Climate is the average weather of a place over 30 years or more. Climate zones depend mostly on latitude: tropical near the equator, temperate in the middle latitudes and polar near the poles. Each zone supports typical biomes: tropical rainforest, desert, savanna, temperate forest, grassland, taiga (cold coniferous forest) and tundra.
A climate graph shows average monthly temperature as a line and average monthly rainfall as bars. From it you can work out the warmest month, the wettest month and the temperature range (warmest minus coldest). Rainforests have high temperatures and heavy rain all year; deserts have very little rain; tundra has long, very cold winters and a short, cool summer.
Worked example
A climate graph shows July 25 °C and January −5 °C. What is the annual range?
- Range = warmest − coldest.
- 25 − (−5) = 25 + 5.
Answer:The range is 30 °C.
Key words
- biome
- a large region with a typical climate, plants and animals
- climate graph
- shows monthly temperature and rainfall
- temperature range
- warmest minus coldest
- tundra
- cold, treeless land near the poles
New questions every time.
NGSS-referenced: MS-ESS2-6