Factors driving the Gulf South climate

Latitude

• NOLA is 30° North and 90° West (one third of the planet)• Only 6.5° from the tropics• Summer solstice –suns rays strike Tropic of Cancer 23.5° North at a 90° angle• In New Orleans, the rays strike 83.5°• Latitude-sun angle• Sun angle-Solar radiation• Solar radiation-increases temperature • If latitude was only Factor, we would have the same climate as Cairo Egypt which is

also 30° North• Climate: Long term• Weather: at any given time• Anthropocentric perspective: climate: inanimate atmospheric conditions produced by

local, Continental, or global processes• Example: hot, humid, Pleasant, frightening

Factors driving the golf South climate1. Latitude2. Position with regard to water bodies3. Continental position4. Topography- or lack thereof

• Water-stabilized temperature (heat sink, stores heat)• Water a source of water molecules and humidity• Cooler land surfaces

Tropic Maritime (humid) air masses rising from Gulf of Mexico +Temperate continental (dry) air masses blowing in from interior fronts= Climate of the Gulf South

Descriptions• Humid subtropical• Both maritime (warm and wet) and continental (dry and cold) • A climate punctuated by fronts particularly during October to March• Prone to annual freezes, 280 day growing season (Nov-March)• 63 inches of rain annually; most in July to August and least in October to November• Snow once or twice per decade• Tropical storms roughly annually

Climate of GS

How hurricanes form

• North Atlantic Gyre• Gulf stream takes warm water and brings it to the north Atlantic drift

current then to Canary Current then to the north equilateral current• In the shape of triangular trade

• Factors1. 80°F and water deep and high humidity 2. Convergent wins create a disturbance and thunderstorm; a tropical wave3. Upward flow of warm disturbed humid air cloud formation4. Outward flow of air at top of system which draws up more air from below5. No upper level winds to cut off6. Northern equilateral current to steer it into Gulf