Cob: Temperatures

[E. McCreery]

"The U.K., as well, depending on the region gets bitterly
cold.    North Wisconsin does get nice freezing breezes from up north to
be sure, but it is not the only cold place on earth.  Cob structures are
also used in Scandanavia, another severly cold contry."

Being a botanist and an avid devourer of all information plant related, I do 
know that all of the U.K and most of western Europe is USDA hardiness zones 
8-9, which compares directly to the southeast and northwest U.S in lowest 
average temperature.
After doing a bit of digging at the Perry Castaneda map collection and 
looking up cities at worldclimate.com, it appears that the lowest average 
annual temperature for Wakkanai, Japan (Far North) is 17.6F (average overall 
of 20F winter and 60F summer) and 56.1F (average overall of 60F winter/80F 
summer) for Naha, Japan (Far South). Naha is, however, on a small island and 
more moderated by the sea.
Obviously temperatures vary widely with altitude, and Japan has impressive 
mountains. It is also worth noting that the temperature ranges I have seen 
for Japan, NW U.S. and the U.K. are much, much smaller than the temperature 
ranges for continental areas such as much of Russia, China, Canada and the 
central U.S. Having experienced most of the climate zones of the U.S. I can 
say that as for the NW (Washington, Oregon) the winter and summer 
temperatures are fairly constant, usually varying by only 10F, while in the 
Midwest they can vary by as much as 30F from day to day or even more (and 
I'm not speaking of the normal day/night fluctuations, which are also more 
extreme for the continental climates).
All that said, Japan (non montane), Washington and the U.K are all between 
zones 7 (0-5F lowest) and 9 (25-30F lowest), whereas the upper Midwest U.S. 
(Including the Great Lakes) is zones 5 (-15 - -10F lowest) through 3 (-40 - 
-35F lowest) and even zone 2 (-50 - -45F lowest) in  small areas of 
Minnesota. Zone 1 is considered arctic, and zone 2 subarctic. The 
Scandinavian countries vary from as warm as zone 8 in southwest Norway and 
much of Denmark to as cold as zone 2 where things get a bit more 
continental, higher in altitude and farther north where the population thins 
and the Lapps are struggling for survival. If I were to guess which areas of 
Norway and Sweden cob/adobe was used in, I'd have to say the warmer coastal 
areas rather than the sparsely populated subarctic places.
In short, one may be right in calling the U.K. and Seattle "warm" as they do 
compare in coldest temperature to southern Georgia and northern Florida, and 
even France and Spain. Conversely, one would also be right in calling them 
"cold" because they maintain those cooler temperatures much of the year 
whereas Florida may only hit 25F once every two years, and France perhaps a 
few times a year. They all still hit 25F, it's just a matter of "degree". 
Personally, I'd much rather be in zone 2 "subarctic" Minnesota than zone 2 
*subarctic* Russia.

Ellie

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