Transcript 2.3 Climate and What Influences it

2.3 Climate and What
Influences it
Geography
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
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Vocabulary
Weather
Temperature
Precipitation
Climate
Gulf Stream
Peru Current
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Journal: Think of as many words as you
can to describe weather conditions. Make
a list. Now choose the words that best
describes today’s weather. Now describe
the different seasons.
• Questions to Explore
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Weather or Climate?
– Weather—the day-to-day changes in the air.
– Temperature—how hot or cold the air feels
– Precipitation—water that falls to the ground
as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
– Climate is the average weather over many
years.
Be prepared to define all of the above on the
chapter 2 test.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Latitude, Landforms and Climate
– Geographers know climates are different in
the low, middle, and high latitudes, because
latitude affects temperature. Why?
– Major landforms such as mountains also
affect climates in neighboring areas.
– Wind and water also play a role.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
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Wind and Water
– Without wind and water the Earth would
overheat.
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The Earth’s rotations creates the winds
Because of it air moves in an east/west direction
1. Hot air rises and circulates toward regions where the air
is not as hot
2. Cold air sinks and moves toward regions where the air
is warmer.
– Hot, moist air from the equator rises in the
atmosphere, then moves toward the North Pole
or the South Pole.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Cold, dry air from the poles moves toward the
Equator.
• This movement helps keep the Earth from
overheating.
• Ocean Currents: Hot and cold
– The Earth’s rotation also creates ocean
currents, which are like fast-moving rivers in
the oceans.
– Like winds, ocean currents travel great
distances. Warm water from near the Equator
moves north and south.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
– In the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf Stream, a warm
current, travels north and east from the tropics.
– The Gulf Stream merges with the North Atlantic
Current to carry warm water all the way to the British
Isles.
– Cold water from the poles flows toward the Equator.
– The Peru Current moves north from Antarctica, along
the coast of South America, and on to the Galapagos
Islands in the Pacific Ocean. These islands sit on the
Equator, but the current is cold enough for penguins
to live there.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• The Ocean’s Cooling and Warming Effects
– It is cooler by the water because water takes
longer to heat or cool than land.
– In summer a place near the ocean of a lake
will be cooler than an area farther away.
– In the winter, it will be warmer.
• Raging Storms
– Wind and water can make climates milder, but
they also can create storms.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Hurricanes are wind and rain storms that
form over the tropics in the Atlantic Ocean.
– The whirling winds at the center of a hurricane
travel over 73 miles per hour.
– Hurricanes produce huge waves called storm
surges, which flood over shorelines and can
destroy homes and towns.
– Typhoons are similar storms that take place in
the Pacific Ocean
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
– Hurricanes and Typhoons affect large areas.
– One single hurricane can threaten islands in
the Caribbean Sea, the east coast of Mexico,
and the southern coat of the United States.
• Tornadoes are swirling funnels of wind that
can reach 200 miles per hour. The winds
and the vacuum they create in their
centers can wreck almost everything in
their path.
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Tornadoes only average about one half
mile in diameter—they affect a more
limited area than hurricanes.
• Some storms are less severe.
• In winter, blizzards dump huge amounts of
snow on parts of North America. Severe
rainstorms and thunderstorms strike the
continent most often in spring and summer
2.3 Climate and What Influences it
• Make sure that you have completed:
– Vocabulary
– Journal
– Questions to Explore
– 2.3 Review Questions
– Homework: Climate and What Influences It
worksheet.
– United Streaming: The Raging Earth
2.3 Climate and What Influences it