Climates around the world
Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world, distinguishing between weather and climate
What a learner can do afterwards
- Define weather as day-to-day conditions and climate as the long-term pattern of weather in an area
- Describe at least three different climate types (tropical, temperate, polar, desert) with examples
- Explain that climate varies by region due to factors like distance from the equator
1 · Read
You already know that weather changes from day to day. It might be sunny in the morning and rainy by lunchtime. Climate is different. Climate is the pattern of weather a place has over many years, not just one day.
Four climate types show up again and again. The Arctic is polar: snow and ice cover the ground almost every day of the year. The Amazon rainforest is tropical: warm, with rain nearly every day. The Sahara is desert: warm and dry, with almost no rain. London is temperate: hot summers, then cold, snowy winters.
How close a place sits to the equator shapes its climate. Near the equator, sunlight arrives strong and direct all year, so those places stay warm. Far from the equator, near the North or South Pole, the same sunlight arrives weak and slanted, so those places stay cold.
Weather is today's conditions, climate is the years-long pattern, and how close a place is to the equator helps shape that pattern.
2 · Watch
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Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.