Climate and Weather - Climate Zones

Climate and Weather

People often complain about the weather, but they hardly ever complain about
the climate. “October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain
and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy
drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix). Writers and poets don’t write about the climate. And it’s easy to
understand why. You can see the weather just by looking out of the window. We
have to deal with the weather every day. But the climate is something much
harder to grasp.
Weather: is the momentary
When you get back from a holiday somewhere far from state of the atmosphere at

home, the first thing people want to know is how the a particular time or for a
limited period of time (a
weather was. But when you recommend friends to go on
day, a month, ...)
holiday in the same place, you will probably tell them: “The
climate there is very good”. Climate: is the average
state of the weather at a
What is the difference between weather and climate? particular place over a

The weather is the momentary state of what we call long period of time
(several decades).
“meteorological elements”, things that we hear about every
night on the TV weather forecast: temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure,
cloud cover, etc. When it turns cold for a week in the summer and rains so hard
that you don’t even want to poke your nose out of doors, that’s bad weather.

“Summers are hot and dry, while winters are cool and wet with very rare
snowfalls”. That is a brief description of the Mediterranean climate. As Mark
Twain wrote, “climate is what we expect, weather is what we get”. You can’t
see the climate just by looking out of the window!

Main features of climate:

• air temperature and its change depending on the season
• the amount and the time of precipitation (rain and snow) during the year
• how air masses move
• prevailing and other winds.

People who live in Ireland say jokingly, “Ireland has a wonderful climate,
but it’s spoilt by the weather”. Ireland is a country located on a large island
off the coast of Western Europe. The weather in Ireland is very changeable,
but the winters are mild and the grass is green all year round. Because of
this, Ireland is often called the “Emerald Isle”.

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 Climate map of Europe (by W. Köppen).

Observation, study and forecasting of the weather is An air mass is a large piece of the
atmosphere where there is
the subject of a special science, called meteorology.
roughly the same air temperature,
The science that studies the climate is called
pressure and quantities of water
climatology. vapour throughout the mass.

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Types of climate and climate zones
Different parts of the Globe have different climates. In northern countries, when
people look out of the window during winter and see snow everywhere, they are
keen to go on holidays to tropical countries, where one can enjoy hot weather
and swim in the warm sea all year round.

Since ancient times, scientists have divided Earth into climate zones depending
on the height of the sun above the horizon and the length of the day. The word
“climate” comes from the Greek language in which it refers to the angle of
inclination of the sun.

Differences in the climate on our planet are primarily due to the fact that the
sun’s heat is distributed unevenly over the Earth’s surface. Nearness of the sea,
atmospheric circulation, patterns of precipitation and other so-called “climate-
forming factors” also have a major role in determining climate, and they, in turn,
depend much on geographical latitude and on height above sea level. Areas with
similar climates are like broad stripes encircling the Globe. They are what the
scientists call “climate zones” and they give way to each other further away
from the Equator towards the poles.
The Earth’s Climates (by B. Allisov).

The most well-known classification of climates was introduced by Köppen in

A - Tropical, B - Dry, C -
1884. He divided the climates into five main types:
Temperate, D - Continental, E - Polar and Alpine.
Another system of climate classification was created by Alisov in 1950s. This
classification distinguishes four main climate zones in each hemisphere of the
Earth as well as three transitional zones.

The main climate zones are: Equatorial, Tropical, Temperate and Polar
(Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic in the Southern Hemisphere).
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 They are considered to be the main climate zones since each of them is
dominated throughout the year by one and the same air Climate zones are areas with
masses, which are typical of these climate zones. a relatively uniform climate.

Between the main climate zones there are transitional zones: sub-equatorial, sub-
tropical and sub-polar (sub-arctic in the Northern Hemisphere, and sub-antarctic
in the Southern Hemisphere). All of the names of transitional climate zones have
the prefix “sub”, which in Latin means “under”.
The seasons in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres are directly opposite: from December to
February, when the Northern Hemisphere is in its cold season, the Southern Hemisphere has full summer,
and when the Northern Hemisphere is at its coldest, the Southern Hemisphere is at its hottest.

The air masses in transitional climate zones change with the seasons, entering
them from neighbouring zones at various times of the year. In a sub-tropical
climate, the summer is hot, like in the tropics, but the winter is cool, since the
tropical air mass is displaced by an air mass from the temperate zone.

Some climate zones contain specific climate regions with a continental, maritime
or monsoonclimate.

