Factors affecting climate

When I researched the topic there was a few key areas that I was aware of, yet had definitely not studied in great detail. I decided to research the factors that affected a regions climate and came up with two key reasons.

Latitude or distance from the equator:

Temperatures drop the further a particular area is away from the equator due to the curvature of the earth. Areas that are close to the poles enables sunlight to have a larger area of atmosphere to pass through and the sun is at a much lower angle in the sky. Therefore,more energy is lost which results in cooler temperatures. Moreover, such large volumes of presence of ice and snow nearer the poles cause a higher albedo which is a measure of how much sunlight a surface reflects therefore means more solar energy is reflected, accumulating to the cold: this is explained in the figure below.

Altitude or height above sea level:

Locations that are situated at higher altitude have cooler temperatures. Temperatures usually decrease  1°C by for every 100 metres in altitude.

Distance from the sea:

Oceans heat up and cool down much slower than land. This means that coastal locations tend to be cooler in summer and warmer in the winter more so than places inland at the same latitude and altitude. One example that students will be able to relate to is that Glasgow is at a very similar latitude to Moscow, however, it is much milder in the winder because it is nearer to the coast than Moscow.

Links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/weather_climate/climate_rev3.shtml