New words
vapour: the gas form of a substance that is normally a liquid or solid
condenses: what happens when a gas cools down and changes into a liquid
sinks: goes down
Effect of latitude on rainfall
Air contains water in the form of a gas called water vapour. For rain to fall, the water vapour needs to condense, or change back into liquid, and form clouds. This happens when rising air cools. At certain latitudes, air rises; at other latitudes, air sinks down toward the Earth from high above it. There is more rain at latitudes with rising air than at latitudes with sinking air.
Look at the map below and read the information about how rainfall and latitude are linked.
World map showing movement of air
Distance from the sea Effect on temperature
Distance from the sea affects the temperature range at a place. The temperature range is the difference between the highest and lowest temperatures. Places near the coast have a smaller temperature range than places further from the sea. Moscow in Russia, for example, which is far from the sea, has a temperature range of 57 ºC! That is the difference between a summer temperature of 32 ºC and a low winter temperature of -25 ºC. Copenhagen, at a similar latitude, but on the coast, has a temperature range of 25 ºC, the difference between a summer temperature of 22 ºC and a winter temperature of -3 ºC. Look at the pictures on page 51 and read the labels to find out more about how distance from the sea affects temperature. In summer, the continents heat up much faster than the ocean. Cool winds from the ocean blow onto the coastal regions, cooling them down. Places further inland do not benefit from these cooling winds and so places in the interior of continents are much hotter than places along the coast.
50 Module 3 Climate regions
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