An oceanic climate (also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, subtropical highland and British climate) is the climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of all the world's continents, and in southeastern Australia. Climates near the ocean have moderately cool summers and comparatively cool winters, they are generally characterized by a narrower annual range of temperatures than are encountered in other places at a comparable latitude, and do not have the extremely dry summers of Mediterranean climates.Similar climates, at least in thermal range, are also found in tropical highlands even at considerable distance from any coastline. Generally, they fall into Köppen climate classification Cfb or Cwb. The narrow range of temperatures results not from proximity to a coastline but instead to the slight thermal range of temperatures between seasons characteristic of tropical lowlands; altitudes are high enough that somes places have at least one month cooler than 18 °C and do not qualify for grouping in the true tropical climates. Unlike the norm in true oceanic climates, these moist highland tropical climates may have a marked winter drought, as in Mexico City. Agricultural potential in both oceanic climates and moist tropical highland climates are practically identical. These climates are most dominant in Europe, where it spreads much farther inland than in other continents.
