Do you prefer living in a cold or hot climate?! Let’s learn five cool climates facts for kids.
The climate of a country is different from the weather of a country. Weather is changes in the atmosphere that occur daily. It could be sunny one day and rainy the next. Climate is a pattern of weather that occurs over a long period of time, such as years and centuries.
Climate is like weather but it is measured over a long time. If the climate is said to be dry, this means it experiences very little rain. If a dry climate gets rain for a couple of days, this does not change the climate, it still remains a dry climate. Deserts would be examples of dry climates.
There are many ways to describe the different types of climate. The five main names given to describe climate: tropical, dry, mild, cold, and polar. Hawaii and Brazil are examples of places that have a tropical climate. Mild climates describe Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Italy and Portugal. Russia and Canada would have cold climates. The Antarctic would be an example of a place with a polar climate.
The climate of a place can determine what kind of plants and animals can live in an area. For example, polar bears need a cold climate. They would not survive in hot or tropical climates as they need cold sea ice in order to live. Similarly, an alligator needs swamp and wet conditions and would not be able to survive in the desert. When climates start to change, animals and plants become endangered.
Climates can change over long periods of time. This change can happen naturally with the cycle of the Earth, however sometimes it is unnatural. Tsunamis, Hurricanes and Volcanoes are all natural disasters that can affect the climate and those that live in it. Humans have also had a huge impact on climate change. When we destroy habitats to create buildings, take part in deforestation or overhunting we destroy animals and plants homes and put them at risk.
When we burn fossil fuels we release greenhouse gases (CO2) into the air. When we cut down trees, we take away plants and trees that absorb CO2 from the air. These greenhouse gases destroy the ozone layer which protects the Earth. Climate change has meant that more ice caps are melting and we are experiencing more and more extreme temperatures.
Some countries experience extreme climates compared to the rest of the world. Let’s have a look at the wettest, driest, hottest and coldest places on the planet. The wettest place on Earth is Mawsynram inIndia which gets 11,871 mm of rain a year. The driest place on Earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile. The hottest place on Earth is Death Valley in California which has experienced temperatures of over 50 degrees C. The coldest place is Eastern Antarctica Plateau Station in Antarctica where the temperatures can reach -94 degrees C.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about climate as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic the climate is, you can move on to learn about other climate and weather stuff like: Beaches, Glaciers, Rainforests, Seasons and Lakes.
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