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The 'humid continental climate' is a climate found over large areas of land masses in the temperate regions of the mid-latitudes where there is a zone of conflict between polar and tropical air masses. The humid continental climate is marked by variable weather patterns and a large seasonal temperature variance. The seasonal temperature variance can be as great as 30-39° Celsius (55-70° Fahrenheit). The temperature difference between the warmest and coldest months increases as one moves further inland and away from the moderating influence of the ocean.

Contents

Dfa: Warm summer subtype

Dfb: Cool summer subtype

Subarctic climate

Dfa: Warm summer subtype

The warm summer ('Köppen: Dfa') subtype of the humid continental climate, marked by hot (the warmest month has an average temperature in excess of 22°C (71.6°F), rainy summers and snowy winters. Within North America it includes much of the eastern and midwestern portions of the United States and extreme southern Canada from the Atlantic to the 100th meridian west and generally in the range of 40°N to 44°N latitude; this area includes the following regions:

★ Southern New York State (except for the the highest areas of the Allegheny Plateau)

★ Most of Pennsylvania (except for its southeastern region and some highland areas)

★ Extreme western and southwestern Virginia (due to higher elevations)

★ Parts of Kentucky

★ Northern Tennessee

★ Most of Ohio

★ Most of Indiana

★ Most of Illinois

★ Most of Missouri

★ Iowa

★ Eastern Nebraska

★ Eastern Kansas

★ Southern Minnesota

★ Southern Wisconsin

★ Southern Michigan

★ Southern Ontario (south of and including Toronto)

★ Extreme Southern Quebec (including Montreal)

★ Most of Connecticut

★ Rhode Island

★ Massachusetts (except for some mountainous locations, but see Cape Cod)

★ southern Vermont

★ southern New Hampshire

★ southern Maine
Some of the major cities in this zone:

★ Allentown, Pennsylvania

★ Boston, Massachusetts

★ Buffalo, New York

★ Chicago, Illinois

★ Cleveland, Ohio

★ Columbus, Ohio

★ Des Moines, Iowa

★ Detroit, Michigan

★ Hartford, Connecticut

★ Indianapolis, Indiana

★ Kansas City, Missouri

★ Manchester, New Hampshire

★ Milwaukee, Wisconsin

★ Minneapolis, Minnesota

★ Omaha, Nebraska

★ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

★ Reading, Pennsylvania

★ Rochester, New York

★ Scranton, Pennsylvania

★ Toledo, Ohio
The 0°C (32°F) isotherm (freeze line) or the -3°C (26.6°F) isotherms (persistent snow line) are the possible lines dividing the humid continental and the humid subtropical climates, in between which are the following places (which are often included in the humid continental zone):

★ Cincinnati, Ohio

★ Cape Cod Massachusetts

★ Long Island

★ New York City

★ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

★ St. Louis, Missouri

★ Louisville, Kentucky

★ Fayetteville, Arkansas

★ Nashville, Tennessee

★ Providence, Rhode Island
Some states in this zone:

★ The far south of New York State

★ Southwest Connecticut

★ Northern New Jersey

★ Interior Maryland

★ Central West Virginia (due to higher elevations)

★ Western North Carolina (due to higher elevations)

★ Northern Arkansas (due to higher elevations)

★ Northern Tennessee(due to higher elevations)

★ Parts of Indiana
The western states of the central United States (namely Montana, Wyoming, parts of southern Idaho, parts of Colorado, western Nebraska, and western areas of North and South Dakota) have thermal regimes which fit the 'Dfa' climate type, but are quite dry, and are generally grouped with the steppe (''Bsk'') climates.
Although the largest portion of territory on Earth covered by the 'Dfa' climate type is present in North America, it also exists near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, the Southern Federal District of Russia, Moldova, and parts of eastern Romania, but tends to be drier, or even semi-arid, in these places. Tohoku in Japan between Tokyo and Hokkaidō also has a climate with Köppen classification 'Dfa', but is wetter even than that part of North America with this climate type. A variant which has dry winters and hence much lower snowfall with monsoonal type summer rainfall is to be found in north-eastern China including coastal regions of the Yellow Sea and over much of the Korean Peninsula; it has the Köppen classification 'Dwa'. Much of central Asia, northwestern China, and southern mongolia have a thermal regime similar to that of the ''Dfa'' climate type, but these regions receive so little precipitation that they are more often classified as steppes (''Bsk'') or deserts (''Bwk'').
Cities outside North America with this climate include:

