3.4 Climate of North America and the Caribbean

Climate

• chaparral
• deciduous
• hurricane
• livestock
• prairies
• tornado
• wetland

North America & the Caribbean

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Climate is the weather found in a place over a long period of time. You also learned that we can categorize the world into five basic climate zones including polar, continental, temperate, arid, and tropical. Look at the table below to review the basic characteristics of the climate zones. Then, answer the question below

What's Climate Again??

Click the spot that you think would most likely have a Tropical Climate.

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The areas of Northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland lie in the treeless, tundra, polar climate zone. The polar climate zone experiences many blizzards with high winds, heavy blowing snow, and low visibility. Look at the map to the right; the polar climate zone is shown in dark blue.

Polar

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Greenland

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Question!

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The northeastern United States and southern Canada have a humid continental climate, which means that the winters are cold, and the summers are hot and long. Snow usually covers this area during the winter months, especially closer to the Great Lakes.

Continental CLimate

Question!

Northern Pacific Coast

Central and Southern California

Southeast United States

Temperate Climate Areas

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A lot of the western and southwestern United States, parts of the Great Plains, and sections of Mexico have an arid, or dry, climate. The main characteristics of this climate zone are high temperatures and very little rainfall. Look at the map to the right. The arid climate zone is shown in yellow.

Arid Climate Areas

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Northern Pacific Coast

Barriers created by the Pacific mountain ranges force warm winds upward where they cool and then release precipitation. Certain parts of the northern Pacific coast can get up to 100 inches of rain in a year. The summers are clear and cool, and the winters are cloudy and rainy.

Biodiversity in North America: Click Here

Southeast United States

The southeastern United States has deciduous trees, or trees that lose their leaves each year, and forests found throughout the region. Hurricanes, large ocean storms with strong winds, are a big concern for people living in this region. They can cause really bad flooding and sometimes destroy entire towns.

In the temperate climate zone, temperatures can range from very warm to very cold. Usually, they do not go below 25 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter or below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. This area also has more seasons than the other climate zones.

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The Great Plains are one example of the continental climate you read about in a hotspot above. There is a lot of rainfall in this area, which creates prairies, or big, treeless fields of grass. In these prairies, the grasses can grow tall very quickly, sometimes up to 12 feet. This means that farmers have lots of food for their livestock, or animals like cattle or sheep raised on a farm for people to use for food and fiber. This also means that food crops can grow in large amounts.

In this climate zone, there is a greater chance of hurricanes and tornados with large amounts of rainfall possible. Remember that hurricanes occur over warm water. They form when warm air rises quickly and causes strong winds and storm conditions. This air then changes from gas to liquid and produces heavy rainfall and cool air blowing down to the ground. With the rotation of Earth, this creates a cyclone pattern.

The Great Plains are one example of the continental climate you read about in a hotspot above. There is a lot of rainfall in this area, which creates prairies, or big, treeless fields of grass. In these prairies, the grasses can grow tall very quickly, sometimes up to 12 feet. This means that farmers have lots of food for their livestock, or animals like cattle or sheep raised on a farm for people to use for food and fiber. This also means that food crops can grow in large amounts.

Central & Southern California

Vegetation in central and southern California consists of drought-resistant trees and chaparral, which are shrubs, bushes, and small trees. Widespread wildfires can occur more often because of the dryness of the area coupled with strong winds called the Santa Ana. But they are important to spread the seeds of many of these plants.

The continental climate area also has a lot of extreme thunderstorms and tornadoes, dangerous spinning wind storms. It is even nicknamed Tornado Alley. This is because the dry, cold air from Canada meets the warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and makes the atmosphere unstable. The winds from each of these directions clash and the air can start to spin into a tornado.

Wetlands, areas of land that are either covered by water or soaked with water, are found in many different climates. In the tropical climate zone, swamps are present and have a large variety of vegetation and wildlife. Another example of a wetland found in a tropical climate zone is a rainforest. They need the wet climates in this zone to grow.

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Polar Climate