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Section 11.1 Climate Classification

Climate is defined for a particular location:

  • Globe, continent, region, city

  • Regional and global-scale climates

and over a specified time interval:

  • 30 year average is normal

  • 100 years or longer for history of climate

As for weather, climate consideres the averages and extremes of parameters that define the current state of the atmosphere:

  • temperature

  • precipitation

  • pressure

  • winds

determined by

  • latitude-dependent solar insolation

  • elevation and topography

  • proximity to large bodies of water

  • prevailing atmospheric circulation patterns