What is climate?

 Climate is the long-term pattern of weather in a particular

area.
 Climate is the name for the general conditions of
temperature and precipitation for an area over a long
period of time.
 The climate of any region on the Earth is determined
by two basic factors: temperature and precipitation.
 A region’s weather patterns, usually tracked for at least 30
years, are considered its climate.
 In the climate of any place; variables that are commonly
measured are temperature, humidity, atmospheric
pressure, wind, and precipitation
 The climate of a location is affected by its latitude,
terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies
and their currents.
What's the difference between
weather and climate?
 Weather is what the forecasters on the TV news predict
each day. They tell people about the temperature,
cloudiness, humidity, and whether a storm is likely in the
next few days. That’s weather! It is the mix of events
that happens each day in our atmosphere. Weather is
not the same everywhere. It may be hot and sunny in
one part of the world, but freezing and snowy in
another.

 Climate is the average weather in a place over many

years. While the weather can change in just a few
hours, climate takes hundreds, thousands, even millions
of years to change.
The continent of Asia:-
 Asia has a wide variety of climate because of its
gigantic size. These climatic regions include
Verkhoyansk in Siberia which is the coldest place in
the world and Jacobabad in the Sind Province of
Pakistan, the hottest place in the world.
Cherrapunji in India is the wettest place in the
world and the driest deserts - Gobi (Tibet, Arabia
and Mongolia) - get approximately 25 cms of
annual rainfall.
 The 3 most important factors affecting the climate of
Asia include:-
 The Latitudinal extent of the continent
 The size of the continent
 Height and direction of the central mountain ranges
1.Latitude
2.Oceanicity
3.Openness to Moist
4.Elevation
OCEANICITY refers to the degree to
which the climate of a region is
influenced by a maritime airflow
from the oceans.
 SUMMER AND WINTER
CONDITIONS OF ASIA

 Winter: Winter season for most of Asia starts in

October and lasts till March. The Himalayas form
a climatic barrier against the bitterly cold
northerly winds thus protecting Southern Asia
from freezing temperatures. There is hardly any
rainfall in Asia during winter as most of the winds
are offshore.
 Summer: Summer in Asia begins in April and lasts
till June. The heat creates an area of low pressure
in the Central Asia attracting moisture laden
winds from surrounding areas and oceans.
 DISTRIBUTION OF ANNUAL RAINFALL OF ASIA
 As it is evident from the map, Asia has distinct
heavy, moderate and low rainfall regions.
 Areas of low rainfall: South-west Asia, Central
Asia, Siberia, plateaus of the Central Highlands
have low rainfall which is less than 50 cm per year.
 Areas of moderate rainfall: South-east Asia,
Central and Southern China, the Philippines,
Japan, northern parts of India fall in this category.
These regions get 100 cm to 200 cm of rainfall
every year.
 Areas of heavy rainfall: The Equatorial region, the
southern face of the Himalayas and parts of
South-east Asia get the direct onslaught of rain
bearing winds. It is more than 200 cm per year.
 Climatic Regions of Asia
 1) TROPICAL MONSOON CLIMATE
 This type of climate is found all over India, Bangladesh,
Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea,
Southern China, parts of southern Japan and Pakistan.
 These areas generally remain hot with alternate wet
and dry seasons.
 During monsoon season, some of the regions receive
heavy precipitation.
 Winters across these regions remain dry except in a few
areas.
 The rainy season is quite distinct. And The pattern of
the monsoonal winds keep on chancing.
 2) TROPICAL DESERT CLIMATE OF ASIA
 This type of climate is experienced in the Thar
Desert of India and Pakistan, and in parts of
Iran and Arabia.
 It has extremes of hot and cold climate with a
large diurnal and annual range of temperature.
 The summers are quite hot and winters are
cool.
 The hot deserts are in the South-east Asia and
the cold deserts are in the central parts of Asia.
 Very little precipitation occurs in these
deserts.
 3) CHINA TYPE OF CLIMATE OF ASIA

