Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitor the effects of these types of changes to determine how they may influence our weather each year.
Can people live in a torrid zone?
The ancient Greeks divided the world into climatic zones that were not accurate. The three zones included frigid, temperate, and torrid. They believed that civilized people could only live in the temperate zone (which, of course, was centered around Greece). From Europe northward was part of the inhospitable frigid zone, while most of Africa was torrid. Unfortunately, this three-zone classification system stuck and was later expanded to five zones once the Southern Hemisphere was explored. People identify everything north of the Arctic Circle (near northern Russia) and south of the Antarctic Circle (near the coast of Antarctica) as frigid, everything between the tropics and the Arctic and Antarctic circles as temperate, and the zone between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as torrid.
Where does the name El Niño come from?
The phenomenon of El Niño was discovered by Peruvian fishermen who noticed an abundance of exotic species that arrived with the warmer water. Since this usually occurred around the Christmas season, they called the phenomenon El Niño, which means “the baby boy” in Spanish, in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. La Niña, the opposite cycle of El Niño, means “the baby girl.”
What are ice core samples and why are they important?
An ice core sample is a thick column of ice, sometimes hundreds of feet long, that is produced by drilling a circular, pipelike device into thick ice and then pulling out the cylindrical piece. Ice core samples from places like Greenland and Antarctica provide scientists with important clues about past climates. Air trapped in the ice remains there for thousands of years, so when scientists collect ice cores, they can analyze the air to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere at the time the ice was formed. Sediments and tiny bugs are also found in the ice and provide additional clues to the state of the natural world at the time the ice was first deposited.
What is continentality?
Areas of a continent that are distant from an ocean (such as the central United States) experience greater extremes in temperature than do places that are closer to an ocean. These inland areas experience continentality. It might be very hot during the summer, but it can also get very cold in winter. Areas close to oceans experience moderating effects from the ocean that reduce the range in temperatures.
What are the horse latitudes?
Horse latitudes are high-pressure regions, more formally known as subtropic highs, which are warm and don’t have much wind. Legend has it that the lack of wind sometimes caused sailors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to throw their horses overboard in an effort to conserve water on board. That’s how the region, centered around 30° latitude, got its name.
How does land turn into desert?
The process known as desertification is complicated and results from such activities as overgrazing, inefficient irrigation systems, and deforestation. It is most widespread in the Sahel region of Africa, a strip of land along the southern margin of the Sahara Desert. The Sahara grows larger because of desertification. Desertification can be reversed by changing agricultural practices and by replanting forests.
As water use rises due to agriculture and increasing populations, lakes and even small seas are disappearing. The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, for example, has almost disappeared over the last fifteen years.
What are Fahrenheit and Celsius?
Fahrenheit and Celsius are two common temperature scales used throughout the world. Temperature in Fahrenheit can be converted to Celsius by subtracting 32 and multiplying by five; divide that number by nine, and you have Celsius. Conversely, you can convert Celsius to Fahrenheit by adding 32, multiplying by nine, and finally dividing by five. Kelvin, a system used by scientists, is based on the same scale as Celsius. All you have to do is add 273 to your Celsius temperature to obtain Kelvin. Zero degrees Kelvin is negative 273° Celsius.
What is a low high temperature and a high low temperature?
When meteorologists look at daily temperature, there is always a low and a high temperature for each day. If the high temperature is the coldest high temperature for that day or for the month, you have a new record—a new low high. Conversely, if the low temperature for a day is quite warm and breaks records, that’s a new high low!
Why is it hotter in the city than in the countryside?
Cities have higher temperatures due to an effect known as the urban heat island. The extensive pavement, buildings, machinery, pollution from automobiles, and other things urban cause an increase in warmth in the city. Cities such as Los Angeles can be up to five degrees hotter than surrounding areas due to the urban heat island effect. The term comes from temperature maps of cities where the hotter, urban areas look like islands when isotherms (lines of equal temperature) are drawn.
What are some world weather records?
The following are some amazing weather records. The wettest: Cherrapunji, and the town of Mawsynram nearby in India, near the border of Bangladesh, have the highest average rainfall per year in the world, averaging 467 inches (11,872 mm); the coldest: the East Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica, with a measurement of –136° Fahrenheit (–93.2° Celsius); the driest: Dry Valleys of Antarctica which receives 0 inches (0 centimeters) of rainfall per year; and the hottest: Lut Desert, Iran, which has sizzled at 159.3° Fahrenheit (70.7° Celsius) in five of the seven years from 2004 to 2009.
Why is it more likely to rain in a city during the week than on the weekend?
Urban areas have an increased likelihood of precipitation during the workweek because intense activity from factories and vehicles produce particles that allow moisture in the atmosphere to form raindrops. These same culprits also produce warm air that rises to create precipitation. A study of the city of Paris found that precipitation increased throughout the week and dropped sharply on Saturday and Sunday.
What does a 40% chance of rain really mean?
When the morning weather report speaks of a 40% chance of rain, it means that throughout the area (usually the metropolitan area), there is a four in ten chance that at least 0.001 of an inch of rain (0.0025 centimeters) will fall on any given point in the area.
Why is it more wet on one side of a mountain than the other?
It’s much more wet on one side of a mountain than the other because of a process known as orographic precipitation. Orographic precipitation causes air to rise up the side of a mountain range and cool off, creating storms. The storms deposit a great deal of precipitation on that side of the mountain and create a rain shadow effect on the opposite side of the range. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are an excellent example of orographic precipitation because the mountains of the western Sierras receive considerable rainfall (far more than California’s Central Valley), while the eastern Sierras are quite dry.
Why are there so many discrepancies in the world records of weather?
The discrepancies in the data reflect the length of time that we use to measure weather phenomena. Some records were set by observing the weather over decades; others only occurred during the span of a few years,
