Climate and the weatherUnit 7

World cliclimate zones

•Tropical climate: hot and humid all year.

•Savannah climate: short wet season – long hot dry season.

•Desert climate: little or no precipitation all year.

Hot zones•Ocean

climate: mild in the winter and cool in the summer, lot of rain all year.

•Continental climate: hotter summers, colder winters and less rain.

•Mediterranean climate: winters cool and a lot of precipitation; summer hot and little rain.

Temperate zones

•Polar climate: the ground is covered by snow and ice, there isn’t a lot of precipitation.

•Alpine climate: very cold and windy, there isn’t a lot of precipitation.

Cold zones

Factors influence climate

latitude

altitude

relief

Distance from the sea

A place’s distance from the Equator.

The height of an area above sea level.

Shape of the land can affect some weather conditions.

Has an effect on the surrounding land.

Atlanticclimate

Mountain climate

Continental climate

Sub-tropicalclimate

Mediterranean climate

TEMPERATURE

Cool winters,Mild summers

Cold winters,Cool summers

Very cold winters,Very hot summers

Mostly high,all year

Mild winters,Hot summers

PRECIPITATION

High, all yearHigh, often as

snowin winter

Low, but stormsin summer

lowLow; sometimes high

in autumn

FLORA

Deciduous forest,

Oak, ferns, mosses

Coniferous forests

Coniferous anddeciduous trees

Pines, cactus, palm trees,

dragon trees

Pine trees, heather, thyme,

Palm trees, cactus

FAUNA

Iberian brown bear,

salmon

Chamois,vultures

Deer, hare, wild boar,

foxes, squirrels, trout

Lizards, turtles Lynx, rabbits, flamingos

Climate zones in Spain

Natural disasters

FLoods

• Occur where there’s precipitationover a long period of time, or very heavy precipitation.

• Melting snow and ice from mountains can cause rivers to overflow.

• Can destroy farmers ‘crops and kill livestock.

• Can destroy or damage property.

• Can contaminate water supplies.

Droughts

• Occur when there’s little or no precipitation for a long time.

• Water evaporates and rivers and lakes can dry up and disappear.

• Soil dries up and becomes hard and cracked.

• Fertile land becomes infertile.• Plants and other vegetation

can die.• The wind erodes soil.• Animals die because they

don’t have water or plants to eat.

• The groundwater can dry up.

Characteristics Consequences

Wild weather• Formed in warm, wet air masses

above warm seas and oceans.• Bring very strong winds and heavy

rain.• Can be 600 km wide.• Can travel between 120-300km/h.

Hurricanes

• Formed when different air masses with big temperature differences meet.

• Form a dark spinning column.• Can travel at 800km/h.• Sometimes called twisters.

Tornadoes

• The greenhouse gases find in the atmosphere. • Greenhouse gases can be useful because they stop

all the heat escaping from the Earth at night, and therefore keep the Earth warm.

• The greenhouse effect is when certain gases in the atmosphere stop all the heat from the Earth escaping back into space.

• Global warming is the way we describe the risein average temperature that the Earth is currently experiencing.

• People can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere use their cars less often, do things manually rather than using electrical appliances, and use more wind, tidal and solar energy.

CLIMATE CHANGE