Climate Vocabulary

What is climate?

• A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g., forest or tundra.

• The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a short period.

• A small naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g., forest or tundra.

• The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

What is weather?

• The state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.

• Cear away or change the appearance or texture of (something) by long exposure to the air.

• Come safely through (a storm).

• Make (boards or tiles) overlap downward to keep out rain.

What is latitude?

• The science of the Earth

• The range of exposures for which an emulsion or printing paper will give acceptable contrast."a film with a latitude that is outstanding".

• The angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, or of a celestial object north or south of the celestial equator, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

• Scope for freedom of action or thought.

What is altitude?

• The height of an object or point in relation to sea level or ground level.

• Great height.

• The apparent height of a celestial object above the horizon, measured as an angle.

• The length of the perpendicular line from a vertex to the opposite side of a figure. the length of the perpendicular line from a vertex to the opposite side of a figure.

What is a convection current?

• Rotating water.

• A current in a fluid that results from convection.

• Doesn't exist.

• Whirlpool.

What are tradewinds?

• Trade.

• A wind blowing steadily toward the equator from the northeast in the northern hemisphere or the southeast in the southern hemisphere, especially at sea. Two belts of trade winds encircle the earth, blowing from the tropical high-pressure belts to the low-pressure zone at the equator.

• Blow wind.

• Blow trade.

What are westerlies?

• A wind blowing from the west.

• The belt of prevailing westerly winds in the mid-latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres.

• Late 15th century: from obsolete wester ‘western’

What is the Coriolis Effect?

• Early 20th century: named after Gaspard Coriolis (1792–1843), French engineer.

• Nothing

• An effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force ) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. On the earth, the effect tends to deflect moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern and is important in the formation of cyclonic weather systems.

What are doldrums?

• A state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression.

• Late 18th century (as doldrum ‘dull, sluggish person’): perhaps from dull, on the pattern of tantrums.

• An equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms, sudden storms, and light unpredictable winds.