This document discusses various factors that affect climate, including latitude, altitude, distance to large bodies of water, ocean currents, prevailing winds, and topography. It provides examples of how each factor influences climate and temperature patterns. For instance, coastal areas tend to have more moderate temperatures due to the ocean's moderating effect, while inland locations experience more temperature fluctuations. Higher altitudes also generally have cooler temperatures. The document emphasizes that climate considers long-term weather trends over many years, as opposed to short-term weather conditions.

1. Factors that Affect Climate

2. What is climate?
• Climate is the average weather conditions
over a long period of time
– Includes average temperatures and
precipitation, wind patterns, humidity,
air pressure
• Weather is what it is NOW, climate is what
it SHOULD BE.

3. How is this different from
“weather”?
• Weather changes day to day.
• Weather can fall inside normal ranges or
outside of what is expected from the
climate- “above or below average”
• Climate is the benchmark; what we expect

4. NJ Averages
• Average April Precip: 4.60 in.
• 4/30/14 Precip: 3.24 in.
• Average May High Temp: 71°F
• Today’s high: 67°F

5. Climate Factors
Temperature Factors (LADBWOC!)
•Latitude
•Altitude
•Distance to a Body of Water
•Ocean Currents
Precipitation Factors (TP)
•Topography
•Prevailing Winds

6. How does Latitude affect
climate? (the angular distance N or S of the
equator)
• Latitude is the most
significant factor for
determining climate
• Warmer at the
equator
• Colder at the poles –
in general
• Seasons are
REVERSED between
N. and S. Hemisphere

7. How does Altitude affect
climate?
• As you go up in
altitude, you go down
in temperature and
sometimes
precipitation

8. How does the Distance from large
bodies of water affect climate?
• Large bodies of water
regulate temperature due
to water’s properties.
• The ocean thermostat-
keeps it warmer in
winter and cooler in the
summer
– less fluctuation
• Inland climate have more
extreme temperature
fluctuations throughout
the year

9. How do nearby Ocean Currents affect the
climate?
• Warm and cold ocean currents bring warm moist air near
to coastal areas.
• Great Britain is an example – latitude position puts it in
the cold and dry climate zone
• However it is moist and warmer due to the Gulf Stream,
a warm current.

10. How do the Prevailing winds
affect climate? Prevailing
winds are winds that blow predominantly from a single
general direction over a particular point on the Earth's
surface. • Global winds are
generated by the
rotation of the earth
and move air around
the globe.
• Prevailing winds (like
the Trade Winds)
regulate climate
• Winds bring storms,
air masses of different
temps.

11. How does Topography affect
the climate?
• The lay of the ground
plays an important
role in regulating
climate
• Ex. The windward
side of a coastal
mountain range is
wetter than the
leeward side – rain
shadow effect

12. www.olympicrainshadow.com

13. Other Factors- Plate Tectonics
• Tectonic plates have shifted
across Earth’s surface for
billions of years
• Greenland and Antarctica
used to be tropical
• S. Africa had glaciers
• NJ had volcanoes
• Most of the Western U.S.
was underwater

14. Other Factors- Volcanic Eruptions
• Volcanoes can warm AND cool the planet
• Volcanoes emit CO2 which is a
greenhouse gas  global warming
• But volcanoes also emit SO2 and aerosols
(tiny solid particles) that REFLECT
sunlight back into space
– Less radiation reaches Earth  COOLING

15. % Change in Solar Radiation
www.esrl.noaa.gov

16. Ice Ages
• Earth naturally fluctuates between ice
ages and interglacial periods
• ICE AGE- an era of cooler than normal
global temperatures
• INTERGLACIAL PERIOD- era of warmer
than normal temps.
• Scientists claim the next ice age is 50,000
years away

17. Other Factors- Astronomy
• Milankovitch Cycles: Flux in Earth’s orbit
and Earth’s axis over long time periods

18. What We Know- Facts
• Earth’s climate HAS changed many times
over time naturally
• Our climate IS changing right NOW, but
it’s different than ever documented before
– WHY????
• Humans adding GHGs has warmed the
planet in the past 200 yrs  This is FACT

19. Looking at Climatograms
• Your group will get “pairs” of cities to compare
climates
• Write down a list of observations from each graph
for each city: highest temp, highest precip.,
trends, patterns, etc.
• Determine which climate factor is affecting the
climates of these cities and provide at least 1
piece of factual evidence to support your claim.
• You can use Google maps to help locate

20. Practice- NYC vs. Sydney

21. NYC Climate Facts
• Warmest months: June, July, August
• Consistently around 100 mm precip/month
• Coldest months: Dec, Jan, Feb.
• Coastal City (Atlantic Ocean)
• N. Hemisphere: 40.7° N
• Elevation: sea level (0)

22. Practice- NYC vs. Sydney

23. Sydney Climate Facts:
• Warmest months: Dec., Jan, Feb
• Coldest months: May, June, July, Aug
• Precipitation averages to ~100 mm/month
• Coastal city
• Southern Hemisphere: 34° S
• Elevation: sea level

24. Which factor?
• Latitude?
• Altitude?
• Distance to Body of Water?
• Ocean Currents?
• Topography?
• Prevailing Winds?

25. City Pairs
• Chico, CA vs. Reno, NV
• Norfolk, VA vs. San Francisco, CA
• Estes Park, CO vs. Lincoln, NE
• Boston, MA vs. Minneapolis, MN