Scribd
Upload
83 views

For Website

There are several natural factors that influence climate, including elevation, prevailing wind patterns, latitude, topography, geography, and the surface of the Earth. Elevation affects temperature, with colder conditions at higher altitudes. Wind patterns vary by hemisphere and shift seasons. Latitude determines sunlight hours. Topography such as mountain ranges influence precipitation. Geography like proximity to bodies of water and land features impact local climates. The surface absorbs or reflects sunlight heating the atmosphere differently. Climate has changed over time with cold and warm periods, and the last ice age ended around 1850. While these factors naturally impact climate, human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation have also significantly influenced climate change since the Industrial Revolution.

Uploaded by

api-290916666
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
83 views

For Website

There are several natural factors that influence climate, including elevation, prevailing wind patterns, latitude, topography, geography, and the surface of the Earth. Elevation affects temperature, with colder conditions at higher altitudes. Wind patterns vary by hemisphere and shift seasons. Latitude determines sunlight hours. Topography such as mountain ranges influence precipitation. Geography like proximity to bodies of water and land features impact local climates. The surface absorbs or reflects sunlight heating the atmosphere differently. Climate has changed over time with cold and warm periods, and the last ice age ended around 1850. While these factors naturally impact climate, human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation have also significantly influenced climate change since the Industrial Revolution.

Uploaded by

api-290916666
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Factors that Influence Climate

There are lots of factors that influence our climate:


Elevation or Altitude effect climate
Normally, climatic conditions become colder as altitude increases. Life zones on a high
mountain reflect the changes, plants at the base are the same as those in surrounding countryside,
but no trees at all can grow above the timberline. Snow crowns the highest elevations.
Prevailing global wind patterns
There are 3 major wind patterns found in the Northern Hemisphere and also 3 in the Southern
Hemisphere. These are average conditions and do not essentially reveal conditions on a
particular day. As seasons change, the wind patterns shift north or south. So does the intertropical convergence zone, which moves back and forth across the Equator. Sailors called this
zone the doldrums because its winds are normally weak.
Latitude and angles of the suns rays
As the Earth circles the sun, the tilt of its axis causes changes in the angle of which suns rays
contact the earth and hence changes the daylight hours at different latitudes. Polar Regions
experience the greatest variation, with long periods of limited or no sunlight in winter and up to
24 hours of daylight in the summer.
Topography
The Topography of an area can greatly influence our climate. Mountain ranges are natural
barriers to air movement. In California, winds off the Pacific Ocean carry moisture-laden air

toward the coast. The Coastal Range allows for some condensation and light precipitation.
Inland, the taller Sierra Nevada range rings more significant precipitation in the air. On the
western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, sinking air warms from compression, clouds evaporate, and
dry conditions prevail.
Effects of Geography
The position of a town, city or place and its distance from mountains and substantial areas of
water help determine its prevailing wind patterns and what types of air masses affect it. Coastal
areas may enjoy refreshing breezes in summer, when cooler ocean air moves ashore. Places south
and east of the Great Lakes can expect lake effect snow in winter, when cold air travels over
relatively warmer waters.
In spring and summer, people in Tornado Alley in the central United States watch for
thunderstorms, these storms are caused where three types of air masses frequently converge: cold
and dry from the north, warm and dry from the southwest, and warm and moist from the Gulf of
Mexico - these colliding air masses often generate tornado storms.
Surface of the Earth
Just look at any globe or a world map showing land cover, and you will see another important
factor which has an influence on climate: the surface of the Earth. The amount of sunlight that is
absorbed or reflected by the surface determines how much atmospheric heating occurs. Darker
areas, such as heavily vegetated regions, tend to be good absorbers; lighter areas, such as snow
and ice-covered regions, tend to be good reflectors. The ocean absorbs and loses heat more
slowly than land. Its waters gradually release heat into the atmosphere, which then distributes
heat around the globe.

Climate change over time


Cold and warm periods punctuate Earths long history. Some were fairly short; others spanned
hundreds of thousands of years. In some cold periods, glaciers grew and spread over large
regions. In subsequent warm periods, the ice retreated. Each period profoundly affected plant and
animal life. The most recent cool period, often called the Little Ice Age, ended in Western
Europe around 1850.
Since the turn of the 20th century, temperatures have been rising steadily throughout the world.
But it is not yet clear how much of this global warming is due to natural causes and how much
derives from human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests.
Human influence
The factors above affect the climate naturally. However, we cannot forget the influence of
humans on our climate. Early on in human history our effect on the climate would have been
quite small. However, as populations increased and trees were cut down in large numbers, so our
influence on the climate increased. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. A
reduction in trees will therefore have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The Industrial Revolution, starting at the end of the 19th Century, has had a huge effect on
climate. The invention of the motor engine and the increased burning of fossil fuels have
increased the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas - more on that later) in the
atmosphere. The number of trees being cut down has also increased, reducing the amount of
carbon dioxide that is taken up by forests.

You might also like