Question 8
- With the aid of diagrams, explain how the following factors affect the temperature
of a place.
- Latitude;
- Aspect and slope;
This question was not popular among the candidates. Many of the candidates who attempted the question performed poorly. The ways in which latitudes affect the temperature of a place are:
- Places that are nearer the Equator are warmer than places near the poles.
- At the Equator, the sun is always high in the sky
- as such, the sun shines vertically on the earth’s surface
- therefore, heat is concentrated upon a smaller area which becomes hot.
- Towards the poles the sun’s rays fall at an oblique angle
- as such the rays have a greater area to heat;
- the sun’s rays travel through a longer distances hence the intensity reduces
- because much of the heat is absorbed by cloud and dust particles.
- It takes the land longer time to warm up due to low intensity of solar energy
- in general temperature decreases as one moves from the equator towards the poles
The ways in which aspect and slope affect the temperature of a place are:
- The influence of slope and aspect on temperature is noticeable in temperate latitudes
- In the tropics , the sun is always high in the sky so the aspect and slope of the land do not affect temperature
- In the northern hemisphere, south facing slopes receive more insolation than the
north facing slopes
- hence the south facing slopes are warmer
- North facing slopes are sheltered from the sun
- hence the north facing slopes are cooler
- In the southern hemisphere, north facing slopes receive more insolation than the south facing slopes hence they are warmer
- On the contrary south facing slopes in southern hemisphere receive less insolation hence they are cooler
- The influence of slope on temperature is noticeable in mountainous areas
- Slopes facing the sun receive a lot more insolation than sheltered areas
- hence slopes facing the sun are warmer than sheltered slopes