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Tropical Rainforest Climate

Understand that rainforests have a tropical climate — consistently hot (25–30°C) with over 2000 mm of rainfall per year — and that this combination of heat and moisture creates ideal conditions for rapid plant growth and extraordinary biodiversity

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What a learner can do afterwards

  • State that tropical rainforests are hot (25–30°C) and wet (over 2000 mm rain per year) all year round
  • Explain that the constant heat and moisture create ideal growing conditions for plants
  • Compare tropical rainforest climate to the UK or local climate, noting key differences in temperature and rainfall

1 · Read

Climate means the usual weather a place has, all year long. You know rainforests grow near the Equator, and their climate barely changes. It stays hot, between 25°C and 30°C. It also stays wet, with over 2000 millimetres of rain in a year. Rain falls in every month, not just in one season.

Compare that with London. London gets about 600 millimetres of rain in a year, so a rainforest gets more than three times as much.

Rainforest2000London600

Each bar shows the rain one place gets in a year, measured in millimetres.

Try it together

Zara lives in the UK. She reads a whole year of weather reports from a rainforest. Every one says almost the same thing: hot and rainy. Her own reports change a lot, with cold winter days, warmer summer days, and rain that comes and goes. The rainforest almost never changes like that.

It is the heat and the rain working together that matters most. Warmth helps plants grow, and water helps them grow fast. With both all year round, rainforest plants shoot up quickly, and that feeds and shelters huge numbers of animals.

Warmth and rainPlants growFood and shelter

Rainforests stay hot (25-30°C) and get rain in every month, over 2000 mm in a year, and that steady heat and rain make life grow fast and in huge variety.

2 · Watch

Take it off screen

Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.

Where it sits

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Then practise

8 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.

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Tropical Rainforest Climate · Science, ages 7 to 9 · LightMySky