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Global Climates Global Distribution Of Climate • Climate describes the temperature, precipitation, and other weather conditions of a certain area. • The climate of an area describes how these variables may be over a long period, for instance the South of France in the summer is hot and dry. • However this is not always the case as there are some days when it is raining and fairly cool. • These daily changes do not affect the overall climate of the area, and are described as the weather of the area for that day. World Climates Factors Affecting Climate • Altitude • Aspect • Distance From The Sea • Latitude • Ocean Currents • Prevailing Winds Altitude • Temperature falls the higher you are. • The loss in temperature is approximately 10°C for every kilometre you rise. • This fall in temperature with height is due to the fact that the air at higher altitudes is thinner. • There are fewer molecules available to receive and retain heat. • Wind chill may also mean that the temperatures in upland areas are lower than expected. Aspect • This relates to the direction in which a place is facing. • Aspect only really affects local climate, not global ones. • In the Northern Hemisphere, south facing slopes receive far more sunlight than north facing ones. • These are therefore much better for agriculture and often settlement will locate there due to the better aspect. Distance From The Sea • The sea can have a great influence over climates in maritime regions. • The sea takes much longer to heat up but retains that heat far better than the land. • Consequently the land is often warmer than the sea during the day, however the situation is reversed at night. • This means that places like Britain, which are near the sea, have relatively cool days and warm nights, as well as warm summers and mild winters. • The influence of the sea diminishes as you move further inland, for instance to central Europe, where warmer winters and cooler summers will be experienced. Latitude • Latitude on global climates. • Lines of Latitude are those that run horizontally around the world. • The most famous line of latitude is the Equator. • Using the lines of latitude we can easily divide the world in to specific climatic sections. Latitude • Between 23.5 South and 23.5 North is the region called the tropics. • These receive the most heat from the sun because it is almost directly overhead and so the solar radiation does not have to travel through very much of the atmosphere. • It heats a very concentrated area of the surface of the ground. • Between 23.5 and 66.5 in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are the temperate regions. • These have reasonably hot summers and mild winters. Latitude • Above 66.5 in both hemispheres are the Polar Regions, which are very cold. • They receive sunlight for only half the year due to the angle of the Earth on its rotation. • During the months when they do have sunlight, it travels to them at a very shallow angle, meaning that it has to travel through a lot of the atmosphere and has to heat a wide area of the surface. Ocean Currents • Many areas beside the sea are affected by ocean currents. • These can be either warm or cold currents. • The United Kingdom is directly in the path of the Gulf Stream and the Northern Atlantic Stream, which bring warm water from the Caribbean across the Atlantic to our shores. • This current alone is the reason why our climate is mild compared to places of similar latitude like Newfoundland. Prevailing Winds • The prevailing (most common) wind in the United Kingdom comes form the South West. • If a prevailing wind travels over a warm surface it will bring warm weather, whilst if it travels over a cold surface it will bring cold weather. • The south-westerly winds in Britain travel across the Atlantic. • In the summer this means that the air is cooled, whilst in the winter the water warms the air, bringing warmer winters than we might expect.