Download Weather - My Teacher Pages

Weather and Climate
Solar System
• Consists of the sun and the objects that
move around it
Earth and the Sun
• Earth is tilted at 23.5 Degrees from the
sun
• This determines the amount of sunlight an
area receives and the seasons
Seasons
Seasons
• Seasons in the Northern and Southern
hemispheres are opposite
• When it is summer in the Northern
Hemisphere it is winter in the Southern
Hemisphere and vice versa
• Areas near the equator receive the most
direct sunlight and have the most constant
year round temperatures
Weather
• The condition of the atmosphere at a
particular time and place, with regard to
the temperature
• Weather changes
or is temporary
Climate
• The weather in some location averaged
over some long period of time usually
thirty or more years
• Stays fairly constant unlike weather
Climate Zones
• Climatologist
determine climate
regions by:
1. Vegetation
2. Temperature
3. Rainfall
Climate Zones
• - Polar: Ice Caps
-
Polar: Tundra
Subtropical: Dry Summer
Subtropical: Dry Winter
Subtropical: Humid
Subtropical: Marine West Coast
Subtropical: Mediterranean
Subtropical: Wet
Tropical: Monsoon
Tropical: Savannah/Grasslands
Tropical: Wet
Plate Tectonics
• The theory that the Earth’s surface is
divided into several major, slow moving
plates
Plate Tectonics
Divergent boundaries occur where two
plates slide apart from each other
Convergent boundaries occur where two
plates slide towards each other forming a
subduction zone (if one plate moves
underneath the other)
Plate Tectonics
Precipitation Terms
• Fog: forms close to the ground when cold
air settles
• Stratus Clouds: gray sheets that indicate
slow steady rain
• Cumulus Clouds: fair weather clouds
• Cumulonimbus: Indicate thunderstorms
and strong winds
• Cirrus Clouds: made of ice crystals
Types of Wind
• Trade Winds: Cold wind moving from
poles to equator
• Doldrums: Windless band between 10N
and 10S
• Front: When warm and cold air meet
causing a storm
• Westerlies: Wind of the middle latitudes
• Prevailing Winds: Constant global winds
Water Cycle
Water Cycle
• Condensation: changing liquid water into gas
•
•
•
•
vapor
Transpiration: when plants breathe water vapor
back into air
Groundwater: Precipitation that sinks into the
ground
Surface Runoff: collects in streams and lakes
then into the Ocean
Water Table: area between zone of aeration and
saturation