Geography Climate Air Movements Hurricanes

Climate The best-known and most used system for climate classification is the Koppen Climate Classification System, which is based on average temperature and precipitation in a region. Much of the Southeastern United States is dominated by a humid subtropical (Cfa) climate. Some of the rainiest places in the world are located on forested mountain slopes, especially rain forests. The polar tundra is the treeless climate found almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. Af and Am climates form a discontinuous belt on both sides of the intertropical convergence zone.

The two most important elements in a climactic description are temperature and precipitation. The climate of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area is classified as Mediterranean or mid-latitude dry (Cs) According to the Koppen climate classification system, the moist severe winter climates (D) are not found in the Southern Hemisphere (from http://www.geofictie.nl/ctkoppe2.htm).

Cape Verde Hurricanes develop into tropical storms near the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa and become hurricanes before reaching the Caribbean; they usually occur in August and September (from http://www.atl.ec.gc.ca/weather/hurricane/hurricanes9.html). 10. A sub-tropical cyclone is a low pressure system that combines features from tropical and mid-latitude cyclones, and which can evolve into tropical cyclones, or hurricanes (from http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=subtropical-cyclone1). 11.

Tropical cyclone winds rotate counter-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere because of the patterns of wind flow affected by the Coriolis force. 12. Tropical cyclones are classified according to their wind speed; to be a hurricane a tropical storm must have winds of 118 kilometers an hour or more.