Temperature Pressure
Content
Latitude The Earths rotation on its axis
changes the angle of sunlight at
certain latitudes, therefore
changing the temperature at that
latitude. This has a major impact
on temperature.
Land and Land and water heat and cool at
different rates. Land heats up
Water faster and gets hotter than water.
Distribution Land also cools faster and to lower
temperatures than water. This is a
moderate effect to temperature.
Atmospheric 75 to 80 percent of all horizontal
heat is done by atmospheric
Circulation circulation. This is major impact
on temperature.
Wind
No relationship. Pressure
depends on air density and
temperature.
Minor impact on pressure. Has
more impact on wind. Pressure
affects every solid or liquid
surface that it touches.
Major effect on pressure.
Descending air tends to be
associated with high pressure at
the surface, while rising air
tends to be more associated
with low pressure at the surface.
Moisture
Seven surface components that are
replicated north and south of the
equator. They are intertropical
convergence zone, trade winds,
westerlies, polar front, polar
easterlies, and polar highs.
Sea and land breezes are common
along coastlines. Sea breeze
(daytime) blow from sea to land
and land breezes (night time) blow
from land to sea. This is caused by
the differential heating of land and
water.
No circulation cells for the middle
and high latitudes. Low-latitude
cells can be thought of as gigantic
convection systems. Two prominent
tropical circulation systems are
called Hadley cells.
Precipitation and
moisture content are
distributed along the
globe. There are
regions of high
precipitation and
humidity and regions
of low precipitation
and humidity.
Water vapor can take
on forms of haze, fog,
cloud, rain, sleet,
hail, or snow. Causes
short run changes to
landscape and bodies
of water. Also,
essential to survival
of vegetation and life
forms.
Atmospheric lifting is
the rise of air There
are four types lifting:
convective,
orographic, frontal,
and convergent. All
cause air to be lifted
an moisture to be
transformed into
other forms.
 Oceanic The general circulation of the
oceans is a poleward flow of warm
Circulation tropical water along the east
coasts of continents and an
equatorward movement of cool,
high latitude water along the west
coasts of continents. This is a
moderate impact on temperature.
Elevation Air temperature changes with
altitude. There are cool and warm
layers of the atmosphere as
elevation increases. Warm layers
are caused by the warmth of the
Earth and absorption of the Suns
ultraviolet rays. This is a moderate
affect to temperature.
Topographical Topographical barriers such as
hills and mountains affect
Barriers temperature in the fact that they
make a map of the temperatures
harder to comprehend because
they cause elevation and in areas
of elevation like that,
temperatures are lower than that
of the temperatures at sea level.
This is a minor effect on
temperature.
Not really any effect on
pressure. More associated with
atmospheric circulation.
Air pressure is normally highest
at sea level and decreases
rapidly with increasing altitude.
Moderate effect on pressure
Topographical barriers such as
mountains and hills moderately
affect pressure. Because
Pressure decreases with an
increase in altitude, the higher
up on these barriers, the lower
the pressure.
Wind blowing along the surface of Not much influence
the wind pushes the ocean and has on the moisture
a major influence on the circulation content. Water is
of the ocean. evaporated from the
ocean but the
currents to not have
much influence on
the moisture
content.
At lower altitudes, the wind flow is As air rises, its
turbulent and irregular because it pressure decreases
encounters friction. At higher and it expands and
altitudes, wind flow is much cools. When it
straighter reaches its dew
point, condensation
begins. With this,
temperature
decreases and
Mountain breezes and valley Topographical
breezes are a result of barriers have
topographical barriers. In a influence on the form
mountain breeze, mountain slopes that moisture in the
lose heat rapidly, chills the air air takes on. It can be
around and causes it to slip fog, dew, rain, hail, or
downhill. In a valley breeze, the snow.
rising air causes clouds to form and
around the peaks and afternoon
showers are common in high
country. Also, are descending winds
from cold upland areas and cascade
toward lower elevation. Foehn and
chinook winds are also two more
downslope winds.
Storms Temperature increases or
decreases dependent upon the
type of front that moves into the
area. These fronts cause
atmospheric disturbances and
potentially storms.
Dependent upon the type of
storm, pressure decreases or
increases. Major storms like
tornados and hurricanes are low
pressure and can be highly
destructive.
Winds in hurricanes and tornadoes Moisture content
can be highly destructive. Strong during a storm can
winds in tornadoes move debris take on forms such as
around in the air making it torrential rain, hail,
hazardous. Storm surges that are sleet, and snow.
wind-driven water cause the most These cause mass
destruction in hurricanes. amounts if
destruction and even
deaths.