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p216 - 217 : Weather extremes - Coggle Diagram
p216 - 217 : Weather extremes
Wettest places
Mount Waialeale
Located on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.
Wettest place in America
Annual average rainfall of 9763 mm
Puerto López
This is a small fishing village in Colombia
One of the wettest places on Earth.
Has an annual rainfall of 12,892 mm.
In the mid-1980s it rained every day for 2 years.
Ureca
Located on the southern tip of Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea.
Wettest place in Africa
Average annual rainfall of 10,450 mm.
Mawsynram
20 times the average rainfall of London, 10,000 mm of rain average annually
80% of all rain arrives in the Monsoon season from June to September
During this time, more heat from the Sun is hitting the Northern Hemisphere. The monsoon is powered by the difference between land and sea and the ways that they respond to the Sun. The land heats quicker than the Sun. As the Sun bakes the land, the warm air above it rises and draws in cooler air from the sea. Due to the shape of India and the long coastline, there is a powerful and sustained current of air moving northwards through India, which brings the Monsoon
Driest places
Death Valley
This is the driest place in North America
Has an average rainfall of 50mm
Storms and rainfall that come from the Pacific ocean have to travel over a series of mountain ranges as they go eastwards. This means that by the time they get to Death Valley many of clouds have already cooled, condensed and fallen as rain before they get there.
Atacama Desert
Located in South America.
Coastal mountains to the west block the moist air from the Pacific and the Andes block rain from the Amazon in the east. The prevailing wind comes from the Atlantic. As the air is forced to rise to cross the Andes it cools, condenses and rains on the eastern side of the Andes. This means that the Atacama Desert is in the rain shadow, which means that it receives very little rainfall as there is high land which shelters it.
Aswan
Driest region in Egypt
Rainfall of only 0.861 mm per year
Its proximity to the Tropic of Cancer contributes to the high temperatures and dry weather.
Hottest places
Al-Aziziyah,Libya
This is the hottest place on Earth.
It is located 40km south of Tripoli.
13 September 1922 the world experienced its hottest air temperature ever recorded was 57.8 C.
Coldest places
Vostok, Antarctica
This is the coldest place on Earth.
It is situated at around 3500m above sea level, and is a Russian research station.
On 21 July 1983, the coldest air temperature on the planet was recorded there with -89.2 C.
Windiest places
Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica
This is the windiest place on Earth with winds that regularly exceed 240 km/h, with an average annual wind speed of 80 km/h.
Storms are caused by katabatic winds which are winds that carry air from a high ground down a slope due to gravity.
Wellington, NZ
The highest gust of wind recorded here was 248 km/h, and the average annual wind speed is 29 km/h. Gusts of wind exceed gale force on 175 days of the year.
The mountainous landscape either side of Wellington acts as a funnel for the winds, increasing their speed.