Analogous climates
Forest Park, Portland (left) and Galicia, Spain (right).
By comparing the various climate data from the previous article, we can find similar climates around the world.
These analogous climates are useful sources of inspiration and ingredients, agricultural practices, and cuisines. Similar climates are often home to plants and animals that perform well in our climate.
Köppen world map. Areas with greater similarity to the Pacific Northwest are circled. Link to plain version.
Matching regions
Northwest Coast
What we're looking for:
Large Csb (warm summer mediterranean) climate zones
Bordering areas with Cfb (oceanic), Csa (hot summer mediterranean) and BSk (cold semi-arid) climates
Proximity to mountains and a coast
Temperate rainforests, coniferous forests, and oak savannas
Good matches:
Iberia: Galicia, Basque country, and northern Portugal. Rainy and coastal. It’s surrounded by hot mediterranean climates and steppes, and near the Pyrenees mountains. Located in a temperate rainforest. Galicia has one of the highest levels of similarity with the greater Portland region.
Central Asia: northern Turkey and the Black Sea region. This region is a bit rainier and warmer overall and located near the hotter steppes and coast of Turkey, and the mountains of Georgia. Temperate rainforests grow here.
South America: Central Chile, with the Andes mountains on one side and the Pacific ocean on the other, and temperate rainforests both in oceanic and Mediterranean regions.
Australia: Southern Australia, with areas of mediterranean climate near Perth and Adelaide, and Tasmania, with its temperate rainforests and oceanic climate. Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne all have oceanic climates but are warmer overall than Tasmania, which is a better match.
Inland Northwest
What we're looking for:
Large BSk (cold semi-arid) climate zones
Bordering areas with Csb (warm summer mediterranean) and Dsb (warm, dry summer continental) climates
Large basins and proximity to mountains
Shrub-steppe and grasslands
Good matches:
Western Asia: the eastern and more arid parts of Turkey are especially good matches, though warmer overall. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are also good matches.
Central Asia: in particular, the south of Kazakhstan, parts of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, but once again, warmer overall.
Northern California
What we’re looking for:
Large Csa (hot summer mediterranean) climate zones
Bordering areas with Csb (warm summer mediterranean) climates
Proximity to mountains and a coast
Temperate rainforests, oak savannas, and chaparral
Good matches:
Chile: central Chile, its most populated area. A very close match to northern California.
Mediterranean: mountainous parts of western Turkey, Greece, Italy and Corsica. Though there is more variation in climate nearby, these areas are a little warmer overall due to the influence of the Mediterranean Sea.
Iberia: especially the southwestern portions of Spain and Portugal which are more affected by the Atlantic Ocean.
Other regions
We can also use the climate and geography data to compare dissimilar areas.
A good example is China. Most of China’s climate is similar to the eastern side of the US, and agriculturally, we are poorly suited to growing a number of China’s most important crops, like soy, jasmine rice, or sweet potato. However, there is still some overlap, and we can still find interesting ingredients that could be adapted to our area. For example, Sichuan province in China shares certain characteristics with us: it contains both temperate and arid areas, is mountainous, and has temperate rainforests. Sichuan cuisine uses a number of ingredients that can be cultivated or found in our region, such as:
Sichuan peppercorns
Toasted rapeseed oil
Tea: produced in the Willamette Valley at the only tea farm in the US
Tian mian jiang: or sweet wheat paste, a fermented wheat-based sauce with a strong savoriness
Doubanjiang: made with fava beans rather than soy, as is the case elsewhere in China
There are also semi-arid parts of China, such as Xinjiang, which share characteristics with the Inland Northwest,. As a region that produces cumin seed, its similar climatic characteristics make it a good candidate for a location to source a regionally-adapted cumin for the Pacific Northwest.
