Weather and Climate

Weather refers to an area's ​ (a)   atmospheric conditions. Weather includes amount of sunshine, precipitation, cloud cover, ​ (b)   (amount of water vapor in the air), wind, floods, ice, and temperature. Weather can change in an instant and is often difficult to predict with precision.

• short-term
• humidity

​ (a)   refers to an area's long-term weather patterns. Climate usually refers to a set of ​ (b)   , including temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, and other atmospheric conditions occurring over a ​ (c)   period of time.

• Climate
• averages
• long

Weather is short-term, climate is long-term.

• True
• False

Climate can be influenced by many factors. A few effects are listed below.

Which one is not true?

• • Physical features, such as mountains, can block rain clouds.

• • Higher elevations can lead to colder average temperatures.

• • Global wind patterns can bring clouds and storms.

• • Latitude, or position north or south on the Earth, can determine the angle of the sun's rays, which leads to longer or shorter days.

• • Lower elevations can lead to colder average temperatures.

as air rises to higher elevations, it expands due to decreasing air pressure, causing it to cool down even though "hot air" initially rose; therefore, higher elevations are generally colder despite the principle of hot air rising.

• Air pressure increases at higher elevations, causing warming.
• Higher elevations are generally colder due to the cooling effect of expanding air.
• Hot air continues to rise indefinitely without cooling.
• Higher elevations are warmer due to increased sunlight exposure.

There are three climate zones: tropical, temperate, and polar. Climate zone depends on ​ (a)   and affects the average temperature and precipitation.

• latitude
• longitude

What are the three climate zones?

• Savanna, Tundra, Rainforest
• Arctic, Subarctic, Mediterranean
• Desert, Mountain, Coastal
• Tropical, Temperate, Polar

• Which zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees north latitude to the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south latitude. It is characterized by warm temperatures and large amounts of rainfall.

• Desert Zone
• Polar Zone
• Temperate Zone
• Tropical Zone

• Which zone extends from 23.5 degrees to 66.5 degrees north and south latitude. It is characterized by warm summers, cool winters, and moderate rainfall.

• Temperate zone
• Tropical zone
• Polar zone
• Desert zone

• Which zone extends from 66.5 degrees north and south latitude to the north and south poles. It is characterized by a short, cool summer, and a long, extremely cold winter and low amounts of precipitation.

• Polar zone
• Arctic zone
• Temperate zone
• Tropical zone