Classifying Earths Climates

Question 1

What is Climate?

Answer 1

Climate (10)
The consistent, long-term behaviour of weather over time, including its variability; in contrast to weather, which is the condition of the atmosphere at any given place and time.

is the collective pattern of weather over many years. As we have seen, Earth experiences an almost infinite variety of weather at any given time and place. But, if we consider a longer time scale, and the variability and extremes of weather over such a time scale, a pattern emerges that constitutes climate.

Question 2

What is Climatology?

Answer 2

Climatology (10)
The scientific study of climate and climatic patterns and the consistent behaviour of weather, including its variability and extremes, over time in one place or region; includes the effects of climate change on human society and culture.

Climatology is the study of climate and its variability, including long-term weather patterns over time and space and the controls that produce Earth’s diverse climatic conditions.

Question 3

What is a Climatic Regions?

Answer 3

Climatic region (10)
An area of homogenous climate that features characteristic regional weather and air mass patterns.

No two places on Earth’s surface experience exactly the same climatic conditions; in fact, Earth is a vast collection of microclimates. However, broad similarities among local climates permit their grouping into climatic regions, which are areas with similarity in weather statistics.

Question 4

What are the two principle climatic components?

Answer 4

Temperature and precipitation

Question 5

What are Climate regimes?

Answer 5

general climate types, sometimes called climate regimes, such as tropical deserts (hot and dry), polar ice sheets (cold and dry), and equatorial rain forests (hot and wet).

Question 6

What is Classification?

Answer 6

Classification (10)
The process of ordering or grouping data or phenomena in related classes; results in a regular distribution of information; a taxonomy.

Classification is the ordering or grouping of data or phenomena into categories of varying generality. Such generalizations are important organizational tools in science and are especially useful for the spatial analysis of climatic regions. Observed patterns confined to specific regions are at the core of climate classification.

Question 7

What are transition zones?

Answer 7

When using classifications, we must remember that the boundaries of these regions are transition zones, or areas of gradual change.

Question 8

What is the empirical approach to Climate Classifcation?

Answer 8

Climate classifications based on temperature and precipitation are examples of the empirical approach.

Question 9

What is a Tropical Climate

Answer 9

Tropical climates: tropical latitudes, winterless

Question 10

What are Mesothermal climates

Answer 10

Mesothermal climates: midlatitudes, mild winters

Question 11

What are Microthermal climates?

Answer 11

Microthermal climates: mid- and high latitudes, cold winters

Question 12

What are Polar climates?

Answer 12

Polar climates: high latitudes and polar regions

Question 13

What are Highland climates?

Answer 13

Highland climates: high elevations at all latitudes

Question 14

What are Dry climates?

Answer 14

Dry climates: permanent moisture deficits at all latitudes

Question 15

What is a Climograph?

Answer 15

Climograph (10)
A graph that plots daily, monthly, or annual temperature and precipitation values for a selected station; may also include additional weather information.

Question 16

What is a tropical rain forest climate?

Answer 16

tropical rain forest climates are constantly moist and warm. Convectional thunderstorms, triggered by local heating and trade-wind convergence, peak each day from midafternoon to late evening inland and earlier in the day where marine influence is strong along coastlines.

Question 17

What’s a Tropical monsoon climate?

Answer 17

Tropical monsoon climates feature a dry season that lasts 1 or more months. Rainfall brought by the ITCZ falls in these areas from 6 to 12 months of the year. (Remember, the ITCZ affects the tropical rain forest climate region throughout the year.) The dry season occurs when the ITCZ has moved away so that the convergence effects are not present.

Tropical monsoon climates lie principally along coastal areas within the tropical rain forest climatic realm and experience seasonal variation of wind and precipitation.

Question 18

What is a Tropical Savanna Climate?

Answer 18

Tropical savanna climates exist poleward of the tropical rain forest climates. The ITCZ reaches these climate regions for about 6 months or less of the year as it migrates with the summer Sun. Summers are wetter than winters because convectional rains accompany the shifting ITCZ when it is overhead. In contrast, when the ITCZ is farthest away and high pressure dominates, conditions are notably dry. Thus, PE (natural moisture demand) exceeds P (natural moisture supply) in winter, causing water-budget deficits.

Temperatures vary more in tropical savanna climates than in tropical rain forest regions. The tropical savanna regime can have two temperature maximums during the year because the Sun’s direct rays are overhead twice—before and after the summer solstice in each hemisphere as the subsolar point moves between the equator and the tropics.

Question 19

What are Humid subtropical hot-summer climates?

Answer 19

Humid subtropical hot-summer climates either are moist all year or have a pronounced winter-dry period, as occurs in eastern and southern Asia. Maritime tropical air masses generated over warm waters off eastern coasts influence these climates during summer. This warm, moist, unstable air produces convectional showers over land. In fall, winter, and spring, maritime tropical and continental polar air masses interact, generating frontal activity and frequent midlatitude cyclonic storms. These two mechanisms produce year-round precipitation, which averages 100–200 cm a year.

Question 20

What are Humid subtropical winter-dry climates?

Answer 20

Humid subtropical winter-dry climates are related to the winter-dry, seasonal pulse of the monsoons. They extend poleward from tropical savanna climates and have a summer month that receives 10 times more precipitation than their driest winter month.

Question 21

What are Marine west coast climates?