★ Kharkiv, Ukraine

★ Rostov-on-Don, Russia

★ Chişinău, Moldova

★ Bucharest, Romania

★ Yerevan, Armenia

★ Beijing, China - 'Dwa'

★ Tianjin, China - 'Dwa'

★ Shenyang, China - 'Dwa'

★ Pyongyang, North Korea - 'Dwa'

★ Seoul, South Korea - 'Dwa'

Dfb: Cool summer subtype

The cool summer subtype ('Köppen: Dfb') lies north of the warm summer subtype; in North America, from about 44°N to 50°N in the east but places of adequate precipitation as far north as 54°N in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and below 40°N in the high Appalachians, separated by the 22°C isotherm for the warmest month from the Dfa climates (which passes near Minneapolis, Minnesota and Grand Rapids, Michigan).Summer temperatures in this zone are usually between 70 F and 85 F during the daytime.
It includes the following places:

★ Central and Northern New England

★ Northern New York

★ Northern Michigan

★ Northern and central Wisconsin

★ Northern and central Minnesota

★ Eastern parts of The Dakotas

★ Highest elevations of the central Appalachians
In Canada, it includes these areas:

★ Most of Atlantic Canada

★ Southern Quebec

★ Most of Ontario except south of Toronto and far northern regions

★ Southern Manitoba

★ Central and southeastern Saskatchewan

★ Central (latitudinal) Alberta
Some of the major cities in this zone:

★ Buffalo, New York

★ Burlington, Vermont

★ Duluth, Minnesota

★ Edmonton, Alberta

★ Erie, Pennsylvania

★ Fargo, North Dakota

★ Green Bay, Wisconsin

★ Halifax, Nova Scotia

★ Ottawa, Ontario

★ Portland, Maine

★ Watertown, New York

★ Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario

★ Montreal, Quebec

★ Thunder Bay, Ontario

★ Traverse City, Michigan

★ Toronto, Ontario

★ Winnipeg, Manitoba
It is also found in central Scandinavia. East central Europe (east of Germany and Hungary) is a cool summer subtype with less severe winters, similar to the winters of the warm summer subtype - the winters here are modified by the oceanic climate influence of western Europe.
The cool summer subtype is marked by mild summers, long cold winters and less precipitation than the warm summer subtype, however, short periods of extreme heat are not uncommon. In this region, summers shorten and are cooler, and winters become longer and colder toward the north parts of this zone. Northern Japan has a similar climate.
Much of Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia has a thermal regime fitting this climate, but it has steppe or desert like precipitation and so is not really considered to be a humid continental climate.
Countries with this climate:

★ Eastern Poland

★ Most of Ukraine

★ Belarus

★ Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia

★ Central European Russia

★ Southern areas of Far Eastern (''as dwb'') and Siberian Federal Districts, Russia

★ Northern North Korea (''as dwb'')

★ Northern Japan

★ Central regions of Sweden and southern part of Finland

★ Southeast Norway

★ Most of Slovakia

★ Parts of Austria and Hungary

★ Northeastern Romania

★ Mountainous areas in the Balkans
Cities with such climates outside North America include:

★ Oslo, Norway

★ Stockholm, Sweden

★ Helsinki, Finland

★ Tallinn, Estonia

★ Warsaw, Poland

★ Saint Petersburg, Russia

★ Minsk, Belarus

★ Moscow, Russia

★ Kiev, Ukraine

★ Sapporo, Japan

★ Riga, Latvia

★ Vilnius, Lithuania

★ Dobbiaco, Italy
A dry-winter variant ('Köppen: Dwb') is to be found in northeastern China, northern Korea and the Southeastern region of Russian Far East, as at Vladivostok and Chongjin, North Korea, and Harbin, China.

Subarctic climate

Near 50°N in North America (except north of 55°N in Alberta and British Columbia) and eastern Asia (60°N or further north in Europe), the climate grades into a subarctic climate ('Köppen: Dfc, Dwc'), poleward of which the summers (seasons with temperatures above 10°C) are shorter than four months.