PENNSVALLEY
14
COPYRIGHT
Lesson 11:
What Is The Difference
BetweenWeather and Climate?
Two other physical features that are used to describe a place or region are its weather and
climate.
Weather
is something you can see and feel in your natural outdoor environment each day.
Climate
is the average and usual weather an area receives over many years. Climate includes the
temperature, wind, and precipitation an area receives.
Climates throughout the world are shown as climatemaps or climate zones.
LLBmeans Lesson
Look Back
(LLB=Lesson 4)
.
Remember, we learned about tropical, temperate, and polar climate
zones.The typeof climate inany locationdepends upon several physical features.For example, if you
were climbing amountain in the tropical region, you could run into snow. Therefore, elevation is one
feature that affects climate andweather.Higher elevations contain less oxygen on earth. Less oxygen
means that the air does not absorb asmuch heat from the sun’s energy.
Another physical feature that affects the type of climate we receive is how far away from the
Equator we live
(LLB=Lesson 4)
.
Remember, the Earth is tilted on its
axis 23-1/2degrees.While the earth
is rotating on its axis, it is also
revolving around the sun. That is
why we have seasons everywhere
except between the Tropics of
Cancer andCapricorn.
How does this happen? The
sun’s heat energy (rays of light) are
more direct in the tropical region.
These rays of light heat the earth’s
curved surface.Thismeans that the sun’s energy is spread over a greater surface beyond the tropical
region. By the time the sun’s energy reaches our polar regions, much less heat is available to warm
these regions.The diagram on this page helps to explain these ideas.
Onemoremain physical feature can really affect our climate.That feature is the distancewe live
froma largebody of water, suchas theoceanor theGreat Lakes.Because largebodies of water heat
up and cool down slowly, they can keep temperatures cooler in the summer andwarmer in thewinter.
On the other hand, if you live farther away from larger bodies of water, you can have verywarm sum-
mers and coldwinters. Also, oceans have coldandwarm currents flowing through them. The cold cur-
rent off the shore of SanFrancisco can bring a summer’s day temperature of 70
0
. On the same day,
Sacramento, California, which is 75miles inland, could have over 100
0
heat!
ACTIVITY 1:
List at least threephysical features that couldaffect the climate ina location. Thinkof features that can
change theweather.
1.
2.
3.
Sun’sEnergyRays
earth’s
imaginary axis
much less heat
less heat
more heat
Geography Skills
