PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY GPH111
LAB G - ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE LAB I TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE Introduction This lab will provide the student with the opportunity to become familiar with the concepts introduced in Chapter 4. Students will review the climate controls and their affect on regional temperature Materials needed: atlas, pencil, calculator, and Arizona Map (provided on the last page of this lab) Part I. Global Heating and Temperature The temperature of a place depends on its location in terms of several variables. These include: latitude, elevation, continentality, proximity to warm or cold ocean currents, influence of topographic barriers and storm systems. All of these variables must be considered when attempting to assess the average temperature of a particular place. In this exercise the student will be required to rank order various cities according to their average or annual or seasonal temperature, using only one of the above variables per question. It is the student’s task to determine the variable most responsible for average annual temperature variance, and to employ this variable in ranking of each group of cities.
A. Use the temperature graph below (Figure G-1) to answer the following questions. 1. Sipiwesk, Manitoba, Canada and Des Moines, Iowa are the two cities depicted in Figure G-1. Which city is “A” and which is “B”? “A” = _________________________ “B” = _________________________ 2. How did you determine this? __________________________________________
Figure G-1
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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY GPH111
3. Rank the following cities. Assign a numerical value of 1 for the warmest through 7 for the coolest. Omaha, Nebraska San Antonio, Texas Bismarck, North Dakota Dallas, Texas Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Rapid City, South Dakota
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a. Which variable was employed to rank these cities? ________________________ b. How does this factor affect temperature? _____________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________
B. Use the temperature graph below (Figure G-2) to answer the following question. 1. San Diego, CA and Charleston, SC are the two cities depicted in Figure G-2. Which city is “C” and which is “D”? “C” = _________________________ “D” = _________________________ 2. What was it about the temperature curves that led you to your conclusion? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 100
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3. Indicate which city in each of the following pairs of cities would exhibit a higher average annual temperature. San Francisco, California or Norfolk, Virginia Luanda, Angola or Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Rio de Janeiro, Brazil or Antofogasta, Chile Nouakchott, Mauritania or Bur Sudan, Sudan Sydney, Australia or Perth, Australia
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a. Which variable was used to determine the warmer city? _______________________ b. How does this variable influence average annual temperatures? __________________ _______________________________________________________________________
C. Use the temperature graph (Figure G-3) below to answer the following questions. 1. Seattle, Washington and Fargo, North Dakota are the two cities depicted in Figure G-3. Which is city “E” and which is city “F”? “E” = __________________________ “F” = ____________________________ 2. What is it about their locations that provides an explanation for the temperature patterns observed below? ____________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Figure G-3
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3. Indicate which city in each of the following pairs of cities would exhibit warmer summers and cooler winters? Brussels, Belgium or Munich, Germany Casablanca, Morocco or In Salah, Algeria Perth, Australia or Broken Hill, Australia Córdoba, Argentina or Valparaíso, Chile Chengdu, China or Shanghai, China St. John’s, Canada or Stevens Point, Wisconsin
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a. Which variable was used to determine the city with warmer summers and cooler winters? _________________________________ b. How does this variable influence average seasonal temperatures?
D. Rank the following Arizona cities/towns according to their average annual temperature. Assign a value of 1 for the warmest through 9 for the coolest. Hint: Use the map on page G-5 if you are unfamiliar with these locations. Willcox Show Low Gila Bend Tucson Phoenix Prescott Hannagan Meadow Lake Havasu City Flagstaff
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1. Which variable was used use to rank the nine Arizona cities/towns? ________________________ 2. How does this variable influence average annual temperature? E. Using the average Environmental Lapse Rate (3.6° F per 1,000 ft.), the cooling rate for still air, calculate the temperatures of the following Arizona locations. Use Phoenix (1,092 ft. above Sea Level and 100° F) as a base value for the calculations. Tucson (2,389 ft.)
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Prescott (5,354 ft.)
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Yuma (141 ft.)
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Parker (420ft.)
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Flagstaff (6,905 ft.)
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Hannagan Meadow (9,092 ft.)
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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY GPH111
Reference map for question D. on page G-4.
G-5
