Observation

The question was the least attempted by candidates in this paper. They performance was generally poor in this question. The expected answers were:

The types of climates that are represented by the letters
(i) A = Tropical rainy climate
(ii) B = Dry climate
(iii) E = Polar or ice climate

(b) Characteristics of the climate type Af
- located at latitude 50 astride the Equator
- found at Amazon Basin, Zaire Basin, coasts of West Africa and East Indies
- temperatures are uniformly high throughout the year
- mean monthly temperatures are around 270C
- no winter
- diurnal range of the temperature is low between 2 - 40C
- no month with average temperature below 180C
- annual rainfall is between 1,500mm and 2,000mm
- rainfall is mainly convectional
- no month with rainfall less than 254mm
- rainfall is associated with thunder and lightening
- precipitation exceeds evaporation
- there is no month without rainfall
- double maxima rainfall
- falls within the Doldrums
- cloud cover is heavy
- mainly cumulus clouds
- humidity is between 70 - 90%

(c) Reasons for which Koppen’s classification is most widely accepted
- Koppen based the classification on temperature and rainfall
- took into consideration the influence of latitude and altitude
- recognized climates such as the humid and hot deserts
- classification was scientific
- it used symbols with precise meanings
- took into consideration vegetation and wind systems
- broke the classification into smaller groups
- classification was based on empirical evidence
- perfected the Greek early classification
- can be taught at all levels of education
- ideal for climatic study
- simple to understand
- it is objective
- it is quantitative because numerical values are used for defining boundaries of climatic groups
- it uses more than one parameter for the classification