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BriEf DescRiptioN Of DiFFeRenT cLiMaTeS
Equatorial climate is marked by hot and moist equatorial air masses. Air
temperature is constant (+24–28 °C) and there is much rain throughout
the year (from 1500 to 5000 mm). Rain falls faster than water can
evaporate from the ground, so the soil in an equatorial climate is
waterlogged and covered by a dense and high rainforest. An
equatorial climate is found in northern parts of South America, the coast of the
Gulf of Guinea, in the Congo river basin and the headwaters of the Nile in Africa,
over the greater part of the Indonesian archipelago and the adjacent parts of
the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Asia.

Sub-equatorial climate is marked by a rainy season in the summer,

followed by a cool and dry season in the winter. Rainfall in a sub-
equatorial climate is very uneven through the year. (In the city of
Conakry, Guinea, there is just 15 mm of rain in December-March, but
3920 mm from June to September). This type of climate is found in some parts
of the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean, as well as in South Asia and
tropical regions of Africa and South America.

Tropical climate is dominated by anticyclones with high pressure, giving

clear weather nearly all the year round. There are two seasons: warm
and cold. Temperatures can vary from +20 °C on the coast to +50 °C
in the interior. The temperature can also vary greatly within a single
day: on a summer afternoon the air heats up to +40–45 °C, but it cools down at
night to +10–15 °C. Deserts are often found in tropical climates, and the largest
of them is the Sahara Desert in Africa. Deciduous forests (forests that lose their
leaves in the winter) and savannas are common in wetter regions. Mexico, North
and South Africa, Central Australia and the Arabian Peninsula have a tropical
climate.

Sub-tropical climate is found in regions between tropical and temperate

latitudes, from about 30 to 45° north and south of the Equator. These
regions are marked by hot, tropical summers and fairly cool winters.
The average monthly temperature in summer is above +22 °C and in
winter above -3 °C, but the arrival of air from polar regions in winter time may
cause temperatures to drop as low as -10 to -15 °C, and occasionally even as far
as -25 °C. This type of climate is typical for the Mediterranean, South Africa,
Southwestern Australia and Northwestern California.

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Temperate climate is found in so-called temperate latitudes (from 40–45°
north and south of the Equator as far as the polar circles). In the
Northern Hemisphere more than half of the temperate zone is
occupied by land rather than sea. But 98% of the temperate zone in
the Southern Hemisphere consists of ocean. This climate is marked
by frequent and severe weather changes due to cyclones. Its main feature is the
division of the year into four seasons, of which one is cold (winter), one is warm
(summer) and the other two (spring and autumn) are transitional. The average
temperature in the coldest month is usually below 0 °C, and in the warmest
month it is above +15 °C. The ground is covered by snow in the winter. Prevailing
westerly winds bring rain and snow throughout the year, with rainfall and
snowfall varying from 1000 mm in coastal areas to 100 mm deep inland.

Sub-polar (sub-arctic, sub-antarctic) climate is found between

Arctic temperate climate zones in the Northern Hemisphere. This
climate is marked by air masses at moderate temperature in the
summer and cold air masses from the Arctic in the winter. The
summers are short and chilly, with air temperature in July rarely
above +15 °C by day and dropping to between 0 and + 3 °C at night, and a chance
of frosty nights through the summer. In winter the temperature by day and night
is -35–45 °C. The landscape in a sub-arctic climate consists of tundra and forest
tundra, the soil is marked by permafrost, and there are few plants and animals.
The north of Russia and Canada, Alaska, South Greenland and the far north of
Europe have a sub-arctic climate. A sub-antarctic climate is found in the Southern
Hemisphere between the temperate and Antarctic zones. The greater part of the
sub-antarctic zone consists of ocean. Annual rain and snowfall in these regions
is up to 500 mm.

Polar climate is found to the north of 70° lat in the Northern Hemisphere
(Arctic climate) and to the south of 65° lat in the Southern
Hemisphere (Antarctic climate). Polar air masses are dominant all
the year round. The sun does not appear above the horizon for
several months, this period is called the “polar night” and during
some other months it does not set beyond the horizon, “midnight sun” or “polar
day”. Snow and ice reflect more heat than they absorb, so the air is very cold
and the snow never melts. Atmospheric pressure is high all the year round
(anticyclone), so winds are weak and there are almost no clouds. There is very
little snowfall, the air is full of small icy needles and a water haze often occurs
in the summer. The average temperature in summer is below 0 °C, and in winter
it is between -20 and -40 °C.

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