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Climate Factors - Coggle Diagram
Climate Factors
Latitude
Impact on Climate
Places with lower latitudes tend to have warmer climates than those at higher latitudes.
Latitude decides how cold or hot a place is.
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Description
Imaginary lines on the world that work with Longitude to help find locations. Latitude describes how far north or south a place is from the Equator. The 0° line is the Equator. In areas of higher latitudes(farther from the Equator), energy from the sun is spread over a larger area and less concentrated.
Elevation
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Description
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.
Air that is at a low elevation near the land or water will be warmer because land and water are very good at absorbing heat.
Mountain Barriers/Relief
Description
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 the windward side gets lots of rain, and the leeward side gets is dry and there is sometimes a desert.
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Ocean Currents
Impact on Climate
If you live near a warm ocean you will have a warmer and wetter climate. If you live next to a cold ocean current, you will have a colder, dryer climate.
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Description
Ocean current are massive flows of water. 90% of the world's currents are cold and the remaining 10% are warm surface currents. Cold currents come from the poles and warm currents come from the equator. Ocean currents are an energy distribution system and they move in circular patterns because the Earth is spinning.
Wind and Air Masses
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Description
A large body of air that has similar temperature and moisture conditions throughout. Cold air comes from the poles and warm air comes from the equator.
Wind systems spin because the earth is rotating on its axis. Much of the warm air masses come from over water because water holds heat better than land, so the wind systems are like an 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 precipitate (rain/snow).
The equator is rotating at 1600km per hour. It is spinning faster than any other latitude. As you move away from the equator your rotational speed slows down. This means that wind traveling away from the equator towards 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 clock-wise.
