1. Grade 10 Science Unit 3: Climate Change
Weather and Climate
Classifying Canadian Climates

2. Weather and Climate How does Oakville’s weather affect you life?
Weather refers to the atmospheric conditions for a specific place at a specific time.
How does Oakville’s weather affect you life?
Climate refers to the average weather conditions that occur in a region over a long period of time (at least 30 years).
How does Oakville’s climate affect you life?
Weather and Climate

3. August is the wettest month of the year in Toronto.
Monday’s low temperature was 4oC in Oakville.
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005.
Victoria, B.C. has the warmest winters in Canada. C W W C
Weather or Climate?

4. What makes up the weather?
Watch a current weather forecast here
Click on National long range forecast video when hyperlink site pops up.
What makes up the weather?

5. Key Weather and Climate Terms
Temperature: A measure of how fast the particles in matter are moving Units: Celsius (oC)
Precipitation: Condensed water that falls to the ground. (e.g., snow, rain, sleet, drizzle, etc.) Units: millimetres (mm)
Clouds: Condensed water/ice too small to fall to the ground.
Key Weather and Climate Terms

6. Humidity: The relative amount of water vapour in the air. Units: %
Wind: Movement of air over the Earth’s surface. Units: km/h
Jet Stream: Narrow, fast air currents found high in the atmosphere.

7. Front: A boundary between air masses with different characteristics (cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded and stationary fronts).

8. Units: kilopascal (kPa)
Atmospheric Pressure: A measure of the force per unit of area produced by the particles of gas in the atmosphere.
Units: kilopascal (kPa)
Low Pressure: cloudy, rainy weather.
High Pressure: clear, sunny weather.
Meteorology is the science of studying and predicting the weather.

9. Biomes are large geographical area with similar climate (temperatures and precipitation ranges). Biomes contain specific types of plants and animals that adapted to these conditions.
Biomes

10. Biomes of the World

11. Biomes of North America
Canada contains all of the major biomes on Earth except tropical rainforests.
Biomes of North America

12. Climatographs Combine a line and bar graphs.
Line (red) represents average monthly temperature.
Bars (usually blue) represent average monthly precipitation.
Climatographs

13. Investigating Canada’s Climate
Task:
Examine the climatographs of Canada’s biomes.
Write the name of the biome and climatograph location on your chart.
From the graph, determine the range of average monthly temperatures and precipitation amounts. Record these values.
Describe the characteristic plants of the biome.
Investigating Canada’s Climate

14. Analysis Questions: What biome do we live in?
Would you rather live in a different Canadian biome? Why or why not?
What is the wettest biome? Hint: the graph axes can be misleading!
What is the warmest biome?
What biome has the most extreme seasonal variations?
Do you think climate change would affect the map of Canada’s biomes?