1. Attention 8th graders!
Please take out a sheet of notebook paper for notes AND your Unit 2 vocab sheet.
On your paper, write down the difference between weather and climate and the different factors that influence climate. (Think back to the video yesterday, and do your best. I want YOUR ideas, not your neighbor’s.)
Turn in your climate zone from yesterday!

2. Weather: What people see from day to day. A day is rainy or it is dry
Weather: What people see from day to day. A day is rainy or it is dry. Weather is measured primarily by temperature and precipitation.
Climate: The average weather over many years. It is influenced by 6 major factors.

3. Q:What factors affect climate?

4. The factors that affect climate include:
Elevation
Latitude
Wind & ocean currents
Physical features (i.e. mountains)
Proximity to the ocean

5. Elevation
Elevation refers to the distance above or below sea level. The higher the elevation of a region, the colder it is. Even a location near the equator, such as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, can have cold temperatures if its elevation is high enough.

6. Latitude
Latitude refers to distance from the equator. The equator and tropical areas get more direct sunlight than areas to the north or south. The more direct sunlight received, the warmer the climate, which is why the poles are colder than the equator. (Think Climate Zones!)

7. Wind Currents
Warm air rising in the tropics causes cool air to be drawn from the surrounding areas, creating trade winds that blow in subtropical regions. Some of the air mass is drawn away from the equator toward the poles. These air masses create winds that help set weather patterns and determine a location's climate.

8. Ocean Currents
Earth’s rotation, surface winds and the Coriolis force create the surface currents of oceans. Under the influence of the trade winds, warm water near the equator flows from east to west. The Coriolis effect causes water to be deflected northward away from the equator and sets up a rotational cycle in the oceans, making currents flow clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. As currents reach the poles, the water cools and sinks. The temperature of these currents affects the climate of surrounding areas.

9. Physical Features
When air flows over a mountain, it is forced upward. This causes more rain to fall on the windward side of a mountain and an influx of warm air to breach the back side. This relationship explains why mountains often present two completely different landscapes. One side is commonly green and fertile, while the other is arid and desert-like.

10. Proximity to the Ocean
Proximity to oceans is an important factor in an area's climate because oceans moderate climates by storing heat. Because it is a fluid, the ocean diffuses the effects of a temperature change for great distances through vertical mixing and convective movements.