Iquitos, Peru – tropical moist climate of the rainforest
Iquitos, a city on the banks of the Amazon river, is the most important city in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. This place is an example of a tropical moist climate of the rainforest. It is a hot and humid climate. There are heavy rains in all months (between 125 and 660 cm annually). It rains about 90 days in the year. Rainforests lie near the equator, so there is heavy sun. It’s always warm or hot and the temperature varies between 34 and 20 degrees (which means that the differences between temperatures are small. The humidy is very high. It is usually sunny in the morning and then there are clouds in the afternoon – causing rain. Because it is so humid, when the sun heats the ground, water evaporates and the clouds are formed. Then it rains – and after the rain there comes the sun again. Although rainforests cover only 6% of the Earth’s land surface, half of plant and animal species live there and rainforests produce 40% of Earth’s oxygen. If you come to Iquitos, you mustn’t loose one of its major attractions: Hanging Bridges. They are constructed on the tops of the trees – you can observe the richness of nature of rainforests from them.
Tindouf, Algeria – desert
Tindouf used to be a small town on the desert but since the outbreak of the conflict in the Western Sahara, many people have come here. Most of them live in camps. It is rarely visited by tourists, because the road to it is really hard.
Deserts are the hottest and driest places in the world. The temperatures are hot – and in the summer very hot. The extreme temperatures are between 43.5 – 49 degrees. There isn’t much rain – about 0.25 cm a year.
There are not many plants on deserts – the rare plants you can find there must be able to store water for a long time – and only these animals can live there who can burrow under the ground – to escape the heat of the day. The plants are scattered – there is never thick vegetation there.
Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania – wet-dry tropical climate of savanna
Dar es-Salaam is the biggest city in Tanzania, and although it is not the capital, it is a very important city. It is an example of a wet-dry tropical climate. There is a long dry season which lasts 9 months (winter), and a short, rainy season (summer). In the dry season there is less rain, it is also cooler (20–25 degrees). Between December and February it doesn’t rain usually. The summer is warmer (25–30 degrees) and very humid. It rains every day – in the afternoons it pours down for hours. This climate is typical for savannas – you can rich them on a safari trip from the city. Savannas are found between the zone of tropical rainforests and the desert. They are too dry to have a rich plant life – they are covered with grass, on which you can find some bushes and isolated trees. Savannas are rich in animals, however. You can find there such animals as lions, zebras, elephants and giraffes.
Taimyr, Siberia, Russia – taiga
The taiga climate is characterized with long and very cold winters and short, cool summers. The spring and autumn are so short that they are hardly noticed. The temperature is below zero for six months: the winters are cold (-54 to –1 degrees) and snowy. In the summer it can also be cold (-7 degrees), but also as warm as 21 degrees. The temperature range is very big. It is the biome of needleleef forest. These evergreens don’t loose trees – so they can start photosynthesis whenever it is warmer. They have sliding branches: they snow slides down and doesn’t destroy the tree. Some animals hibernate in the winter, some fly south (birds).
Barrow, Alaska – tundra
The tundra climate is found in the arctic coastal areas. It is the coldest and the driest climate. Winters are very long and severe. The temperature in winter can drop to – 70 degrees. Summers are warmer – from 3 to 16 degrees. Summers are very short – from 6 to 10 weeks. In the summer the sun shines almost 24 hours a day, that’s why the Artcic is called the land of the Midnight Sun. In the summer the snow melts: and new lakes, streams and bogs are formed. Tundra is very windy. There isn’t much precipitation – you can compare it to a desert. The word tundra comes from the Finnish word ‘tunturia’, which means a barren land. And it is barren because the land is permanently frozen and no trees can grow here. The bare ground can support only such plants as mosses, heaths and lichen. The growing season is only about two months – or less.