Climate is a major discipline that plays a vital role in our day-to-day, year-to-year life. It is therefore paramount to understand in depth what is climate because it plays a significant role in various activities of our lives ranging from agriculture, traveling programs, see and air travel, the arrangement of different calendar events among others.Besides we are currently living in an ever increasing global warming. From the research carried out, greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere causes global warming hence bringing about the climatic change. The change in climate may have serious implications such as consequences of food security as it also changes food production, reduced water sources, retarded health conditions for both human and wildlife, change in weather patterns and biodiversity. Moreover, it involves branches in climatology, the various types of weather experienced from all over the world and their distribution, the causes of climatic change, how to control these agents that causes or fuels climatic change and so much more.
Climate refers to the prevailing weather conditions of an area over a very long period of say ten years and above. What is then the difference between weather and climate then? While climate is the atmospheric condition of a place over an extended period climate is the daily weather condition of a given area for a short period. The main difference is that weather is a day-to-day affair while climate is reached at after a very long time of ten years and above. Therefore, climatology is now the study of climate: the study of the atmospheric conditions (Ashkanasy Doris, 2017). The atmosphere here is the thin gaseous layer that borders the earth’s surface. Even though the definition of climatology is acceptable, it does not bring the scope climatology fully. Climatology is a characterized science that incorporates data analysis, ideas from various scientists and theories from all over the earth regarding the earth-atmosphere-ocean system including those that are caused by man. Therefore, climatology is a science that is in the hunt for the explanation and description of the nature of climate, the reasons why it changes from place to place, how it is attached to other natural elements of the surrounding and activities of man.
There are various systems used in climate classification. They involve the Aridity index, Koppen climatic classification, Holdridge life zone classification, Trewartha climate classification, Vaht climate classification among others. According to Koppen climate classification, there exist five significant categories of the climatic zone that is experienced from all over the world. These climatic zones include; the tropical rainy climatic zones, the dry climatic zones, Warm temperate wet climatic zones, the polar climatic zones and lastly the snow-forest climates. The tropical rainy climatic zones experience an average temperature of the coldest month being eighteen degree Celsius (18oC). And enough rainfall over the year. In dry climatic regions, the rate of evaporation is high than the rate at which precipitation occurs.
This renders the region dry rendering it to either is a desert or semi-desert (Von Sperling & Lemos Chernicharo, 2017). The area has few or entirely lacks vegetation since the quantity of rain that falls on the part is insufficient in providing moisture for the plants. Since aridity is not solely based on the little amount of rainfall experienced but also the rate of evaporation experienced, a combination of data of temperature and precipitation is used in the classification of the dry climatic region. The warm temperate climatic zones experiences temperatures of not less than eighteen degrees centigrade (180C) and below in the coldest months but more than or equal to -30C. This climatic region is distinguished from the tropical rainy climatic regions by the existence of a cold season over which there exists at least one month that has an average mean temperature below 180C. The warm temperate climatic zone experiences more rainfall as compared to dry climatic zones (Von Sperling & Lemos Chernicharo, 2017.
Last but not least, the cold snow-forest climatic zones have their average temperatures of the month being not less than -30 C while the average temperature of the warmest month is not exceeding 100 C. This shows how cold these regions are. The zones have severe winter seasons as compared to other areas. Apart from that, they are also experienced with hot summers though on most occasions they are characterized by snow cover. Lastly, the Polar climatic zones experience the temperature of the warmest month being below 100 C. This type of climate mostly affects the regions that lie above and below the tropics: northerly and southerly parts of the earth. It is also experienced in some mountainous areas. Polar Tundra climate and Polar Frost climate are the recognized subdivisions of the polar environment. In Polar Tundra climatic zones, while the mean temperature of the warmest month is at below 100 C and above 00 C. The significant vegetation cover in the tundra climates are lichens, mosses and grasses and dwarf kind of trees are also found. It covers most regions of the north coast of Canada, Alaska, Eurasia and a small part of the northern area of Antarctic continent (Ashkanasy& Doris, 2017).
There exist various climatic controls. These are the factors that affects and influence the climate of a particular place. The most important control for both climate and weather being the unequal heating and cooling of the surrounding in different parts of the earth. The more specific controls are retrieved from the geographic conditions. One of the controls of climate is latitudinal variations in solar radiation. This is the most basic control that we have. In areas of low latitudes, the sun is high in the sky making the radiation to be intense causing the climate to be warm and tropical. In regions of high latitudes, the sun is lower in the sky making the solar radiation to be weaker hence leading to a cold climate.
The nature of the surface also affects the intensity and effectiveness of the solar radiation heating. Altitude is the other control. Regions that have higher elevations are likely to experience shallow temperature as compared to areas of lower elevations. This is because heat is affected by the altitude and therefore temperature usually decreases with an increase in altitude and increases with a decrease in altitude. The distribution of the ocean current also acts as a control of climate. Noncoastal areas will experience intense heating during the summer season as compared to oceanic and coastal regions because the land heats and cools rapidly at a faster rate as compared to the ocean (Von Sperling & Lemos Chernicharo, 2017).
Climate naturally varies, and it changes on many time scales with different regions experiencing different climatic zones discussed earlier. Some variances encountered include a situation whereby a hot and dry month without precipitation may be followed by months of mild rainfall or heavy precipitations and cold months. The time scales may also be for more prolonged periods of saying decades, centuries and above. When such longer time scales are experienced, data is retrieved from geological records. Although many of these variations in climate may be naturally induced by the processes that occur in the atmosphere and changes in the behavior of the ocean currents, some of the climatic differences arise due to the action of the human beings who are the occupants of the earth. Some of the human behaviors that cause climatic variations include industrialization, poor cultivation practices among others. The knowledge of understanding how and why there exist climatic variations is to enable us to identify how human conduct have affected climate and to look for ways of minimizing climatic change.
References
Ashkanasy, N. M., & Dorris, A. B. (2017). Organizational culture and climate.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2015). Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.
Von Sperling, M., & de Lemos Chernicharo, C. A. (2017). Biological wastewater treatment in warm climate regions (p. 857). IWA Publishing.
