Date: Tuesday 13th June,2023

Topic: The factors that influenced Climate

Learning Objective:
Explain why climate varies so much from place to place.

Keywords: latitude, earth's tilt, prevailing wind, distance from the sea, altitude.

What is climate?
Climate is the description of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area or region. It
can be very different in different places, and in different months.

Why is climate so different in different places, and in different months?

Latitude- the main factor means how far a place is from the equator. It’s very cold at the
North and South Poles and very hot at the equator.

Earth’s tilt: Earth travels non-stop around the sun. It is tilted as it travels. In June, the northern
hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. So, we get more heat, we have summer. But by December,
it is tilted away from the sun. So, we get less heat. Its winter.

Altitude: Altitude refers to the height above sea level. Temperatures decrease with altitude.
There is a 1°C drop in temperature for every increase of 100m in height. This is because the air
is less dense in higher altitudes, so it isn’t as good as holding heat.

Prevailing wind: Prevailing winds are the dominant (main) wind direction in an area. In Britain
the prevailing wind is from the southwest, which brings warm, moist air from the Atlantic
Ocean. This contributes to the frequent rainfall.

Distance from the sea: Oceans heat up and cool down much more slowly than land. This
means that coastal locations tend to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter than places
inland at the same latitude and altitude.