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"Seasons" can also be dictated by the timing of important ecological events such as hurricane season, tornado season, and wildfire season. [citation needed] Some examples of historical importance are the ancient Egyptian seasons—flood, growth, and low water—which were previously defined by the former annual flooding of the Nile in Egypt.
The amount of Sun energy reaching a location on Earth ("insolation", shown in blue) varies through the seasons.As it takes time for the seas and lands to heat or cool, the surface temperatures will lag the primary cycle by roughly a month, although this will vary from location to location, and the lag is not necessarily symmetric between summer and winter.
The water cycle is a key part of Earth's energy cycle through the evaporative cooling at the surface which provides latent heat to the atmosphere, as atmospheric systems play a primary role in moving heat upward. [5] The availability of water plays a major role in determining where the extra heat goes.
From ancient times, people suspected that the climate of a region could change over the course of centuries. For example, Theophrastus, a pupil of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC, told how the draining of marshes had made a particular locality more susceptible to freezing, and speculated that lands became warmer when the clearing of forests exposed them to sunlight.
The higher temperatures increase the probability of the storm to become a hurricane. This provides the energy for the hurricane to intensify. [13] [14] In September 2017, the United States National Hurricane Center reported that the North Atlantic basin was highly active because four tropical storms formed and they
Around the edges of the Arctic Ocean the ice will melt and break up, exposing the ocean water, which absorbs almost all of the solar radiation that reaches it, storing the energy in the water column. By July and August, most of the land is bare and absorbs more than 80% of the sun's energy that reaches the surface.
When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence the climate system. The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies water because it causes salts and other solids picked up during the cycle to be left behind.
The Köppen climate classification is the most widely used climate classification system. [2] It defines a tropical climate as a region where the mean temperature of the coldest month is greater than or equal to 18 °C (64 °F) and does not fit into the criteria for B-group climates, classifying them as an A-group (tropical climate group). [3]