Climate Zones

Climate zones are largely

determined by 2 factors:

Temperature
and
Rainfall
 Using data from
temperature and rainfall,
we can make
climographs
 Check these 2 graphs.

How are they different?

What do we know about

weather/climate? Which area of
the world could these be from?
Areas that have similar rainfall
and temperature will share a
similar climate zone.
The Köppen Climate Classification System
The most widely used for classifying the
world's climates.

Köppen divided the Earth's surface into

climatic regions that generally coincided
with world patterns of vegetation and
soils.
 The Köppen system recognizes
five major climate types based on
the annual and monthly averages
of temperature and precipitation.
Each type is designated by a
capital letter.
A, B, C, D, E
Further subgroups are designated
by a second, lower case letter
which distinguish specific
seasonal characteristics of
temperature and precipitation.
Af, Aw, Bs….
To further denote variations in
climate, a third letter was
added to the code.

These letters usually correspond to

information about certain months or
about max and min temperature or
rainfall.
Abf, Cws, ….
You will not have to memorize all
of the letters, but you may have to
use charts to look them up
There are 3 basic climate groups
Group I
Low-latitude Climates

Group II
Mid-latitude Climates

Group III
High-latitude climates
 Group I
Low-latitude Climates:
Tropical Moist Climates (Af) rainforest

Wet-Dry Tropical Climates (Aw) savanna

Dry Tropical Climate (BW) desert biome

 Tropical Moist Climates

• Average temperature range around 20o - 30o C

• Annual Precipitation: 262 cm. (103 in.)
• Latitude Range: 10° S to 25 ° N
• Global Position: Amazon Basin; Congo Basin of equatorial
Africa; East Indies, from Sumatra to New Guinea.
 Wet-Dry Tropic Climates

• Temperature Range: ~18 °C--25 °C

• Annual Precipitation: 0.25 cm. (0.1 in.). All months less than
0.25 cm. (0.1 in.)
• Latitude Range: 15 ° to 25 ° N and S
• Global Range: India, Indochina, West Africa, southern Africa,
South America and the north coast of Australia
 Dry Tropical Climate (BW)

• Average Annual Temperature (oC) = 22.8

• Annual Precipitation: 0.25 cm (0.1 in). All months less than 0.25 cm
(0.1 in).
• Latitude Range: 15° - 25° N and S.
• Global Range: southwestern United States and northern Mexico;
Argentina; north Africa; south Africa; central part of Australia.
Monsoon Tropical Climate (Am)

Located usually between 10 and 25o N or S of the equator

Average temperature around 26oC
Has high annual rainfall but most of it occurs in the rainy season
 Mid-latitude Climates:
• Dry Midlatitude Climates (BS) steppe

• Mediterranean Climate (Cs) chaparral biome

• Dry Midlatitude Climates (Bs) grasslands

biome
 Dry Midlatitude Climates

• Temperature Range: 24° C (43° F).

• Annual Precipitation: less than 10 cm (4 in) in the driest regions
to 50 cm (20 in) in the moister steppes.
• Latitude Range: 35° - 55° N.
• Global Range: Western North America (Great Basin, Columbia
Plateau, Great Plains); Eurasian interior, from steppes of
eastern Europe to the Gobi Desert and North China.
 Rain forests are characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum
normal annual rainfall between 1,750 millimetres (69 in) and 2,000 millimetres (79 in).

Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C (64 °F) during all months of the year.
 You can imagine that each
climactic zone also share some
natural features.

What kind of natural features

would these places share to
some degree?