How Landforms Affect Temperature By Clinton Maxwell At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The global weather is to a large extent the result of the sun's effect, along with the atmosphere and the rotation of the earth. The earth on which this weather moves on has its own effect on the weather. The different features of the land and the sea exert quite a commendable influence on the local and the global weather systems of the earth.

Huge water bodies absorb and release the heat in a slow process. On the other hand the land mass is quicker in its heating and cooling. This causes a large difference in the temperature of night and day on land and around the sea. The minimum and maximum temperatures are also recorded faraway from the coastal areas.

Since during the day heating of the land mass causes greater convection of air, clouds are formed quicker over the land. Such distinctive features play significant roles even in the production of different kinds of wind, from the sea breezes to the monsoon winds.

A friction between the weather system and the land mass can also cause quite a change in the earth's weather. This is seen when hurricanes cause landfall and make a move onshore. Generally, when a storm is intercepted by a mountain or a terrain or buildings, its rotation meets with an obstruction, in turn slowing it down and robbing its severity.

Mountain ranges also exert an influence on the earth's weather. As a low pressure trough approaches a mountain chain it moves upward and spread. With this the rotational speed of the wind decreases and loses much of its strength.

Rain shadow effects are also caused by colossal mountains. When an air current moves towards a mountain and is obstructed, it moves up and there it condenses and comes down as rain. As a result feet of high mountains are generally areas with heavy rainfall record.

The precipitation falls on the windward side or the peaks. If the air reaches the leeward side of the mountain then they tend to lose their strength and sink and even dry up. As a result the leeward side receives very scanty or no rainfall and comes to be called a rain shadow region. The eastern side of the Rockies and the central plain land in the US are some rain shadow areas. A rain shadow zone with prolonged bout of no-rainfall can effect into the formation of deserts.

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