Climate characteristics and causes in the United States

The basic characteristics of the climate in North America are:

First of all, temperate continental climate is dominant. North America has a wide latitude extension, but most of it is located in the north temperate zone; At the same time, the topographical structure is characterized by three longitudinal zones, and the western mountains and eastern highlands, especially the tall Cordillera Mountains, run through the north and south, forming an important obstacle to the operation of marine air masses. Therefore, the climate in North America mainly belongs to temperate zone and sub-frigid zone, especially the continental climate in sub-frigid zone is dominant. The general feature of continental climate here is cold winter, with the lowest average temperature of 1 month. Summer is warm and hot, and July is the hottest month. The annual temperature is relatively high; The annual precipitation is moderate, mainly in summer rain. However, compared with the more continental Asia, the temperate continental climate of this continent is far less extreme than that of Asia. The annual temperature is not as high as that in Asia at the same latitude, and the concentration of rain in summer and drought in winter are not as good as that in Asia.

The second is the diversity of climate types. There are many types of climate in North America, from tropical to cold zone, which are also prominent on all continents. But North America has its own characteristics, such as the distribution of polar ice sheet climate is wider than that of Asia; The west coast of Asia lacks temperate maritime climate, while the east coast of North America

It does not have the typical monsoon climate like the east coast of Asia, but is replaced by temperate continental humid climate and subtropical humid climate; In addition, this continent has no equatorial rainforest climate, tropical marine climate and tropical dry and wet season climate, and the distribution of tropical arid and semi-arid climate types is not as extensive as that of Asia.

Third, the climate type and structure are unique. Various climate types in North America also have their own characteristics in distribution and arrangement. First of all, the three distribution types in the northern part of the continent, namely, the polar ice sheet climate, the polar long cold climate and the continental climate in the sub-frigid zone, are all arranged in the north and south, and they extend from east to west in addition to the polar ice sheet climate, which is basically similar to the situation in the northern part of Eurasia and has obvious zonal structural characteristics. Since then, the east and the west have compared the distribution and arrangement patterns of climate types: roughly east of west longitude 100, from north to south, it is temperate continental humid climate and subtropical humid climate in turn. Generally speaking, they also alternate from north to south and extend from east to west, which basically embodies the zonal structural characteristics. To the west of west longitude 100, including the great plains and Cordillera mountain area, the drought intensified from east to west due to the deep inland, and the climate type was arranged in the east-west direction, extending from north to south, showing the characteristics of non-zonal zonal structure. On the west coast of the mainland, the order of climate types is temperate maritime climate, subtropical summer arid climate, tropical arid climate and semi-arid climate. Although they alternate regularly from north to south, they all extend from north to south. Therefore, this is a comprehensive embodiment of banded and non-banded structural characteristics.