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Climate Factors How and Why does each factor affect climate and pic -…
Climate Factors How and Why does each factor affect climate and pic
Latitude
Why: When sunlight strikes a sloped surface, its energy is spread out over a larger area. So, sunlight shines more directly on the equator making the sunlight more concentrated there.
How: Latitude measures how far north or south a place is from the equator. The places closest to the equator receive more direct sunlight than those farther from the equator making it hotter or colder.
Ocean Currents
Why: There are two types of currents, warm and cool currents. The warm currents start at the tropics and move toward the cooler water to warm up the land around it. The cool currents start at the polars and move to the tropics to cool down the water near the equator.
How: Ocean currents are a flow of water within an ocean that is influenced by winds, gravity, and the spinning, of earth on its axis
Elevation
Why: Elevation affects local climate. As elevation increases, temperatures become cooler, and as elevation decreases it gets warmer.
How: Elevation has to do with air density. Air molecules are held together by gravity, as they go up its harder for gravity to hold them together. When the molecules are farther away from each other they are less able to trap heat making it hotter or colder.
Bodies of Water
Why: Land heats up and cools down more quickly than bodies of water. You can see this in early winter when the land is covered in snow but the water is not yet frozen
How: Bodies of water such as lakes and oceans affect temperatures and levels of precipitation on nearby land. They also take a long time to heat up or cool down compared to the land around them. This helps keep the temperature of the land nearby. In winter, the heat from the water warms the air then warms the land and in the summer the water cools the land.
Wind and Air Masses
Why: Wind moves air masses that form over warm bodies of water and move them, creating warmer, wetter conditions to the area below that the wind moves the air masses to.
How: As warm air rises, cooler air slides underneath, and the warmer air moves along to replace the it. This creates a series of cycles of rising and sinking air above the earth's surface.
Releif
Why: Relief describes the difference in height between the highest and the lowest point in an area. mountainous areas have high relief and plains have low relief. Places with high relief can often have a big impact on precipitation in that area
How: Relief causes one side of a mountain to have a much higher precipitation rates than the other side. The windward side receives more rain than the drier leeward side. The mountains cause the moist air to rise and cool down when it gets high enough causing rain.
