Climates

What is a climate?

Is it weather? Is it rain? Is it a hot day in July? Click here for the answer


World climates: can you place them on the map? Click here for the game!


Let's look at two examples of very different climates, the Mediterranean or Dry Summer Subtropical climate and the Tropical Rainforest climate.


We'll start with the Tropical Rainforest climate. Take a look at this:

Lat/Long = 3.39^o S, 73.18^o W
Average Annual Temperature (^oC) = 26.1
Annual Temperature Range (^oC) = 1.4
Total Annual Precipitation (mm) = 2879.2
Summer Precipitation (mm) =1583
Winter Precipitation (mm) = 1294.7

It rains all year and it's always warm. It's a tropical rainforest climate.

Rainforest in Costa Rica

Boa constrictors like warm, constant temperatures and lots of humidity.

Rain + sun = a rainforest rainbow!

Click here to Listen and see the tropical rainforest

Now, let's see a very different climate: The Mediterranean or Dry Summer climate, a subtropical climate.

Latitude/Longitude = 37.45^o N; 122.26^o W 
Average Annual Temperature (^oC) = 13.75 
Annual Temperature Range (^oC) = 9 
Total Annual Precipitation (mm) = 475 
Summer Precipitation (mm) = 54 
Winter Precipitation (mm) = 421


There are hot dry summers and colder winters with rain. It's a dry summer or mediterranean climate. It's a subtropical climate.


Here are some photos of La Seyne sur mer, in France. La Seyne has a Mediterranean climate.

Hot summers.

Colder winters with rain.