Weather & Climate
What is Weather and Climate?
Weather is a short term state of atmosphere, it can change within minutes or hours.(example of
weather is rain)
Climate is a long term pattern of weather, average weather over many years
in one speci c place.(example SG is a tropical climate so it has hot weather
over many years)
What is WEATHER CONDITION?
Weather condition is a regional weather over a period of time the year.e.g.
Snowing for a month
Components of Weather:
-Temperature(Degree Celsius)
-Relative Humidity(%)
-Cloud cover
-Precipitation(mm)
-Pressure(millibars)
-Wind(m/s, directions)
Factors a ecting Temperature:
-Latitude, at lower latitude, the angle of solar radiation or sun’s rays at places near the equator(lower
latitude) is higher(close to 90 degrees). This causes heat form the sun to concentrate over a smaller
area, causing more heat, thus higher temperature. The sun’s rays also travel a shorter distance in the
atmosphere to reach areas at or near the equator than at the poles which means less solar radiation
is lost by re ection(to space), scattering and absorption(by clouds). At higher latitudes, due to slanted
axis of the earth and smaller angle of solar radiation at places further away from the equator, heat is
being spread over a larger area. Hence, less intense heating, lower temperature. Also, the sun’s rays
also travel a longer distance in the atmosphere to reach the poles of the earth than the equator,
hence more solar radiation is lost by re ection, scattering and absorption.
-Altitude, the higher the altitude, there is less water vapour, dust and other impurities to trap and
absorb the heat. Lower concern traction of gases will result in heat escaping back into [Link],
temperature decreases as the altitude increases. At lower altitudes, air density is higher as
atmospheric gases are more concentrated at lower altitudes due to gravity. Hence, more
concentration of gas, more heat trapped, lower altitude, temp. decreases.
-Distance from the sea, the sea is cooler/warmer than the land. Onshore wind that blows towards
land lowers/increases the temperature at costal areas. His results in cooler summer/warmer winter at
costal areas as compared to inland. Places located inland within the continent do not receive the
moderating in uence on onshore wind near the coast. Hence, summers are hot and winters are
cooler at inland locations.
ASK CHARLOTTE IF WE NEED TO LEARN DENSITY AND GRAVITY WHICH RELATE STO THE
ALTITUDE ALSO ASK HOW TO LEARN RELATIVE HUMIDITY, climate of sg and eld of investigation
of microclimate.
Relative humidity: The amount of water vapour in the air, expressed as a percentage of the maximum
amount of water vapour the air can hold at the same temperature. If temperature goes up, relative
humidity goes down vice versa.
Absolute humidity: The amount of water vapour in the air.
Clouds:????
Conventional rainfall:One of the most common type of precipitation to occur in tropical region.
Convectional rain is also commonly experienced in temperate regions during summer. Convectional
rain occurs in afternoon after intense heating on the ground [Link] of Convectional rain:
The sun’s energy heats up the ground surface, the air in contact with the warm ground is heated by
conduction. The heated air expands and becomes lighter than the air around it. The unstable heated
air which contains a lot of moisture rises. As the warm air rises, it cools until dew point temperature is
reached, when water vapour condenses to form [Link] the updraft of rising air, water vapour
continues to condense into water droplets around the cool surfaces of suspended ice crystals, dust
particles and other impurities, to from towering cumulonimbus [Link] water droplets in the
clouds coalesce to form bigger water droplets. When the water droplets become too heavy to be
suspended, convectional rain falls, usually accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Air pressure( or atmospheric pressure): It is the force exerted on a surface by the air above it
as gravity pulls it to Earth. Atmospheric pressure drops as altitude increases. As the pressure
decreases, the amount of oxygen available to breathe also decreases. At very high altitudes,
atmospheric pressure and available oxygen get so low that people can become sick and even
dies.
Wind: Air currents or moving mass of air from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. The
greater the pressure di erence, the faster the ow of air which creates moving air with a
considerably strong force. There are many types of wind, here are two types:-MONSOONS,
they are seasonal winds in the Southern Asia blowing from the southwest(bringing rain) in
summer and from the northeast in [Link] winds last for many months within the tropical
regions. -LOCAL WINDS, ordinary winds which are in uenced by various landforms such as
vegetation, hill, plains, water bodies, mountains and so on. They blow variedly and the changes
are because of di erent temperatures and pressure regions during the night and day. One
example of local wind is the land and sea breezes.
Formation of land and sea breezes:
-Sea breeze is wind that blows from the sea to land. During the day, the land heats up faster
than the sea. The warm air over land rises. As a result, the air pressure over the land is higher
than the sea. The area over the sea is a low pressure area. Therefore, wind blows from the sea
to the land during the day to form a sea breeze, because air moves from an area of high
pressure to an area of low pressure.
-Land breeze is wind that blows from the land to the sea. At night, the sea loses heat slower
than the land. The warm air over the sea rises. As a result, the air pressure over the sea is
lower than the land. The area over the land is a high pressure area. Therefore, wind blows from
the land to the sea at night to from a land breeze, because air moves from an area of high
pressure to an area of low pressure.
Accuracy: How close a measurement is to the true value(I.e. data collected allows you to make
clear judgements in any conclusion)
Reliability: This is the extent to which measurements are consistent.
Precision: Measurements have very little spread about the mean value.
CLIMOGRAPHS
to be continued
