Geography Gr 10

Used with permission ©DSGear 2009

Factors affecting global temperature distribution

Even if the Earth were a smooth ball with no mountains or oceans, there would still be an uneven distribution of temperature. The poles would be cold and
the equatorial regions warm. Add mountains and the tops of the mountains are colder than lower lying areas. The more detail we look at, the more
reasons for variation in temperature can be found.

The following table shows how temperature is affected on a global and a local scale

Factor Global Scale Local Scale

(in approximate order of scale of the effect)
Latitude (Distance from the equator)
Altitude (Height above Sea Level)
Distance from the sea (Continentality)
Ocean Currents
On average, the poles are about 50°C colder than the equator
Average temperature drops approximately 6°C per 1000 m above sea level. The temperature can drop significantly in
Large areas of high altitude like major mountain ranges e.g. Himalayas and the space of a few kilometres if you are
plateaux e.g. The Highveld are much cooler than places at sea level on the same going up or down a steep hill. E.g. the top of
latitude. Long Tom Pass in Mpumalanga at an altitude
of 2100m is 1400m higher than Mbombela,
the provincial capital. This difference will
mean that Long Tom is about 10°C cooler
than Mbombela.
Places near the sea generally have a seasonal temperature range of less than
10°C, whereas places further than 1000 km from the sea in the middle latitudes
have temperature ranges greater than 50° C. This is called a continental
climate.
Ocean currents move huge amounts of warm water towards the poles and cold
water towards the equator. Because of the Earth’s spin (and a whole lot of
Physics!) cold water tends to move along west coasts and warm water along east
coasts, so most west coasts are cooler than east coasts. The average

Wind Direction
Aspect (The direction a slope faces)
Topography (shape of the land surface)
Cloud Cover and humidity.
Vegetation Cover
Albedo
temperature of Port Nolloth on South Africa’s west coast is about 10°C cooler
than Durban on the east coast.
Wind direction is not constant, but certain warm and cold winds occur often
enough to affect the average temperature. The cold east wind out of Siberia
causes very low temperatures in Europe, sometimes for weeks at a time. Similar
winds cause very cold winters over North America. Hot winds include the
Harmattan out of the Sahara in West Africa and the Berg Wind in South Africa
A slope that faces towards the sun, is
warmer than a slope that faces away from
the sun. This can cause a large difference in
temperature on a small scale of a few
hundred metres. Wine farmers in the
Western Cape (and elsewhere in the world)
take advantage of the different slope
directions to produce different varieties of
wine
Cold air sinks to the bottom of valleys,
leading to much lower average local
temperatures in winter.
Areas that have a lot of cloud cover are cooler than areas that have little cloud A cloud passing overhead can cause a rapid
cover. For this reason, the Sahara is hotter than the equator during the day. At drop in temperature on a hot day. Areas
night, in the desert, the low humidity does not trap in the terrestrial long-wave that have a lot of cloud cover are cooler
radiation, so deserts are very cold at night. Deserts have a large daily than areas that have little cloud cover
temperature range, where as humid areas how a low daily temperature range.
Dense forest such as the Amazon or the Congo helps to keep the temperature a Forest patches – for example on the eastern
bit lower in the same way that humidity and cloud cover do. escarpment of South Africa – are cooler than
open grasslands just a few hundred metres
away.
Albedo describes the reflectiveness of a surface, expressed as a percentage of Albedo describes the reflectiveness of a
the incoming radiation. The huge areas of the ice-sheets of the Arctic and surface, expressed as a percentage of the
Antarctica help to keep the planet cool. Metling of the Arctic sea – ice is a major incoming radiation. Light coloured, bare
problem, because open sea has a lower albedo than ice and so absorbs more rock or snow has a very high albedo,
heat, causing the sea-ice to melt even more. vegetated and rough surfaces have a low
albedo.
 These two maps illustrate the
.
High (polar) Latitudes >>Cold effect of latitude and the seasons
on temperature distribution. There
are three main reasons for this
effect:

1. The angle of the sun’s rays

Low (tropical) Latitudes >> Warm
striking the surface.
2. The amount of atmosphere
the rays have to pass
through before reaching
the surface
High (polar) Latitudes >>Cold
3. The albedo (reflectivity of
the surface)

1. Rays in the tropics hit the

surface at a high angle …
rays are concentrated.
Rays at poles hit the surface
at a low angle …. Rays are
spread out and easily
reflected,
2. Red arrows show the
amount of atmosphere the
rays pass through at the
equator and the poles.
3. Ice and snow at the poles
has a high albedo, reflecting
low ang sunlight
 Map of the Average temperature of South Africa

Altitude:

The interior plateau

is cooler than
Latitude:
the coastal zone
North is warmer

than the South

Ocean Currents: West Coast is cooler than the East Coast

(Benguela Upwelling) (Agulhas Current)
at the same line of latitude
Detailed Sea Surface
temperature images of the
Why ‘Upwelling’?
Gulf Stream The so-called Benguela Current is
better referred to as the Benguela
Upwelling, as you can see from this
and the picture it is not connected at the
surface to cold Antarctic waters. In
fact the cold Benguela water comes
up from the deep sea in the mid-
Atlantic Ocean, not from the
Agulhas Current Southern Ocean.

and the

Benguela Upwelling
Continentality:

Places far from the sea get much colder in winter and
hotter in summer than neighbouring oceans at the
same latitude.

Cold interior in winter in

Siberia and north
America

This pattern
reverses in July,
but it is most
marked in January

Hot interior in summer in

Australia , Southern
Africa and South America