Climate and its changes play a vital role in the physical activity of an individual, and thus also affects the health of a person. Climate is defined as the average condition of weather in a longer period; it has peculiar definitions and meaning. Climate word has been originated from the Greek word and also from the earliest usage in English which means to be the atmospheric conditions over a zone.
Climate and weather are both different but are subordinates of each other. Weather is baptized as the condition of the atmosphere over a particular region, whereas climate invokes the weather pattern by adopting a long period of statistical data. Climatology is termed as a study of climatic shift and is a section of atmospheric science.
Table of Contents
Many compelling elements are responsible for the climate and weather of a geographical location, which are as follows:
- Temperature
- Atmospheric Pressure
- Wind
- Solar Irradiance
- Humidity
- Precipitation
- Topography
Factors affecting the climatic condition
Many factors affect the climate; here are six major factors that mainly play a role in affecting climatic conditions.
Latitude:
Latitude is a geographic coordinate about the North and South poles on earth’s periphery, it ranges from 00 at the Equator to 900 at the poles. It is used with Longitudes to determine the locations on the periphery of the Earth.
How does Latitude affect the Climate?
It has seen that the curvature of the Earth splits the amount of solar energy along the latitude that why it is seen that temperature decreases as we move away from the Equator and is seen minimum towards the poles of the Earth. The region from Tropic of Cancer to Tropic of Capricorn is termed as Torrid Zone, in this region, we receive more amount of solar energy and thus high-temperature region lies in this zone. If we go towards pole from both sides we have Temperate Zones, it is seen that the Temperate Zone has the Pleasant climate and most of the tourist destination in this world lies in this zone. As we go more away from this region we have the Frigid Zones which are the very coldest region on this earth.
Altitude:
Altitude or Height is a distance measured in the vertical direction between the reference datum and object; it is mostly used for the height above the sea level.
How does Altitude affect the Climate?
Altitude usually refers to height and it is seen that more we go above from the ground surface towards higher Altitude the temperature decreases. The reason behind this phenomenon is the decrease in the concentration of air molecules or it is also termed as thin air. It is seen that hills stations are at a higher altitude and are cool out there.
Pressure and Wind System:
Pressure here represents the atmospheric pressure which is seen everywhere, pressure is defined as the force applied by the molecules pushing on an area. The system of air movement around a given region is said to be a wind system.
How do Pressure and Wind system affect the Climate?
Pressure mainly constitutes of a high and low-pressure system, we know that air moves from high pressure to the low-pressure area. Let us take an example to understand this briefly, switch on the AC in your room and leave the door open and we will feel that the air over towards this door and thus is due to this phenomena only. We know that landmass gets heated faster than water bodies and due to this region, a low-pressure zone is created at the land surface and thus attracts cool air molecules from the sea which are at high pressure and thus causing the rainfall and change in the temperature.
Distance from the Sea:
It is the horizontal distance measured from the seashore.
How does distance from the sea affect the Climate?
If you are residing at the coastal areas there is a partial change in the weather conditions as there are winds continuously flowing from the seashores, but as we move away from the coastal areas we likely to see more changes in weather such as very hot during summer and very cold during winter and this condition is known as Continentality.
Ocean Current:
Ocean currents are an endless movement of seawater due to gravity, wind, and water density. The Direction of ocean water is seen in 2 directions that are in the horizontal and vertical direction. The horizontal direction of water is termed as ocean Currents and the vertical direction is termed as upwelling and downwellings.
How do ocean currents affect the Climate?
Ocean Current is the continuous movement of water from one place to another, ocean currents are created by the following parameters-
- Wind
- Water Temperature
- Salt content
- The gravitational pull of Sun & Moon
Generally, there are two types of ocean currents cold and warm ocean currents, warm currents are mostly seen close to the equatorial region and thus are found in abundance. This warm and cold current influence the local winds of the nearby landmass and thus causes a change in the climatic conditions; for example from the warm currents the landmass provide humid and hot climate.
Relief features:
Relief Feature is the feature related to the landscape of that particular region or can be termed as lower or higher elevations points. Example: Mountains, deserts, Valleys, altitudes, etc.
How do relief features affect the Climate?
The meaning of relief features in geography is typically high and low line areas. The high mountains act as barriers from the cold and hot winds; just like the Himalayas that protect us from the cold chili wind of the Arctic and due to these mountains precipitation takes place.
