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What Is Climate?
Weather changes from day to day. However, the weather in any area tends to follow a pattern throughout the year.
When you describe the weather patterns, you are describing the climate of a region.
Climate is the average weather pattern of a region.
What Factors Describe Climate?
• The climate of a region can also be described by some other factors, such as winds, distance from a coast, mountain ranges, and ocean currents.
• The climate zones shown here take all these factors into account.
Another way to describe the climate of a region is by the plants that grow there, such as the desert or tropical rainforest.
I. Latitude• Latitude is a measure of how far north or
south a place is from the equator. The angle of insolation is different at different latitudes. As a result, the temperatures are different at different latitudes.
– Tropical Zone – Near the equator temperatures are high all year. Rainfall is plentiful. At about 30º latitude in each hemisphere are deserts, areas of high temperatures and low precipitation.
– Temperate Zones – In the middle latitudes, summers are warm, and winters are cool or cold. Precipitation may be plentiful.
– Polar Zones – At high latitudes winters are long and cold. Summers are short and warm. Precipitation all year is low.
II. Bodies of Water
• Land and water heat and cool at different rates. Land heats up faster in the sunlight than water does. Land also cools off faster than water. As a result, air temperatures over land are warmer in summer and cooler in winter than they are over oceans at the same latitude.
III. Winds and Ocean Currents
– Wind Patterns – just above and below the equator, the trade winds blow continually. In the middle latitudes are the westerlies. In the polar areas are the easterlies.
– Currents – These winds also move water across the surface of the ocean. As ocean water moves, it moves warm or cool air with it. A warm current, the Gulf Stream, flows up along the east coast. The California Current, a cool current, moves down along the west coast.
IV. Altitude• Altitude is a measure of how high above
sea level a place is. The higher a place is above sea level, the cooler its climate is.
Read pages D88-D91