Climate Change §
Weather vs Climate §
- Climate: long term
- Weather: very short term
Factors of Weather §
- Temperature
- Humidity
- If humidity is too high, water vapour will fall as precipitation
- %r.h. - how much of a given vol of air is saturated with water vapour
- Rainfall - mm
- Wind
- Speed - m/s; km/h
- Direction - NSEW
Factors affecting Climate §
- Solar calendar
- 24h for earth to rotate on its axis
- 365 days for earth to orbit the sun
- Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees on its axis
- Earth is mostly spherical
- Angle of incidence of light rays are different
- At the equator the sunlight directly hits head on
- at the poles the angle is smaller
- Every 1km up, 6.5 degrees cooler
- Darker surfaces absorb more heat than lighter surfaces
- Proximity of coast