Weather and Climate
Weather refers to the atmospheric conditions at a certain time or over a certain short period in a given area. It is described by a number of meteorological phenomena that include atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, sunshine, cloudiness, and precipitation. In contrast, climate refers to long-term, cyclic or seasonal patterns of temperature, precipitation, winds, etc.
Climates are often defined in terms of area, latitude, altitude, or other geophysical features. Although there are thousands of microclimate variations, climates can essentially be broken down into four basic types. Hot, moist climates feature high rainfall with often intense and rapid chemical weathering. Cold, moist climates still feature chemical weathering but because of the lower temperature, the rates are dramatically reduced from those encountered in hot, moist climates. Cold, dry climates feature the least weathering but mechanical weathering (e.g., ice wedging) does produce slow landscape evolution. Hot, dry climates often have intense mechanical weathering pressures (e.g., wind, sand-blasting, etc).
The effects of weather also contribute in shaping Earth's surface features. The impact of weather is most pronounced during the occurrence of extreme weather situations, such as prolonged periods of heat, cold, rain, drought, and smog conditions. In addition, shorter but intense events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, winter blizzards, freezing rain, and floods also produce often-dramatic effects on both the social and geologic landscape.
This page contains 201 words.
Weather and Climate article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,724 words
(approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Weather Article