 Northern and Central China, Japan and Korea

experience this climate.
 This climate is quite like that of tropical monsoon
except that it is colder during the winter with
occasional snowfall.
 The summers are warm andthe winters
are very cold.
 During the peak winter months, temperatures
fall below freezing point.
 Most of the rainfall occurs during summer, but
the winters sometimes have stormy gust.
 4) MID-LATITUDE TEMPERATE DESERT CLIMATE OF
ASIA
 It is found in the regions of the Gobi
desert and the Tibetan Plateau.
 It has hot and dry summers and freezing cold
winters.
 Moderate precipitation occurs in winter.
 5) MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE OF ASIA
 Western parts of Asia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and
Israel have this type of climate.
 It is characterized by warm dry summers
and cool wet winters.
 The name 'Mediterranean' has come from the fact
that this is a typical climate found around the
Mediterranean Sea and
occurs due to 'shifting of pressure belts’.
 There is moderate rainfall during the winter
months, which comes in short but heavy spells.
 6) STEPPS OR TEMPERATE GRASSLAND
CLIMATE OF ASIA
 This type of climate is found around the
Caspian Sea in Western Asia.
 Russia and Ukraine are the main
countries located here.
 It starts from the south of the taiga belt.
 Summers are warm and winters are cold.
Annual rainfall is low, (varying from 25 to
75 cm) and occurs in summers.
 Winters are cold and dry. Summer
temperature goes up to 20 degree C.
 7) TAIGA OR COLD TEMPERATE CLIMATE OF
ASIA
 Central Siberian region experiences this
kind of climate.
 It is located in the south of extremely
cold tundra belt.
 It has short, cool summers and long cold
winters.
 Precipitation, which occurs during
summer, is moderate but it helps in the
growth of trees as there is not much
evaporation.
 8) TUNDRA TYPE OF CLIMATE OF ASIA
 This type of climate prevails in Northern
Siberia along the northern coast of
Asia.
 It has long and very cold winters with
temperatures reaching below freezing
point.
 A short and cool summer occurs during
the months of May and June.
 This area remains under snow almost
all through the year.
The meaning of vegetation.
 plants in general; all the plants that are found in a
particular place
 Vegetation includes all plants from evergreen forests to grassy
meadows and cropland.
 All types of plants play a role in both the water cycle and the
earth’s energy balance.
 They affect weather and climate mostly through
evapotranspiration and albedo.
 Vegetation influences both albedo of the earth and the amount of water vapor
and carbon dioxide in the air.
Vegetation of Asia:
 An immense range of vegetation is found in Asia, the result of the
continent’s wide diversity of latitude, elevation, and climate.
 Tropical rain forest
 This type of the forest is the result of high
temperature and high rainfall.
 In Asia it is fond in the EQUATORIAL belts in
countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Parts of
Srilanka and coastal regions of India.
 These forest are characterised by dense growth
of plants and trees with tall heights and broad
leaves which are of evergreen types.
 Coastal regions have mangrove forest.
 The monsoon forest
 This type of forest are found in the monsoon tropical
areas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Burma,
Thailand, Indo-China, Southen China, and the Islands
of Taiwan, Hainan and western Philippines.
 The forest is characterised by a peculiar characteristics
where they shed their leaves in hot dry summer
season before the rainy season of monsoon, known as
deciduous trees.
 Many valuable trees are found here such as Teak, Saal,
rosewood, Deodar, Banyan, Sandalwood, Bamboo etc.
 The areas receiving low rainfall have thorny bushes and
scrubs along with varies of cactus and cactus.
Mixes sub-tropical forest;-
 This type of forest consist of trees
which are of evergreen type,
deciduous type and coniferous
types.
 These forest are found in the extra
tropical regions of Asia, in the central
and south China along with Japan
 These forest are dense and include rich
species like evergreen Oaks, Maple,
Walnut, Magnolia, Camphor and Bamboo.
 Mediterranean forest
 This is a typical type of forest which
is found around the Mediterranean
sea in countries like, Turkey,
Jordon, Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
 These areas have mild winters with
winter rainfall along with short dry
summers.
 Different verities of citrus fruits
specially, grapes, olive, orange,
lemons are grown in these areas.
The Steppes (grassland)
 This region extends form
Ukraine in the west to lake
Balkash into Siberia.
 It is a narrow belt and does not
experience much rainfall due to
distance from the sea.
 Therefore due to the less rainfall the
vegetation grows in the form of
grasses and not trees.
Tropical and Temperate forest

 In Asia both tropical and cold desert are found from Arabian
desert in the west to Gobi desert in the east.
• thar desert of India and Pakistan receive very less rainfall therefore
 the vegetation
Tropical /hot desertis :-in the
form of desert
Arabian cactus,
and and thorny bushes with stunted
grasses.

•  Temperate /cold desert :- these are found in the central part of Asia
lying north of tropic of Cancer. These areas are far from the effects of
ocean and are surrounded by the high mountains. Thus there is
almost no vegetation accept some short grasses and low thorny
bushes.
 Tundra:-
 This is a narrow region ling in the
northern shores of the continent.
 The region experience short dry
summers and long cold winters.
 The vegetation includes grasses,
shrubs, mosses, lichens and few
stunted trees.
Alpine/mountain vegetation
 Many parts of Himalayan mountains in the monsoon region
of Asia has a peculiar type of vegetation.
 Here the types of trees keeps on changing with the changing
heights.
 Known as vertical stratification of vegetation.
 It starts from tropical forest to temperate and then to Alpine
forest.
 The rhododendron forest is common which bloom
at late spring.