The eight climates

Plans that fit your weather

How much water, when to plant, whether solar or wind suits you, and what to check each season all depend on your climate. Heath writes every plan for one of eight climates, in your hemisphere's months.

The plan finder looks up your town on the Köppen-Geiger climate map (Beck et al. 2018, 1 km detail) and matches it to one of these. If the match doesn't feel right for where you live, choose your climate yourself.

Find your plan

Climate 1

Tropical

Hot all year, with a wet and a dry season.

Köppen: Af, Am, Aw
North: Miami, Mumbai, Bangkok, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Lagos
South: Darwin, Cairns, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Fiji, Dar es Salaam
Home power: Solar: excellent. Wind: poor.
Main planting: Start of the wet season

The Tropical plan uses one wet season a year (May to October in the north, November to April in the south). Places with a winter wet season, like Hawaii, or two wet seasons, like Lagos or Dar es Salaam, should use their own local wet-season months.

Climate 2

Desert

Very hot and dry, with cold nights.

Köppen: BWh, BWk
North: Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dubai, Riyadh, Cairo
South: Alice Springs, Coober Pedy, Birdsville, Oodnadatta, Kalahari towns
Home power: Solar: excellent. Wind: poor.
Main planting: Early autumn

Cool coastal fog deserts (like Lima, Swakopmund and the Atacama coast) are mild, grey and damp-aired for much of the year. If that's you, the Semi-arid plan's water amounts and drying advice fit better.

Climate 3

Semi-arid

Dry, with hot summers and cool to cold winters.

Köppen: BSh, BSk
North: Denver, Albuquerque, Zaragoza, Ankara, Almaty
South: Mildura, Broken Hill, Kimberley (South Africa), Bulawayo
Home power: Solar: excellent. Wind: fair on open rural land.
Main planting: Mid spring

Climate 4

Mediterranean

Hot dry summers, mild wet winters.

Köppen: Csa, Csb
North: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Rome, Athens, Lisbon
South: Perth, Adelaide, Cape Town, Santiago
Home power: Solar: excellent. Wind: fair on windy coasts.
Main planting: Early autumn

Climate 5

Humid subtropical

Hot humid summers, mild to cool winters.

Köppen: Cfa, Cwa
North: Atlanta, Houston, Shanghai, Tokyo, New Delhi
South: Sydney, Brisbane, Buenos Aires, Durban, São Paulo
Home power: Solar: very good. Wind: poor.
Main planting: Autumn

Climate 6

Oceanic

Mild summers, cool wet winters.

Köppen: Cfb, Cfc
North: London, Dublin, Paris, Seattle, Vancouver
South: Hobart, Melbourne, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch
Home power: Solar: good in summer, weak in winter. Wind: good on exposed rural sites.
Main planting: Mid spring

Climate 7

Continental

Warm to hot summers, cold snowy winters.

Köppen: Dfa, Dfb, Dwa, Dwb, Dsa, Dsb
North: Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Moscow, Warsaw, Beijing, Seoul
South: No southern plan: the few southern places this cold are mountains, covered by Subarctic and alpine
Home power: Solar: good in summer, weak in winter. Wind: good on open rural sites.
Main planting: Late spring

Climate 8

Subarctic and alpine

Long hard winters, short cool summers.

Köppen: Dfc, Dfd, Dwc, ET and high alpine
North: Fairbanks, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, northern Scandinavia, Siberian towns, the Alps, alpine Colorado
South: the Tasmanian Central Plateau, the NZ high country, the Snowy Mountains, the Lesotho highlands, Andean towns
Home power: Solar: strong in summer, very weak in winter. Wind: good on exposed sites, if rated for ice.
Main planting: Early summer

Why your hemisphere matters

Summer and winter fall in opposite months north and south of the equator. A plan that says "plant in March" is right in one hemisphere and wrong in the other, so every season, planting time and check in a Heath plan is set for your months.