Answer 21

Marine west coast climates, featuring mild winters and cool summers, are characteristic of Europe and other middle- to high-latitude west coasts

Question 22

What is Mediterranian dry-summer climate?

Answer 22

The Mediterranean dry-summer climate designation specifies that at least 70% of annual precipitation occurs during the winter months. This is in contrast to climates in most of the rest of the world, which exhibit summer-maximum precipitation. Across narrow bands of the planet during summer months, shifting cells of subtropical high pressure block moisture-bearing winds from adjacent regions. This shifting of stable, warm to hot, dry air over an area in summer and away from that area in winter creates a pronounced dry-summer and wet-winter pattern.

The Mediterranean dry-summer climate brings summer water-balance deficits. Winter precipitation recharges soil moisture, but water use usually exhausts the soil moisture by late spring.

Question 23

What is Humid continental hot-summer climates?

Answer 23

Humid continental hot-summer climates have the warmest summer temperatures of the microthermal category. In the summer, maritime tropical air masses influence precipitation, which may be consistent throughout the year or have a distinct winter-dry period. In North America, frequent weather activity is possible between conflicting air masses—maritime tropical and continental polar—especially in winter.

Question 24

What are Humid continental mild summer climates

Answer 24

Located farther toward the poles, humid continental mild-summer climates are slightly cooler. Figure 10.14 presents a climograph for Moscow, Russia, which is at 55° N, or about the same latitude as the southern shore of Hudson Bay, in Canada. In Canada, a characteristic city having this mild-summer climate is Ottawa, Ontario.

Overall, precipitation is less than in the hot-summer regions to the south; however, snowfall is notably heavier, and its melting is important to soil-moisture recharge.

Question 25

Subarctic Climate

Answer 25

The subarctic climates include vast stretches of Canada, Alaska, and northern Scandinavia, with their cool summers, and Siberian Russia, with its very cold winters

The subarctic climate has brief, cool summers and bitterly cold winters. The subarctic experiences the lowest temperatures outside of Antarctica, and the largest annual temperature range of any climate.

Question 26

What is a Tundra Climate

Answer 26

The term tundra refers to the characteristic vegetation of high latitudes and high elevations where plant growth is restricted by cold temperatures and a short growing season. In tundra climates, land is under some snow cover for 8–10 months, with the warmest month above 0°C, yet never warming above 10°C. These climates occur only in the Northern Hemisphere, except for elevated mountain locations in the Southern Hemisphere and a portion of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Question 27

What is an Ice - cap and ice sheet climate?

Answer 27

An ice sheet is a continuous layer of ice covering an extensive continental region. Earth’s two ice sheets cover the Antarctic continent and most of the island of Greenland (Figure 10.18). An ice cap is smaller in extent, roughly less than 50 000 km2, but completely buries the landscape like an ice sheet. The Vatnajökull ice cap in southeastern Iceland is an example

Most of Antarctica and central Greenland fall within the ice-cap and ice-sheet climate category, as does the North Pole, with all months averaging below freezing.

Question 28

Characteristics of Polar Marine climate.

Answer 28

Polar marine climates are more moderate than other polar climates in winter, with no month below –7°C, yet overall they are not as warm as tundra climates. Because of marine influences, annual temperature ranges are low. This climate exists along the Bering Sea, on the southern tip of Greenland, and in northern Iceland and northern Norway; in the Southern Hemisphere, it generally occurs over oceans between 50° S and 60° S. Macquarie Island at 54° S in the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand, is polar marine.

Question 29

What are the two subcategories of Dry climates?

Answer 29

Dry climates are subdivided into deserts and steppes according to moisture—deserts have greater moisture deficits than do steppes, but both have permanent water shortages.

Question 30

What is a Steppe

Answer 30

Steppe is a regional term referring to the vast semiarid grassland biome of Eastern Europe and Asia (the equivalent biome in North America is short-grass prairie, and in Africa, the savanna; see Chapter 20).

Question 31

Characteristics of Dry Climates

Answer 31

Deserts and steppes comprise the regions that are characterized by dry climates. These are arid and semiarid areas that have three main characteristics: very low precipitation, high evaporation rates that typically exceed precipitation and wide temperature swings both daily and seasonally.

Question 32

Tropical, subtropical hot desert climates

Answer 32

Tropical, subtropical hot desert climates are Earth’s true tropical and subtropical deserts and feature annual average temperatures above 18°C.
Rainfall is from local summer convectional showers. Some regions receive almost no rainfall, whereas others may receive up to 35 cm of precipitation a year.

Question 33

The midlatitude desert

Answer 33

The midlatitude desert is considered an arid climate in which the total annual precipitation is less than half the annual potential evapotranspiration. Precipitation is sparse as the interior location is distant from a source of moisture. Or, the lack of rainfall is due to its leeward, rain shadow location.

Question 34

Tropical, subtropical hot steppe climates

Answer 34

Tropical, subtropical hot steppe climates generally exist around the periphery of hot deserts, where shifting subtropical high-pressure cells create a distinct summer-dry and winter-wet pattern. Average annual precipitation in these climates is usually below 60 cm.

Question 35

Midlatitude cold steppe climates

Answer 35

extremely variable temperature conditions, with annual means decreasing and annual ranges increasing poleward, and relatively little precipitation.

As with other dry climate regions, rainfall in the steppes is widely variable and undependable, ranging from 20 to 40 cm.