Week 6 - Local climates Flashcards
What is the difference between macroclimates, mesoclimates, and microclimates?
Macroclimates: Large, over 100s of kms.
Mesoclimates: Medium, like mountain ranges or wine regions.
Microclimates: How small? Who knows?
What causes a katabatic wind?
The downslope gravitational flow of colder denser air beneath warmer lighter air.
What causes anabatic wind?
The air above the surface of a slope is heated through re-radiation of solar insolation, making it warmer and therefore lower pressure than the surrounding air. High rushes to low, causing the anabatic wind.
Explain land and sea breezes.
During the day, land is heated quicker than the sea, causing lower pressure and therefore wind coming inland (sea breeze). At night, vice versa.
Explain the cause of urban heat islands.
They are slower to cool, especially at night, due to the high absorption of materials used to create cities, namely asphalt and concrete.
What are the impacts of urban areas on climates?
They can break up winds, cause storms to rekindle, create more precipitation downwind of them, and the warm air and precipitation can affect winds for hundreds of miles.
What are the effects of heat waves in cities?
Possible deaths due to heat stroke, and medical issues due to both heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Other issues: as AC use increases, so does pollution, and therefore so does precipitation downwind.
What are the characteristics of indoor climates?
The outer areas (e.g. attic, basement, windows, doors, vents, etc.) have high relative humidity and are cooler, where as the centre of a room or building will generally have lower RH and warmer temps.
How might microclimate impact the location of a home or agriculture?
So many ways! Proximity to a water source, windward or leeward slope, slope face and therefore sun angle, ground cover, etc.
