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Climate Factors - Coggle Diagram
Climate Factors
Ocean Currents
If you live near a warm ocean current you will have a warmer wetter climate, if you live near a cold ocean current you will have a colder dryer climate.
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Ocean current are massive flows of water, 90% of the worlds current are cold currents. Cold currents come from the poles and warm currents come from the equator. Ocean current are an energy distribution system. Ocean currents move in circular patterns because the earth is spinning on it's axis.
Latitude
Latitude describes how far north or south a location on earth is. They use degrees to measure the length. The places closer to the equator have much more concentrated energy. This makes it hotter closer to the equator. When you are farther from the equator, the energy is less concentrated. Thus make it cooler.
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Elavation
The higher up you go the farther apart air molecules are, few molecules means that higher elevations are colder because there are fewer particles to trap heat.
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Bodies of Water
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Large lakes and oceans are very good at holding and absorbing heat energy. This means allll summer the oceans and lakes are absorbing and holding heat.
It takes a very loooooooooooooong time for the lake to heat up or cool down. So all summer the lake is releasing the cold from the winter and al winter the lake is releasing heat.
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Mountains/Barrier reefs
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A mountain range like the Rockies can create a barrier to prevailing winds. Water moist air rises up because the mountain forces it up. The warm air cools condenses and creates precipitation. So one windward side gets lots of rain and the leeward side is dry sometimes even a desert.
Wind and Airmasses
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Cold air comes from the poles and warm air comes from the equator, wind systems spin because the earth is rotating on it's axis, much of the warm air masses come from the over water because water holds heat better than land. So the wind systems are like a energy distribution system they balance out the atmosphere by redistributing heat from equator and cold from poles. When cold air meets warm air it is forced up because cold air is more dense, the warm air will cool, condense and Precipitation/rain. The equator is rotating at 1600 km/hr it is spinning faster than any other latitude. As you move away from the equator your rotational speed slows down. This means that wind travelling away from the north will veer to the east as it is traveling faster than the earth beneath it. This is why storm systems spin is a circle. This means Hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere will spin counter clockwise.
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