World Regions and Climates

The Earth is huge, but geographers group its lands into three big climate zones based on how warm or cold they are. The tropical zone hugs the equator and stays hot all year. The temperate zones sit between the tropics and the poles and have four seasons. The polar zones cap the top and bottom of the planet and are freezing most of the year.

Tropical Zone — Hot and Wet

• Sits closest to the equator (0 degrees latitude) where the sun shines almost straight down all year.
• Temperatures stay warm or hot every month — there is no real cold season.
• Many tropical regions get heavy rainfall, especially during a wet season or monsoon.
• Famous tropical regions: the Amazon Rainforest in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.
• Common biomes here are rainforests, savannas, and tropical wetlands.

Temperate Zone — Four Seasons

• Lies between the tropics and the polar circles, in the mid-latitudes (about 23 to 66 degrees).
• Has four clear seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
• Summers are warm and winters are cool or cold but rarely freezing all year.
• Famous temperate regions: most of Europe, the Mediterranean coast, eastern United States, central China, and southern Australia.
• Common biomes are deciduous forests (where leaves fall in autumn), grasslands, and Mediterranean shrublands.

Polar Zone — Cold All Year

• Sits closest to the North and South Poles where sunlight hits the Earth at a low angle.
• Temperatures stay below freezing for most of the year. Summers are short and cool.
• Long winters bring weeks where the sun barely rises (polar night).
• Famous polar regions: northern Canada, Greenland, Siberia, the Antarctic Peninsula, and Antarctica itself.
• Common biomes are tundra, ice caps, and treeless plains with permafrost (permanently frozen ground).

Why Climate Changes with Latitude

• Latitude is how far north or south a place is from the equator, measured in degrees.
• Near the equator the sun is high overhead, so its rays hit a small area and heat it strongly.
• Near the poles the sun is low in the sky, so its rays spread across a larger area and feel weaker.
• That is why moving from the equator toward the poles takes you from hot, to mild, to freezing climates.
• Other factors matter too: altitude (high mountains are colder), nearness to oceans, and wind patterns.