Geography Paper 3 WASSCE (SC), 2017

Question 8

  1.    With the aid of diagrams, explain how the following factors affect the temperature            

   of a place.

  1. Latitude;
  2. 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