In winter, the sea cools more slowly than the land. Warm winds blow onshore, warming the coastal regions, but not places far from the sea. As a result, places along the coast are warmer than places in the interior of continents.


The effects of the sea on temperature.


Because the sea evens out the differences between summer and winter temperatures, we say that it has a moderating effect on temperature.


Effect on rainfall


In some cases, places near the sea are wetter than places further from it. Warm, moist winds blowing from the sea to the land bring rain to coastal areas. By the time they reach further inland, they have often lost all their moisture and are dry. In these cases, places further from the sea will not have as much rain as places along the coast. However, rain can also form far inland for other reasons, so distance from the sea does not always affect the amount of rain a place receives.


Height above sea level (altitude)


Sea level is 0 m. Places on the coast, like Durban and Cape Town, are usually not many metres above sea level, while high mountains can be thousands of metres above sea level.


Effect on temperature


Places that are high above sea level are colder than places at sea level. Height above sea level is called altitude, so we can say that temperature decreases with altitude. In the picture alongside, the snow shows that is colder on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, nearly 6 000 m above sea level, than on the plains below. Mount Kilimanjaro is just 3º south of the equator, where such low temperatures only occur high above sea level.


New word


moderating effect: making something less extreme


Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa Unit 1 Factors that influence temperature and rainfall 51


TERM 2


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22