Transcript Y8U2B Climate zones PPwk4

Climate 2
Climate is ?
1
World Climate Zones
Have you ever wondered why one area of the world is a
desert, another a grassland, and another a rainforest?
Why are there different types of life in each area?
The answer is climate.
Climate is the long-term weather of that area (at least
30 years). This includes the region's general pattern of
weather conditions, seasons and weather extremes like
hurricanes, droughts, or rainy periods.
Two of the most important factors determining an area's
climate are air temperature and precipitation.
The climate of a region will determine what plants will
grow there, and what animals will inhabit it.
All three components, climate, plants and animals are
interwoven to create the fabric of a biome.
2
As we saw last week …
The closer to the equator you are, the more
concentrated the sun’s rays are and so the warmer the
air temperatures tend to be.
The further away from the equator, the more spread
out or dispersed the sun’s ray are the cooler the air
temperature is.
Another difference is that the further you are from
the equator, the greater the difference between
Summer and Winter, as the tilt of the earth has more
effect, both is heat and day length.
Rainfall is another variable – if the wind is dry then
you get little rain, but if the wind has brought air from
over the ocean, it is likely to be carrying moist air in
the form of clouds. As the clouds are forced up over
the land, then these areas are going to receive
precipitation in some form. What are the different
types of precipitation?
3
Today we will
look at some of the climate types found on
Earth
Look at the actual graphs for some of the
places
4
The climate zones
Polar
Temperate
Maritime
Desert
Tropical
Equatorial
Mediterranean
5
If you look in your atlases on pages 12 & 13
You will see some maps like this: The red line is
measured using the red scale and this is the
average temperature.
The blue bars
are measured
using the blue
scale and show
the monthly
rainfall.
What is the
temperature in August?
The rainfall in January?
When is the
temperature 15 0C? The
rainfall lowest? 6
Equatorial climate
7
In detail
•The temperature: does it change during the year?
•What would you say it was in words?
•What would you say about the rainfall?
8
Tropical
What words would you use to describe the
temperature?
The precipitation?
Senegal is north of the Equator- what can you say about
the summer and winter?
9
Tropical
When were these pictures
taken do you think?
It is sometimes called
Tropical wet and dry. Why
do you think that is?
10
Desert
 Death
Valley
What words would you use
to describe the
temperature?
The precipitation?
Tindouf is north of the
Equator- what can you say
about the summer and
winter?
11
Mediterranean
What words would you use
to describe the
temperature?
The precipitation?
Sacremento is north of the
Equator- what can you say
about the summer and
winter?
12
Temperate
maritime
What words would you
use to describe the
temperature?
The precipitation?
Manchester is north of the Equator- what can you say
about the summer and winter?
13
The Polar climate
What words would you use to
describe the temperature?
The precipitation?
London is north of the
Equator- what can you say
about the summer and winter?
14
So what have we seen?
Temperatures
Very cold
Cold
Mild
Warm
Very warm
CLIMATES
Equatorial
climate
Tropical climate
Desert climate
Mediterranean
climate
Temperate
maritime climate
Polar
Precipitation
Very dry
Dry
Moderate
Wet
Very wet
More than
very wet
All year
Summer only
Winter only
Not often
15
Just one
more type
of climate
Monsoons
These are very important to the
countries where they occur but
before that you need to
understand how wind happens
16
What is wind?
Wind is just moving air. On the diagram, the
LHS is warmed by the sun, so warm air rises
(low pressure as it is not so packed together).
On the LHS the air is cooler so it sinks to the
ground (high pressure as it is squashed
together)
17
What is wind?
So you have ‘too much’ air on the LHS
and ‘not enough’ on the right, so the wind
blows from the cool part to the warm
part
18
What is wind?
In general wind is air moving from high
pressure to low pressure
From where it is cooler to where it is
warmer
19
This why you often get a breeze coming
off the sea in the day time
The land heats up more than the sea
The air over the land rises giving low pressure
This drags the cooler air in from the sea to take
its place, giving on-shore breezes
At a higher level the air from the land blows out
to sea to take the place of the air it ‘took’
20
This is what happens at night
The land cools down quicker than the sea
The air over the sea is warmer and
therefore has a lower pressure
The air is pulled off the land in an offshore breeze
21
This is roughly what happens in those
places that have monsoons
In the summer, the land hots up more than the sea so it
has low pressure
The wind is dragged off the Indian Ocean, carrying LOTS
of rain. It is VERY wet
22
This is roughly what happens in those
places that have monsoons
In the winter, the sea is warmer than the Land so it has
low pressure
The wind is dragged off the land where there is little
water lying . It is VERY dry.
23
This is what it looks like
How would you describe that?
24
Work out the climate and the place
it could be
113mm a year
Singapore
Tillabery, Niger
Rome, Italy
Barrow Alaska
What do you see?
What kind of climate is it?
Which of these places do you
think it is?
25
Work out the climate and the place
it could be
800mm a year
Singapore
Tillabery, Niger
Rome, Italy
Barrow Alaska
What do you see?
What kind of climate is it?
Which of these places do you
think it is?
26
Work out the climate and the place
it could be
2272mm a year
Singapore
Tillabery, Niger
Rome, Italy
Barrow Alaska
What do you see?
What kind of climate is it?
Which of these places do you
think it is?
27
Work out the climate and the place
it could be
400mm a year
Singapore
Tillabery, Niger
Rome, Italy
Barrow Alaska
What do you see?
What kind of climate is it?
Which of these places do you
think it is?
28
Homework
There will be a world map with 6 places
shown – one in each of the climate zones
we have looked at.
There are 4 graphs taken from 4 of these
6 places. It is your job to decided which
graph goes with which place and explain
why.
29