1. Role of Climate
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2. Local Conditions
How would you describe your climate, or the average year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation where you live?

3. Does your area receive a great deal of precipitation-rain or snow-or is your area very dry?

4. Questions
When does the area in which you live experience the lowest temperatures?
Does the temp get below freezing
When does your area have the highest temperatures?
How often does it rain where you live?
Is one season rainier than others
Does it snow where you live?
If so what is the heaviest snowfall you can remember?
What are two factors that affect climate?

5. What is Climate?
Weather-day-to day condition of the Earth’s atmosphere at a particular time and place.
May be clear or sunny one day and cloudy and cold the next
Climate- refers to average, year after year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a particular region

6. Climate is caused by many factors including:
Trapping of heat by the atmosphere
Latitude
Transport of heat by winds and ocean currents

7. Amount of precipitation that results
Shape and land elevation contribute to global climate patterns

8. Energy of incoming sunlight drives Earth’s weather and helps determine climate
Presence of certain gases in the atmosphere also has an effect on its temperature.

9. The Greenhouse Effect
Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and a few other atmospheric gases trap heat energy and maintain Earth’s temperature range.
Greenhouse effect-natural situation in which heat is retained by a thin layer of greenhouse gases.

11. The Effect of Latitude on Climate
As a result of differences in latitude and thus the angle of heating, Earth has three main climate zones:
polar
temperate
tropical.

12. Polar Zones
Cold areas where the sun's rays strike Earth at a very low angle.
These zones are located in the areas around the North and South poles
between 66.5° and 90° North and South latitudes.

13. Temperate Zones Sit between the polar zones and the tropics
Temperate zones are more affected by the changing angle of the sun over the course of a year
The climate in these zones ranges from hot to cold, depending on the season.

14. Tropical Zone Or tropics, is near the equator
Located between 23.5° North and 23.5° South latitudes
Receive direct or nearly direct sunlight year-round, making the climate almost always warm.

15. Heat Transport in the Biosphere
The unequal heating of Earth's surface drives winds and ocean currents
transport heat throughout the biosphere
Winds form because warm air tends to rise and cool air tends to sink
air that is heated near the equator rises