Continued from the last Post. For those who do not accept the Köppen Climate Classification, you might want to consider that it is a vegetation-based, empirical climate classification system developed by German botanist-climatologist Wladimir Köppen, whose goal was to devise formulas that would define climatic boundaries in such a way as to correspond to those of the vegetation zones (biomes—a major community of plants and animals with similar life forms and environmental conditions) that were being mapped for the first time during his lifetime. Köppen published his first mapping in 1900 and a revised version in 1918. He continued to revise his system of classification, which is the most widely used system for classifying the world's climates, until his death in 1940. Other climatologists have modified portions of Köppen’s procedure on the basis of their experience in various parts of the world. As late as 1936 (when Köppen was ninety), his model integrated precipitation and temperature regimes in such a fashion as to relate climate to vegetation patterns, thus serving thinking in several fields, notably climatology, meteorology, phytogeography, hydrography, and physiological ecology.
Left: Wladimir Köppen; Right: Hans Wilhelm Geiger
In addition, Hans Wilhelm Geiger, a German Physicist, who died in 1945 and who was best known as the inventor of the Geiger counter that measured radiation, helped forge the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system that divided climates into five main climate groups. These groups are: A (tropical); B (dry); C (temperate); D (continental); and E (polar). A second letter indicates the seasonal precipitation type, while a third letter indicates the level of heat. As an example: BWh is a “dry, hot desert” climate; or Csa is a “hot-summer Mediterranean Climate; or Csb is a warm-summer Mediterranean climate; or Csc is a “cold-summer Mediterranean climate; or a Dfa, a “hot-summer humid continental climate,” or Dwb a “monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental” climate.
As a full example of the Mediterranean Climate from which Lehi’s seeds were developed and planted in the Land of Promise, a Csa Mediterranean Climate, like that of Jerusalem and Israel has a hot-summer, wet winter with the coldest month averaging above 32 °F or 27 °F, at least one month's average temperature above 71.6 °F, and at least four months averaging above 50 °F. At least three times as much precipitation in the wettest month of winter as in the driest month of summer, and driest month of summer receives less than 1.6 inches (E. Beck, et al., “Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps, Scientific Data, Vol.5, 30 October 2018).
Under the Köppen Climate Classification, a Mediterranean Climate, like that of Jerusalem “Csa” has, (C) "dry-summer subtropical" climates that has an average temperature above 50°F in their warmest months, and an average in the coldest between 64 to 27°F. It also has (s) precipitation in driest month of summer half of the year is less than 1.18 inches annually and less than one-third of the wettest month of the winter half. Finally, it (a) has the temperature of warmest month 71.6º F or above.
The point being that the Köppen-Geiger system is the most widely used system on the planet for classifying the world's climates, and which use this system for determining several things locally including what types of seeds to plant and where to plant them. The importance of this information is seen in the number of seed planters and growers who use this system exclusively for the base of their seed development— adjusted of course to include modern knowledge and technology (which was not available until around 1900 AD, certainly not over two thousand years earlier in Lehi’s time).
Radar at the Southern Great Plains field measurement site, which takes climate data for research
In addition, for more than a hundred years, Climatologists have repeatedly shown how research and analysis has been carried out by geographers, who specialize in climatology, to categorize and locate the world’s climates, especially to identify the causal factors that differentiate these climates.
It is in interesting that the preface in Olive’s book states: “[this] is a work that introduces a setting that meets all the requirements necessary to be the lands of the ancient Nephites and Jaredites” (Phyllis Carol Olive, The Lost lands of the Book of Mormon, Cedar Fort Publishing, Utah, 2012, preface).
After all, the Mediterranean climate of Israel was a major climate type of the Köppen Classification that is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters and located between about 30° and 45° latitude north and south of the Equator, and on the western sides of the continents. In the Köppen-Geiger-Pohl system, it is divided into the Csa and Csb subtypes.
Some coastal locations (such as southern California) exhibit relatively cool summer conditions and frequent fogs where cold offshore currents prevail. Only in Europe, where the latitude for this climate type fortuitously corresponds to an ocean basin (the Mediterrranean Sea—from which this climate derives its name), does this climate type extend eastward away from the coast for any significant distance.
Yet, this simple understanding of climates and the growing of seeds that: “did grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance” (1 Nephi 18:24, emphasis added)—information easily accessible to anyone looking for it—and certainly not matching the climate of the Great Lakes, which Olive claims “meets all the requirements necessary to be the lands of the ancient Nephites and Jaredites, which can plainly be seen that it does not—nor does the Heartland nor Mesoamerica.
It should also be noted that the nature
and location of Mediterranean Climates is acknowledged by climatologists to be the
“most choice” areas of the world’s surface for human habitation and agriculture.
Mediterranean-type climates. This climate, dry summer tropical or “Csa” or “Csb”
in the Köppen classification, and differentiated by a moderate annual
temperature range and a distinct wet winter season and a distinct dry summer
season—these two moderate
temperature seasons, with alternating wet and dry periods, allow different
types of agriculture over the course of
the entire year and, obviously, support an expanded variety of cultivated
crops and domesticated animals, and a significant number of wild animals and
native plants.
Central and Southern California and central Chile are the only Mediterranean Climates in the Western Hemisphere—they are far removed from Great Lakes, Heartland and Mesoamerican climates
This Mediterranean climate occurs in only a few spots of the earth’s surface. All are located in the mid-latitudes and then only on the west side of continents because of the earth’s atmospheric circulation of high pressure cells that control the temperature and precipitation patterns of Mediterranean climates. The largest area of Mediterranean climate is located around its namesake the Mediterranean Sea, the hereditary home of Lehi and the Nephite nation of the Book of Mormon peoples, and an area their founder, Nephi, knew first-hand.
The large water area of the Mediterranean Sea influences the surrounding land areas and increases the extent of Mediterranean climate in southern Europe and parts of northern Africa. Other areas are the southern half of the state of California and northern Baja California in Mexico are the only other areas of Mediterranean climate in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere there is a small area of Mediterranean climate centered on in the area between Santiago, Chile, and northward to Coquimbo and La Serena, Chile, and in limited areas around the cities of Perth and Adelaide, Australia, and on the southern tip of South Africa.
This means, the only the area of California and Central Chile have this climate in all of the Western Hemisphere, where significant amounts, and an exceptional variety of agricultural products are produced in these relatively small Mediterranean climate areas during all months of the year, including both dry and wet seasons. Substantial amounts of these products are exported around the world; and, understandably, the population levels are often rather high in Mediterranean climates, because of their exceptional agricultural output. For example, if necessary, California’s agricultural areas could produce enough food to support the entire population of the United States and Canada, and, not unexpectedly, the population of California exceeds any other state and is even greater than that of Canada. The small area of southern California, centered on Los Angeles and San Diego, California, currently have a combined population exceeding 23 million.
Certainly, seeds from Jerusalem would not have grown “exceedingly” and provided an “abundant” crop in the Great Lakes, Heartland or Mesoamerica.
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