What Factors Affect an Area's Temperature?

When you step outside on any given day, you immediately experience the degree of hotness or coldness in the air. For example, on cooler days, when wind gusts are striking your face, the air temperature might feel cooler to you because the wind is taking the heat away from your body's surface. This level of degree of hotness or coldness is called the temperature. Many factors affect an area's temperature.
  1. Latitude and Altitude

    • Latitude is the distance a place is from the equator. The closer the place is to the equator, the hotter the place will be. The farther a place is from the equator, the cooler it will be. That is why the North Pole and South Pole are cooler than the other locations on the planet. Altitude is how far a place is above sea level. The higher above sea level that a place is, the cooler it will be.

    Distance from the Sea and Ocean Currents

    • Land around a body of water will be hotter than that of the water on any warm day. The reason is that the cool and warm water mix in the ocean and do not heat as quickly as the land does. Also, the breeze that comes from the ocean -- sea breeze -- cools the air over the land. Ocean currents increase or reduce the temperature. If the currents are coming from warmer bodies of water, then the temperature will increase. If the currents are coming from cooler bodies of water, then the temperature will decrease. The same holds true for prevailing winds.

    Clouds and Slope of the Land

    • Clouds in the sky hinder the amount of solar radiation coming to the earth and the amount of ground radiation leaving the earth. This causes temperatures to decrease. Places with lots of clouds experience lower temperatures than places with an abundance of clouds. The slope of the land is another factor affecting temperature. Slopes facing the sun will be warmer while those not facing -- ones facing the North Pole and South Pole -- will be cooler.

    Mountains

    • A final aspect that affects temperature is mountains. As the altitude of a place increases, the air pressure decreases. This causes the temperature to become cooler. Also, since the temperature is lower, the amount of rainfall is greater -- causing more of a reduction in the temperature.

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