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Climate Factors (Elevation (Elevation is the height above or below a fixed…
Climate Factors
Elevation
Elevation is the height above or below a fixed point. As elevation increases temperatures become cooler. Air molecules are held together by gravity. The higher up they are the harder it is for gravity to hold them together. At lower elevations air molecules are closer together meaning the air is more dense and it's warmer.
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Whistler has a summit elevation of 2,184 meters 7,165 feet. The total vertical drop is 1,530 meters.
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Bodies Of Water
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A body of water is any significant accumulation of water. A body of water takes a long time to heat up or cool down compared to the land around it. The air blows over the land and warms it. Bodies of water provide moisture to nearby lands because wind picks up the moisture and then carries it over the land where it then falls as rain or snow.
Whistler has a lot of lakes because all the snow from the mountain melts and goes into the lake and the lakes are glacier feed.
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Latitude
Whistlers latitude is 50.1163° N, 122.9574° W.
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Latitude describes how far north or south a place is from the Earth's equator. If it's high latitude then energy from the sun is spread out over a large area and it is less concentrated so then the temperature is cooler. Places with lower latitudes have warmer climates. Canada's northern most point is Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Its southern most point is Middle Island.
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Relief
A location's relief is the difference between its highest and lowest elevaions. Mountain areas have high relief and plains have low relief. Places with high relief can have big impact of precipitation.
The top of whistler mountain is 7,160 ft above sea level. That is why it is so cold at the top of Whistler.
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Ocean Currents
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An ocean current is massive flows of water that are within the ocean. 90% of them are cold deep water currents from the polar region and they bring cool water to the equator. Warm currents start in the tropics and bring warm water into cooler regions. It affects the local climate because the current is moving and it is bringing cold air or hot from the winds into the area. There are the warm waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic ocean and the Alaska current in the Pacific ocean.
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Air Masses
Air masses are large volumes of air that have similar conditions of temperature and moisture throughout. The Prairies are vast and wide open and that means that warm air travels easily up from the south in the summer causing rain when it meets colder air and cold air travels easily down from the arctic in the winter and that brings cold temperatures and lots of dry air which means less precipitation in the winter.
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