CLIMATE AND WEATHER

The Climate of a place is its usual weather over a long period of time. The weather can change from day to day, but the climate stays the same. Our world can be divided into regions, which share the same climate.

The Sun gives our world light and heat. The heat is strongest around the middle of the world. This means that the regions near the Equator and the two tropics are hot most of the time. The Sun’s heat is much less near the poles; therefore the climate there is very cold.

Mount Kilimanjaro     (in Tanzania)

  The Seven Summits

The wetness, wind, heat and cold in the air is called weather. When we talk about weather we talk about temperature (cold/hot) and the humidity (wet/dry). We also talk about rain; some places have rain almost everyday and other places do not get a drop for several years. Cold places get snow instead of rain.

Weather has a big effect on our lives. It affects the way we dress, the houses we live in and the things we do. Bad weather causes serious problems and disasters. Hurricane, Blizzard, Drought and Flood are kinds of bad weather.

Natural Disasters

L   What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a severe storm. To be called a hurricane, a storm must have wind speeds of at least 120 km an hour. A hurricane can tear up big trees and tear down houses.

L   What is a blizzard?

A blizzard is a severe snow storm with strong winds.

L   What is a drought?

A long period when there is little or no rain.

L   What is a flood?

A flood occurs when a body of water rises and overflows onto neighbouring normally dry land. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of those exceeds the carrying capacity of the river system, lake or ocean into which it runs.

Facts about Disasters

Hurricane:

A hurricane can last for more than two weeks as it travels across the ocean and up a coastline.

Blizzard:

Blizzards are winds over 35 miles per hour with snow and blowing snow reducing visibility to near zero.

Flood: July 2004

The worst monsoon flooding in fifteen years in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh left up to 5 million homeless, and killed more than 1500 people with at least 600 in Bangladesh.

Drought:

The West African Sahel drought, which began in the late 1960s and lasted until the early 1980s, was the worst drought of the 20th century.

Where does rain come from?

Rain comes from the water vapours of seas and oceans. The water vapours rise up to meet the cold layers of the atmosphere, which lead to formation of clouds. The wind moves the clouds. These get bigger and bigger, until they can’t carry it any more, and drop all the water in them. This is how we get rain.

What is atmosphere?

Long ago, people believed that the sky was a shiny metal roof stretched over the earth. But, now we know that the sky really is not a shiny metal. It is simply air (a covering of air around the Earth). Air is wrapped around the Earth in the same way as the skin of an orange is wrapped around the fruit inside. The wrapper of air is called atmosphere.