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Warm Up: Climate
• When you are an adult, what kind of climate
do you want to live in? Why?
Climographs
Your Turn!
• Using the chart provided, create a climograph
for Houston.
• Remember temperature is a line.
• Precipitation is a bar.
Your Turn!
Month
Temperature (*F)
Precipitation (Inches)
January
50
3
February
54
3
March
61
3
April
68
3
May
74
5
June
80
5
July
83
4
August
82
3
September
78
5
October
70
4
November
61
4
December
53
3
Factors That Affect Climate
p.
Some Definitions
Weather: a condition of the atmosphere in one
place during a short period of time
Precipitation: Moisture that falls from the sky.
Climate: weather patterns typical for an area
over a long period of time
WHAT AFFECTS CLIMATE?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
L – latitude
A – air masses
C – continentality
E – elevation
M – mountain barriers
O – ocean currents
P – pressure & winds
S – storms
Brain Break!
What do you see?
What do the colors represent?
What correlation is there between climate and
latitude?
Latitude
• Latitude is the most
important factor
affecting climate.
• The farther away from
the Equator – the colder
and drier it becomes.
Direct rays of the sun
are always between the
tropics. Areas not in
the tropics receive
indirect sun rays.
Latitude
• Tropical Zone is also called the low latitudes
• Polar Zone is also called the high latitudes
• Temperate Zone is also called the mid-latitudes
Brain Break!
Turn to your partner and discuss how
you would fill in the blanks and graph.
Temperature
increases the average
As latitude _________,
decreases
annual temperature __________.
0°
Latitude
90°
Air Masses
• In the Northern
hemisphere, cold air
from the polar regions
comes from the north.
Hot air from the tropics
comes from the south
(this is opposite in the
southern hemisphere).
Continentality
• Where a place is located on continent.
Continentality
–The farther a location is from a large body of water,
the greater change between winter and summer.
Sea heats up
slowly and cools
slowly.
Land heats up
quickly and cools
quickly.
Brain Break!
So….what is
the difference
in temperature
between
Houston and
Galveston?
Brain Break!
Looking at the map, how would you explain the extreme
temperature differences between these two cities that are
at approximately the same latitude?
Elevation
• It gets colder as you go
up a mountain. The
formula for vertical
climate is: -3.5 F for
every 1000 feet
increase in elevation.
So it would be 35
cooler at the top of a
10,000 foot mountain
than it would be at the
bottom.
Brain Break!
Little Susie is going on vacation. She will
spend one day in Location A and one in
Location B . Based on the illustration, what
clothes would you tell her to pack?
B
A
Mountain Barriers
• Mountains can stop
storms and air masses.
• Mountains are also
responsible for the
orographic effect: Wind
containing moisture hits
the windward side of a
mountain. The moisture
full clouds are too heavy
to make it over the
mountain so precipitation
occurs.
Mountain Barriers continued
• After the rain, the
clouds have no
moisture and are able
to rise over the
mountain. The side
away from the wind is
the leeward side. The
leeward side of a
mountain is arid (dry),
it’s in the rain shadow,
and is usually desert.
Brain Break!
So based on the climate you want to live in when you’re older, what side of
the mountain would you want to live on?
Ocean Currents
• Cold currents are dry.
• Warm currents are wet
and carry moisture.
• Both affect climate!
Brain Break!
How do ocean currents
affect climate?
Warm Currents:
Cold Currents:
warmer climate
_________
cooler
________climate
Pressure and Prevailing Winds
• High pressure is heavy,
cold air. Low pressure
is warm, light air. Heat
rises and gets pushed
up by the cold air.
• Prevailing winds are the
type of winds a certain
region normally
receives.
Bill Nye and Wind
Storms
• Where polar winds
meet westerlies there
are commonly storms.
When hot air masses
and cold air masses
collide – there are
storms! Tornadoes in
the Midwest are great
examples!
Brain Break!
How is Houston’s climate affected by storms?
Did you know that
hurricanes are not called
hurricanes in other parts
of the world????
Processing Directions
• Pick a climograph for a city.
• On the chart provided on the back of your notes page,
use LACEMOPS to describe how the city’s climate is
affected by it’s location on the earth.
• Below is an example for Katy.
Latitude
Air mass
Continentality
Katy is in the temperate zone so it will not have extreme
temperatures.
Air masses can affect us since we are not blocked by mountains. We
would get cold air from the north and warm air from the tropics since
we are in the northern hemisphere.
It is close to the Gulf of Mexico so it has some influence that makes it
more moderate than Dallas for example. However, it has more of an
effect on Galveston.