What is Climate?
Climate is the distribution of weather over a long period of time. Climate covers everything from averages to extremes of different meteorological variables, such as temperature and precipitation. Climate is determined by:
Elevation - temperatures decrease as altitude increases in the troposphere.
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Latitude - the amount of solar energy depends on latitude. Polar regions are colder because they don’t receive as much solar energy as those closer to the equator.
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Rain Shadow - mountains act like wind barriers and this leads to an interesting precipitation pattern, in which the area on the downwind slope of the mountain receives less rainfall.
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Bodies of Water - because it takes more energy to heat water than land, areas closer to the coasts have temperatures that remain more constant. Ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream, and can also influence the climate of a region.
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