Re: Aust rainfall map (I'm getting a bit off Iris here)

I want to be clear that this is not meant as a criticism, rather as a
frustrated observation.

I've noticed over the years that to people in southern Australia
(generally) "cold" is defined by how often frost occurs or perhaps how
often plants such as Citrus are damaged.  Degrees of cold are rarely
mentioned (and seemingly it rarely gets truly far below the freezing
mark?).  In the northern hemisphere, in most regions, cold is not defined
by how often there is frost, but by when the first and last frosts occur,
and how cold it gets in between the first and last.  It seems to me a bit
like comparing apples and TV stereo sets.  Often it seems that "cold" in
Australia is subtropical by northern standards.

There is a huge difference between 28F (rarely damages anything) and -50F
(kills almost everything), yet both are "cold", and both are below
freezing.  [that translates to roughly -2C and -45C, I think - off the top
of my head].

I know that in some of the southeastern mountainous regions there are
climates that approach the northern winters, but I find it almost
impossible to locate meaningful descriptions of these climates (usually
snow is mentioned, but that means nothing, except that it precipitates when
it's below freezing).  I'm sure I'm just looking in the wrong places.

I wonder if there is an easy place to learn more about the actual details
of the climate of southern Australia.  There are actually Australian plants
that survive the winters in Albuquerque, but so far it is very few.
Knowing more about what regions to look in for such plants would make it
easier to locate species that we could try in our northern gardens.

My question for posters here would be "how cold is cold"?

Thanks,

Dave

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