Climate and factors that affect it. Sharply continental climate

It is absolutely certain that everyone understands the weather, politics and agriculture, despite the fact that sometimes by the nature of their main activities are far from the listed topics. To replenish our own theoretical baggage, we will try to understand what climate, weather, sharply continental climate is.

The concepts of weather and climate are not the same. Climate scientists define how the weather is for a long period of time. On the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization, this period is 30 years. The climate is influenced by numerous factors, such as land and sea areas, terrain relief, the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun, sea and air currents.

Above we list only well-known information affecting the climate. Experts use many more, not taken into account at the philistine level. These include pressure, the state of the atmosphere, salinity of sea water and a number of other data. In principle, said enough already to understand the futility of reasoning about the weather, but here learn about it something cognitive is simply interesting.

The climate on the territory of the Earth is extremely diverse - this is a well-known truth. To somehow characterize it, a concept was introduced such as a climatic belt that takes into account the peculiarities of atmospheric circulation of air masses. There are four main belts for each hemisphere - tropical, equatorial, polar, temperate.

The climate of the temperate belt is the most widespread in the territory of Russia and dominates over its larger area. It is divided into four independent climatic zones - with a predominance of temperate continental, continental, sharply continental and monsoonal climate. Each zone covers its territory, and the weather on it corresponds to the peculiarities of the climatic zone.

Thus, the sharply continental climate on the territory of Russia is characterized by a slight cloudiness and a low amount of precipitation. In the zone of its influence are Eastern and Central Siberia. There are few clouds here, precipitation mostly falls in the summer (usually in July). Thanks to the transparent atmosphere, the surface of the earth is heated rapidly in the summer and rapidly cooled in the winter.

The same significant temperature fluctuations occur during the daily cycle: during the day - heat, at night - it is cold. As a consequence of significant differences in air temperature, it is usually a frosty winter and hot summer. A small amount of snow and frost contribute to the freezing of the soil, resulting in many years of frost in the northern regions of the territories. Within the boundaries of this climatic zone is located the only natural zone - the taiga.

It should be noted that the sharply continental climate is found exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason for this is the fact that in the southern hemisphere in temperate latitudes there is practically no land and, therefore, there are no conditions for the formation of continental air masses.

The climate is not something frozen and unchanged. It is changing - of course, not in one moment, but gradually. Under climate change, scientists understand the steady trend of growth or decline of any of its characteristics, monitored by meteorologists over a long period of time. So, according to experts' estimates, since the beginning of the 20th century, the average annual average global surface air temperature has increased by 0.74 ° C. And this gives scientists a reason to talk about global warming.

The study of climate and the tracking of its fluctuations are constantly occurring. It is necessary to take into account its characteristics, first of all, in man's productive activity and in agriculture. So, for territories where the continental climate is prevailing, it was necessary to build houses on piles to avoid warming up of permafrost - otherwise the structure will "float". And the impact of climate on human health can not be underestimated.

In the above material, it is considered what climate is, what climatic zones are located on the territory of Russia, features characteristic of sharply continental climate.