Many factors affect the climate of a location The first important distinction to understand is the difference between weather and climate – weather is the short-term conditions of the atmosphere, such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, etc Climate is the longer-term patterns in an area
A quick way to get an idea of the climate of a particular place is to look at a "climate graph," or "climgraph " A climate graph is what scientists create to show a particular location's average temperature and precipitation during the year Below is a climate graph for Barrow, Alaska A description of each of the parts is given below
Within the country, there are regional differences in climate as well as differences between seasons Over the last century, our climate has become warmer, while altered precipitation patterns have led to drier summers, wetter winters and more frequent heavy rainfall The world's climate is changing at an unprecedented rate Since the late
excluded the area east of 85o W longitude where there are no substantial areas of grassland or shrubland Monthly temperature and precipitation data for current conditions and for the climate change scenarios were imported into a geographical information system (ARC/INFO 7 0 - ESRI, Redlands, California)
models, charts, and imagery Key concepts include location by latitude and longitude and topographic profiles • ES 13d: The student will investigate and understand that energy transfer between the sun and the Earth and its atmosphere drives weather and climate on Earth Key concepts include weather
region are influenced by natural factors such as latitude, elevation and the presence of Objectives: • To identify the factors that affect the climate of a region;