Climate and Climate Change

1. Climate and Climate Change

2. Factors Affecting Precipitation • Two main factors that determine the climate of a region • Prevailing Winds • Air masses are moved from place to place • Mountain Ranges • When humid winds blow from the ocean toward coastal mountains, the rising warm air cools and its water vapor condenses, forming clouds.

3. Factors Affecting Temperature • Latitude • Tropical zones • Between 23.5º north latitude and 23.5º south latitude • Receives direct or nearly direct sunlight all year round

4. Factors Affecting Temperature • Polar zones • Between 66.5º to 90º north and south latitudes • Cold climates because the sun’s rays always strike at a lower angle near the North and South poles

5. Factors Affecting Temperature • Temperate zones • Between tropical and polar zones • Warm or hot in summer, cool or cold in winter

6. Latitudes

7. Factors Affecting Temperature • Altitude • The temperature of the troposphere decreases about 6.5 Celsius degrees for every kilometer increase in altitude. • Highland areas everywhere have cool climates, regardless of latitude

8. Factors Affecting Temperature • Distance from large bodies of water • Marine climates • Winds from the ocean keep coastal regions from reaching extremes of hot and cold • Continental climates • Extreme temperatures because they are too far inland to be warmed or cooled by the oceans

9. Factors Affecting Temperature • Ocean Currents • Currents warm or cool the air above the ocean, then the air moves over nearby land • A warm current brings warm air to the land it touches • A cold current brings cool air

10. El Nino • Warm water off the coast of Peru disrupts the cold ocean current and changes weather patterns there. • Causes shifts in weather patterns around the world