Climate Graphs

Facts to know

What do climate graphs tell us?

As the name indicates: Climate graphs give us information about the climate of a specific place, e.g. New York or Stuttgart.

The monthly temperature and precipitation are the AVERAGES of about 30 years!

They do NOT tell us anything about the WEATHER there!

How to get the data

• Measure the rainfall and add the quantities (throughout the year)

• Read the thermometer– at 7 a.m– at 2 p.m.– at 9 p.m. (counts double)

• The daily averages are turned into monthly averages ( average of 30 years)

Let's take a closer look…climate station / height above sea level [m]

latitude / longitude

average annualtemperature

average annualprecipitation

temperature line precipitation line

Temperature and Precipitation

NOTE: The values on the precipitation axis are double the values of the temperature axis.

10°C 40 mm

Presenting a climate graph

• Remember: Numbers are killers!

• Way out: Compare with what we know!

• Compare with Boeblingen or Stuttgart.

• Name the climate type (arctic, polar, arid, humid, continental, maritime, etc)

Fairbanks and Berlin

Sub-polar climate

Semi-continental climate

What the climate graph tells us?

• Is a month arid or humid?– arid: the temperature line is above the precipitation line / column– humid: the other way round (precipitation above temperature)

• Do plants grow?– The monthly average temperature is above 5°C

• Do crops (Kulturpflanzen) grow?– The monthly average temperature is above 10°C

• Is winegrowing possible?– Yes, if the annual average temperature is 10°C or higher

Vocabulary

• average = durchschnittlich

• annual = jährlich

• height above sea level = Höhe über N.N.

• arid/aridity = trocken, Trockenheit

• humid/humidity = feucht, Feuchtigkeit

• temperature range = Temp.bereich [Kelvin]

• amount of… = Menge an…

• semi-continental = Übergangsklima