DIFFERENT FACTORS
AFFECTING CLIMATE
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able
to:
Explain how different factors affect the climate of an
area.
EARTH’S CLIMATE
The earth’s climate is always changing. However, with drastic
alteration that is being observed and experienced at present,
climate change is considered the most serious threat that human
race faces today.
It is also considered the root of other environmental problems
such as biodiversity depletion, increasing ocean acidification,
rising sea levels, and extreme weather patterns.
CLIMATE
Climate is the average of all weather conditions of
an area over a long period of time. These conditions
include average temperature, air pressure,
humidity, and days of sunshine for a period of 30
years.
Climate is an important aspect in our daily living
and also climate affects the worlds biodiversity.
Climate is affected by different factors, namely,
latitude, ocean current, wind, elevation, relief, and
proximity to water.
LATITUDE
Latitude is the geographic coordinate that specifies the north-
south position of a point on the surface of the earth. It is an angle
which ranges from 0 degree at the equator to 90 degree (north or
south) at the poles.
It is considered the single most important factor that determines
climate. It dictates the intensity and duration of sun exposure to
the earth.
The farther away from the equator the region can be found, the
lesser the energy that reaches the ground at any point in time.
When an area is closer to the focus, the days
are longer (summer solstice) and the sun’s rays
are stronger.
As the earth’s axis is tilted 23.5 degree to the
perpendicular, the amount of heat for each
latitude varies with the seasons. From April to
September, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted
toward the sun and receives more energy;
while the Southern Hemisphere receives an
additional energy between October and March
when it is tilted toward the sun.
Three General Climatic zones with respect
to latitude
1. ARCTIC
Regions found at 66.5º N of the North Pole
comprise the Arctic region; from 66.5º S to the
South Pole is the Antarctic.
Places within the Arctic climate zones are covered
with permafrost.
Winters are severe, the sea freezes, and the place is
exceptionally dry as there is little precipitation in
the form of snow.
2. TROPIC (HOT) CLIMATE
Refers to the zones within latitudes between 5/10º to
35º.The equatorial belt experiences a non-arid climate
with an average temperature above 18º C. Weather
condition is humid.
Due to high temperature, active vertical uplift and
precipitation accompanied with thunderstorms are
normal events in tropical climates.
Rainforest, savanna, and semi-arid are some examples
of tropical climate.
There are three distinctive tropical climates: equatorial,
tropical continental, and hot deserts.
3. TEMPERATE
Refers to zones in a range of latitude between 40º and 60/70º.
The North Temperate Zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer (at
about 23.5º north latitude) to the Arctic Circle (at approximately
66.5º north latitude). The South Temperate Zone, extends from the
Tropic of Capricorn (at approximately 23.5º south latitude) to the
Antarctic Circle (at approximately 66.5º south latitude).
Unlike arctic and tropic climates, this zone does not experiences
extremes of temperature and precipitation.
Two types of temperate climate
Maritime Climate
Is strongly affected by the oceans and has fairly steady
temperatures across the seasons.
Continental Climate
Increases in land characterized by warmer summers and colder
winter due to the thermal inertia possessed by the land.
OCEAN CURRENTS
There are three main processes that make the ocean circulates: tidal forces,
wind stress, and density differences.
There are two circulation types of ocean current:
1. Wind-driven circulation, which is forced by wind stress on the sea
surface including a momentum exchange. It dominates in the upper
hundred meters from the sea surface.
2. Thermohaline circulation, which is an “overturning” circulation in
which warm water flows poleward near the surface and is subsequently
converted into cold water that sinks and flows equator toward in the
interior.
Thermohaline circulation, also called the Global Ocean Conveyor,
moves water slowly (10 cm/s the most) between the surface and deep
ocean worldwide.
Thermohaline is derived from thermo which means “temperature” and
haline which refers to “salt content”.
There are two factors that affect the density of water: temperature and
salinity.
Colder water is denser than warm water. Water gets cold when it loses
heat to the atmosphere especially at high altitudes. Saltier water is
denser than less dense salty water. Water gets saltier if the rate of
evaporation is high and gets less salty if there is an influx of fresh
water either from melting ice or precipitation and runoff from land.
WIND
Air pressure gradient or the difference between
regions of high and land pressure creates wind. The
larger the difference in pressure, the stronger the
winds become.
There are factors that greatly influence wind speed
and direction: Coriolis effect and Friction.
As the earth rotates, it creates an apparent force
known as “Coriolis force” that deflects moving air to
the right of its initial direction in the Northern
Hemisphere and to the left of its initial direction in
the Southern Hemisphere.
The prevailing wind is the most frequent wind direction a location
experiences. Depending on topography and latitude, wind
determines the climate of a specific region.
An area exposed to the prevailing wind on mountains is expected
to be wetter because moisture from any storm systems run in to
the slope and it rains, while the aspect facing away from a slope
will likely be drier because there are no winds that bring in
moisture to the locality.
ELEVATION
In nineteenth century, Alexander von
Humboldt noted a unique relationship
between a region’s altitude and its plant life.
Altitude affects temperature and pressure. As
altitude increases , the corresponding
temperature of air decreases. For every 100-
meter rise in altitude, temperature decreased
by 1ºC. As such, regions altitudes experience
low temperatures.
The earth’s surface absorbs heat
energy from the sun; and when it
warms up, the heat diffuses in the
atmosphere, warms it, and transfers
some of the heat to the upper layers of
the atmosphere.
In effect, layers of atmosphere closest
to the earth’s surface receive the most
heat compared to the elevated areas.
When the temperature is higher, air in
the atmosphere moves faster and loses
its density. This leads to a decreased
barometric pressure.
RELIEF
Relief refers to the shape of the land’s surface. It includes
the aspects, which means the direction in which a slope
faces.
Mountains form a natural barrier that causes air masses to
rise.
Windward mountain slopes, facing moisture-bearing
winds, usually receive more precipitation than either the
lower, more level mountain bases. This is because air
moving up a mountain slope expands and cools, reducing
the amount of moisture needed for saturation.
On the other hand, air moving down a mountain
compresses and warms, increasing the amount of moisture
possible in the air.
PROXIMITY TO WATER
Water on the earth exists in three
phases. In its gaseous, liquid, and frozen
phases, water influences the intensity of
climate variability of a place.
Bodies of water such as ocean, rivers,
and lakes have damping effect on the
swing in temperatures of coastal areas.
They tend to store heat in warm periods
and release it into cold periods; hence,
they are called heat sinks.
Thermal inertia refers to the tendency of heat
to transfer more slowly to some material
bodies than others, which creates an apparent
lag between temperature change between two
material bodies.
Specific heat capacity is the heat (energy) that
must be transferred to a material for one gram
to experience a one degree rise in
temperature. As water is known to have a
specific heat capacity of about 4 times of ice,
shoreline towns experience warmer winters
and cooler summers than inland communities.
The resulting uneven heating of the air creates
small areas of local circulation called
convective currents.
