Hot, cold or in between: climate zones
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What you will learn
By the end, you can name the three main climate zones, match biomes such as rainforest and tundra to them, and explain why the Equator is hot.
Weather report, same day, three cities. Singapore: hot and sticky, thunderstorms later. London: mild with light rain. Reykjavik: cold, with sleet on the wind. Same Sun, same day, so why are the temperatures so different? The biggest clue is how far each city is from the Equator.
Read the explanation
Climate is the usual weather of a place over many years. Earth has three main climate zones in bands of latitude: the tropical zone between the two tropics is hot all year, the polar zones inside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are cold all year, and the temperate zones in between have warm summers and cool winters. Each zone grows its own biomes, big communities of plants and animals such as rainforest, desert and tundra.
- Why is the Equator hot? The Sun’s rays hit it almost straight on, so the energy is concentrated. Near the poles the same rays arrive at a low angle and spread over a much bigger area.
- Tropical biomes: rainforest (hot and wet) and savanna. Many deserts sit near the tropics, where the air is dry.
- Temperate biomes: forests and grasslands. Polar biomes: tundra (frozen ground, no trees) and ice.