Tierra templada (Spanish for ''temperate land'') is a pseudo-climatological term used in Latin America to refer to places which are either located in the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

at a moderately high elevation or are marginally outside the astronomical tropics, producing a somewhat cooler overall

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

than that found in the tropical lowlands, the zone of which is known as the tierra caliente. In countries situated close to the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

, the ''tierra templada'' typically has an elevation span of between . These thresholds become lower as the

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

increases. The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal used following altitudes: *1,000 m as the border between the tropical rainforest and the subtropical cloud forest *2,300 m as the end of the subtropical cloud forest ('' Yunga fluvial'') *3,500 m as the treeline *4,800 m as the puna end ''Tierra templada'' has mean average temperature between .

Coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

is grown extensively as a cash crop, with grains such as

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

being cultivated for subsistence purposes - in contrast to the warmer ''tierra caliente'', where tropical fruits predominate.

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In 2020 census the city reported a population of 443,063 ...

in Mexico is an example of a city that lies in the ''tierra templada'', having a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tierra Templada Altitudinal life zones of Peru Climate of South America Geography of Mesoamerica Spanish words and phrases Geography of South America Montane ecology

See also

References