Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Florida Benchmarks
• SC.5.E.7.5 Recognize that some of the weatherrelated differences, such as temperature and
humidity, are found among different
environments…
• SC.5.E.7.6 Describe characteristics (temperature
and precipitation) of different climate zones as
they relate to latitude, elevation, and proximity to
bodies of water.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Climate vs. Weather
• Climate is the long-term weather patterns of a
place.
• Weather describes what the atmosphere is like at
a given time and place.
• Scientists find the climate of an area by averaging
weather conditions over 30 years or more.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• A climate zone is an area that has similar
average temperatures and precipitation
throughout.
• Three of Earth’s climate zones are tropical,
temperate, and polar.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• The tropical, temperate, and polar climate zones
are based on distance from the equator.
• The equator is the imaginary line that divides
Earth into its northern and southern hemispheres,
or halves.
• An area’s latitude, or distance from the equator,
determines what climate zone it is in.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• Tropical climates are found near the equator.
• The sun is directly overhead nearly all year. As a
result, the area gets a lot of direct heat.
• Temperatures in tropical climates are typically
greater than 18 °C.
• Tropical climates get different amounts of
precipitation.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• Temperate climates are found in the middle
latitudes.
• For most of the year, a temperate climate has
temperatures between 10 °C and 18 °C.
• Most temperate climates have four seasons.
• Temperate climates get different amounts of
precipitation.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• Polar climates are farthest from the equator. They
are found near Earth’s poles.
• Polar climates get little precipitation. They are
covered in snow and ice year-round.
• Temperatures in polar climates are typically less
than 10 °C.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Hot, Cold, and Medium
• Identify the tropical, temperature, and polar
climate zones on the map below.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Why Climates Differ
• Distance from the equator, elevation, closeness to
bodies of water, and landforms affect climate.
• Locations near the equator are warm, but high
elevations can make the climate cooler.
• Snowy mountaintops can be found in tropical
places because of elevation.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Why Climates Differ
• Water heats up and cools down more slowly than
land does.
• Places near the coast are often cooler in summer
and warmer in winter than places far away from
the ocean.
• The Gulf Stream is a current of warm ocean water
that affects the climate in North America and
Europe.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Why Climates Differ
• A rain-shadow effect can happen when wet air
rises and falls on the ocean side of a mountain,
creating a wet climate.
• As the air moves down the other side of the
mountain, it is dry. This creates a dry climate, or
rain shadow.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Why Climates Differ
• Describe the type of climate that occurs on each
side of the mountain in the diagram below.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Climate and the Environment
• Climate affects where organisms can live.
• Climate affects the nonliving parts of the
environment.
• Rain, wind, temperature, and other factors can
affect the land surfaces and the types of
organisms that can live in the area.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Desert
• A desert is a dry environment with temperatures
that vary greatly.
• Living things in deserts need to be able to survive
with little water.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Swamps
• Swamps can be fresh water, salt water, or both.
• Swamps occur in places where the ground cannot
soak in all the water that reaches the area.
• Temperatures can be very high in swamps for part
of the year.
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Unit 3 Lesson 6 What Factors Affect Climate?
Tropical Rain Forests
• Tropical rain forests are found in warm, wet
climates.
• The amount of sunlight in tropical rain forests is
nearly the same year-round.
• Vegetation covers most of the land in tropical rain
forests.
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