Climate - Definition and Factors Flashcards
What is Climate?
Climate is the long term pattern of weather in a particular area. A region’s weather patterns, usually tracked for at least 30 years, are considered its climate.
Does a country only have 1 climate zone?
Due to different topographical variations within the country, a country or continent might have various macro or regional climatic zones, such as desert, mountain, maritime, or continental climates, even though it is mostly under one climate zone.
What are the factors that affect climate?
The factors affecting climate are latitude, distance from the sea, altitude or height above sea level, ocean currents, prevailing wind and topography.
How does Latitude affect climate?
Due to the curvature of the Earth, the intensity of the sunlight changes, which causes the temperature to drop. Temperature drops the further an area is from the equator. This happens because the closer you are to the poles and the further you are from the equator, sunlight has a larger layer of atmosphere to pass through and the sun is at a lower angle in the sky. As a result, More energy is lost and temperatures are cooler. based on the amount of sunlight, there are 3 heat zones.
Name the 3 heat zones.
The three heat zones are torrid zone, temperate zone and frigid zone.
What are the properties of the torrid zones?
The Torrid zone lies between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees North) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees south).
It is the zone of the earth which receives the greatest amount of heat as it receives direct sunlight all year round, so temperature remains similar all year round.
This zone receives maximum rainfall and it rains all year round.
What are the properties of the temperate zones?
The Temperate zone lies between the Tropic of Cancer and Arctic circle (66.5 degrees north) in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Tropic of Capricorn and Antarctic circle (66.5 degrees south) in the Southern Hemisphere.
This area receives oblique rays of the sun and hence it is not to cold and not too hot here. They have the most suitable climate with wide range of temperature and precipitation and 4 different seasons. Average temperature - 0 - 20 degrees Celsius.
Receive wide range of rainfall, typically medium.
What are the properties of the frigid zones?
The Frigid zone lies between the Arctic circle and North pole (90 degrees N) in the northern hemisphere and the Antarctic Circle and south pole in the southern hemisphere.
The temperatures here are very cold due to slanted sun rays, with temperature below 10 degrees Celsius with very little rain.
How does altitude/height above sea level affect climate?
Locations at higher altitudes have colder temperatures. Temperature usually decreases by 1 degrees Celsius for every 100 meters or 6 degrees Celsius for every kilometer. This happens because the higher we go, the thinner the atmosphere and the lesser the pressure, which makes the climate colder.
How does distance from the sea affect climate?
Oceans heat up and cool down more slowly that land, meaning that coastal areas are cooler in summer and warmer in winter than places inland with the same altitude and latitude.
How do ocean currents affect climate?
Ocean currents act as a conveyer belt, transporting warm water and wind from the equator to the poles and cold water from the poles back to tropical areas. This regulates global temperature and counteracts the uneven distribution of solar radiation. Warm ocean currents form at the equator, while cold ocean currents form at the poles.
The Coriolis force, generated by Earth’s rotation, causes ocean currents to deflect, with clockwise deflection in the Northern Hemisphere and anti-clockwise deflection in the Southern Hemisphere.
Explain surface level currents and deep ocean currents.
Surface level currents account for 10% of all ocean currents, and stretches as deep as 400mt. It is caused by wind, temperature as well as tides.
Deep ocean currents account for 90% of all ocean currents and are caused by the salinity of the water.
How does prevailing wind affect climate?
Prevailing wind refers to the most frequent wind direction a location experiences. If the prevailing wind direction brings moist or warm air, it will contribute to frequent rainfall. However when prevailing winds blow over land, they can contribute to creating desert climates.
How does topography affect climate?
A region’s topography has a big impact on its climate. Mountain ranges, for instance, can function as natural barriers that obstruct airflow making it hotter. Additionally, by forcing air to rise and create clouds, theyincrease the quantity of rain that falls on the windward region.
