Unit 17: Higher Latitude (D, E) and High Altitude (H) Climates

OBJECTIVES•Examine the climates often described as severe, frigid, bitter – and by geographers as Subartic (D), Polar (E), and High Altitude (H)•Get a sense of the harsh “microthermal” (low-temperature) D climates with their cold winters and short summers•Read the climographs of the Point Barrow (E) Tundra Climate and shiver!• Understand the effect of altitude when it creates frigid H climate – even in the tropics

Humid Microthermal D Climates

Humid Continental & Taiga Climates

Cabbage grown during the short summer growing season in Alaska.

Freeze and thaw cycles turned this once smooth road into roller coaster in central Alaska.

Humid Continental Climates Dw

Humid Continental Climate, Dfb

Sudbury, Ontario was home to one of the most polluted areas of N. America. The “biggest stack in the world” now spreads pollution further downwind.Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2125709

Barnaul, Russia Dfb Climate

Tundra (ET) Climate

Cold climate inhibits forests, with only lichen, mosses and stunted trees flourishing. Mt. McKinley, Alaska, highest mountain in N. America, is in background.

Icecap (EF) Climate• Below freezing all year

• No vegetation

EF Climate

Very low evaporative demand allows vast ice sheets to accumulate in the EF climate despite meager additions from precipitation.

Vertical Climatic Zonation for West-East Cross Section of Andes in Equitorial South America

Shrinking glaciers on Kilimanjaro (5895 m, 19,340 ft.), Kenya