.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-768x421.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-1536x841.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-2048x1121.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-1320x723.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23909\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map Labeling the Sub-Tropics as Dry, 2<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the belts of land between 23.4\u00b0 and 35\u00b0 north and south of the Equator do contain the world\u2019s most extensive arid areas, and some of its driest ones, they also encompass extensive humid areas, as well as some of the wettest places on Earth. The difference is whether they are located on dry western sides of major landmasses or on the wet eastern sides \u2013 with Eurasia and North Africa forming a single landmass, or continent, in climatological terms. This distinction is easily seen on the map posted below, especially in the northern subtropics. As the call-out that I added indicates, the only area in its hyper-wet purple category, with more than 7475 millimeters (294.4 inches) of annual average precipitation, is found in this zone. Although it is almost impossible to see, a small blue area with even more rainfall is located in the same general area (note that the map key is slightly mislabeled, as the \u201c10005\u201d and \u201c394.0\u201d figures should be in the left-hand columns).<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23910\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23910\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23910 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-1024x444.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-1024x444.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-300x130.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-768x333.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-1536x667.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-2048x889.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rain-1320x573.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23910\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Global Average Annual Precipitation Map<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This extremely wet area in a reportedly dry climate zone is the southern part of the small state of Meghalaya in northeastern India. Here the town of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cherrapunji\">Cherrapunji<\/a> (or Sohra), at 26\u00b0 N and 4,690\u00a0ft (1,430\u00a0m), is often regarded as the \u201cwettest place on planet Earth,\u201d although the nearby village of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mawsynram\">Mawsynram<\/a> might be even wetter. This title, moreover, is also disputed with Mount Wai\u02bbale\u02bbale on the island of Kaua\u02bbi\u00a0in Hawaii and the town of Llor\u00f3 in northwestern Colombia, as was explained in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2012\/05\/12\/and-the-worlds-rainiest-place-is\/\">old <em>GeoCurrents<\/em> post<\/a>. As that post noted, it may be impossible to determine what specific place receives the most annual precipitation. But in terms of reliably heavy precipitation throughout the year over a sizable area, northwestern Colombia does rank in first place.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23912\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23912\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23912 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-1024x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-1024x516.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-300x151.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-768x387.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-1536x775.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-2048x1033.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cher-1-1320x666.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23912\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rainy Cherrapunji<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23913\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23913\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23913 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-1024x548.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"548\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-1024x548.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-300x161.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-768x411.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-1536x822.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-2048x1096.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ll-1320x706.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23913\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rainy Northwestern Colombia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In searching the internet for climate maps that might be useful for educational purposes, I have continued to be disappointed and occasionally dumbfounded. Many highly ranked maps provide outright misinformation. Consider, for example, the two maps posted below, both of which divide the world into climate zones based simply on latitude. As explained in previous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4549,4101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-grid","category-geographical-education"],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>More Cartographic Misinformation on Global Climate Zones - GeoCurrents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/08\/more-cartographic-misinformation-on-global-climate-zones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Cartographic Misinformation on Global Climate Zones - GeoCurrents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In searching the internet for climate maps that might be useful for educational purposes, I have continued to be disappointed and occasionally dumbfounded. Many highly ranked maps provide outright misinformation. Consider, for example, the two maps posted below, both of which divide the world into climate zones based simply on latitude. As explained in previous [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/08\/more-cartographic-misinformation-on-global-climate-zones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GeoCurrents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-09T00:33:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1402\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Martin W. 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Consider, for example, the two maps posted below, both of which divide the world into climate zones based simply on latitude. As explained in previous [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/2025\/12\/08\/more-cartographic-misinformation-on-global-climate-zones\/","og_site_name":"GeoCurrents","article_published_time":"2025-12-09T00:33:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1402,"url":"http:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Martin W. Lewis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Martin W. 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Lewis","author_link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/author\/martin-lewis\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In searching the internet for climate maps that might be useful for educational purposes, I have continued to be disappointed and occasionally dumbfounded. Many highly ranked maps provide outright misinformation. Consider, for example, the two maps posted below, both of which divide the world into climate zones based simply on latitude. As explained in previous&hellip;","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-210x210.jpg",210,210,true],"full":["https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bad-2-scaled.jpg",2560,1402,false]},"categories_names":{"4549":{"name":"Article-Grid","link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/category\/article-grid\/"},"4101":{"name":"Geographical Education","link":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/blog\/category\/geographical-education\/"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23914,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23907\/revisions\/23914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geocurrents.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}