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The Meaning of Climate
– Climate is the average weather in a given area over a longer period of time, typically averaged over a period of 30 years. Or,
– Climate is the average weather conditions of an area observed and recorded over a long period of time (about 30 years)
Some of the meteorological variables that are commonly measured are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, and precipitation.
In a broader sense, climate is the state of the components of the climate system, which includes the ocean and ice on Earth. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents.
The scientific study of climate is called climatology and a person who studies climate is called climatologist.
Climate change is any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate variables such as temperature, precipitation, pressure, or wind sustained over several decades or longer.
Climate change can be due to natural external forcings (changes in solar emission or changes in the earth’s orbit, natural internal processes of the climate system) or it can be human induced.
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| Good Climate |
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
The weather should not be equated with climate, though they are very closely related to each other in the study of meteorology and climatology.
Weather is the conditions of the atmosphere which occur at a place at specific time period from hour to hour or day to day. The weather should not be equated with climate, though they are very closely related to each other in the study of meteorology and climatology.
For example when we say climate of Tanzania is hot wet equatorial climate that is the summing up of the average everyday weather conditions of the country throughout the year.
Climate is the average weather conditions of an area observed and recoded over a long period of time (about 30 years). This involves systematic observation, recording and processing of the various elements of climate such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, air pressure, winds, clouds and sunshine before any standardization of the climatic means or average can be arrived at.
The Difference between Weather and Climate
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere “behaves” over relatively long periods of time.
When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather.
For example: Today, children always hear stories from their parents and grandparents about how snow was always piled up to their waists as they trudged off to school. Children today in most areas of the country haven’t experienced those kinds of dreadful snow-packed winters, except for the Northeastern U.S. in January 2005. The change in recent winter snows indicate that the climate has changed since their parents were young.
The table below summarizes these differences.
Weather |
Climate |
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| a. | Describes the atmospheric conditions at a specific place and time. | Describes the average atmospheric conditions of a place over a specific period of time. |
| b. | Weather is defined as the day to day state of the atmosphere, and it is short-term (minutes to weeks) variation. | Climate is defined as statistical weather information that describes the variation of weather at a given place for a specified time interval. |
| c. | Weather conditions are measured over a short period e.g. a few hours or days. | Climate conditions are measured over many years, e.g., 30 years. |
| d. | Determined by real time measurements of atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, humidity, precipitation, cloud cover, and other variables. | Determined by averaging weather data over periods of 30 years. |
| e. | Weather changes abruptly within a short period. | Climate changes slowly and gradually over many years. |
| f. | Weather varies from one place to another within a region. | Climate remains uniform over a large area. |
| g. | Most weather elements are measured by weather instruments. | Climatic elements are not measured but calculated from the recorded weather data. |
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| Bad Climate |
Factors Influencing Climate
1. Latitude – Influences temperatures on the surface of the earth whereby the areas nearer to the Equator experience higher temperature than those far away. -Shifting of the overhead position of the sun is determined by latitudes and has an influence on climate.
2. Altitude – Influences temperature and pressure of a region. Low altitude regions are warmer and experience high atmospheric pressure while high altitude areas are cooler and have low pressure.
3. Distance from the sea – Has an influence in both temperature and rainfall of a region. During summer onshore winds have cooling effect on the land which is warm. During winter the sea is warmer than the land.
4. Aspect – Aspect refers to the direction in which a slope faces e.g: in The Northern Hemisphere, the Southern ward slopes are warmer than the North ward facing slopes. This is because the North slopes never receive direct sunshine as the sun in this region never gets overhead. Windward slopes of highlands receive much higher rainfall than the Leeward slopes.
5. Ocean Currents – Current flowing along the Coasts tend to modify the climate of the Coastal regions. Where onshore wind blow over a cold ocean current are cooled from the below and the moisture they are carrying is condensed and dropped over the sea as rain.
6. Prevailing Winds – Wind is a medium of transfer of heat and moisture over the land. If wind is blowing from a warm region, it has the warming effects over the region it is blowing across and if wind will blow from cold region it will be cold and will cool the land over which it is blowing.
7. Human Activities – Like development of settlements, agriculture and construction of dams and creation of manmade lakes have influence on climate. In recent times we are realizing the effects of human activities in causing climate change, caused by:
– clearing of forests
– draining and cultivating swamp areas
– emission of Chlorofluorocarbons and
– other gases from factories and motor vehicles.
Climate and Natural Regions
Relationship between Climate and Human Activities
Climate has many impacts to human activities. Various economic activities conducted by man in different parts of the world are governed by the type of climate experienced in a particular region.
For example, people living in deserts and semi-arid regions do not practice much agriculture because their environment does not favour crop cultivation or animal husbandry.
In these regions, however, a very limited agriculture and animals rearing is conducted. The animals kept include camels, goats, sheep, donkeys and other hardy animals. Only drought resistant crops such as dates are grown in deserts and arid areas.
In tropical and equatorial regions, a lot of agriculture is carried out. The inhabitants of these regions take part in cultivation of crops and keeping of animals. Crops grown include cocoa, banana, horticultural crops and grains.
The animals kept in these climatic zones include cattle, pigs, donkeys, horses, poultry and other farmyard animals. Specific types of various economic activities carried out in each climatic region will be discussed in detail in the section below.
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| Good climate supports agriculture |
