Climate Change in Three Cities

Climate change is a growing concern around the globe since its impacts are already being felt in different countries with various weather patterns. Climate and weather have been misunderstood to be the same but climate is the weather of a region affected over a period of time whereas weather is a short term effect during a period of a day or two, climate change effects are natural as well as more of a human doing with various activities such as burning of fossil fuels and many more influencing reasons such as the global temperature increase, the rise of sea levels etc.

Three cities selected to elaborate further on the natural factors affecting climate change are as follows: Colombo, Dubai, Johannesburg.

Climate Change in Colombo

Situated in the southern half of the globe, where Colombo is the capital of a nation called Sri Lanka encounters a significant harsh change in the atmosphere consistently, accepting high measures of precipitation during the storm season however shockingly this isn't the situation consistently as, during the up and coming rainstorm season, they were influenced by a dry spell with no downpour for various months.

Get quality help now
Writer Lyla
Writer Lyla
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Climate Change

star star star star 5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

Numerous variables assume a job to the adjustment in the atmosphere, for example, the proximity to water where this nation is an island situated in the Indian sea so being arranged and encompassed by an enormous sea body, so this happens since the water's warm limit is high so it holds heat when it's hot and discharges heat when it's cold so it influences the temperature and the environment in the nation.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

This paves the way with another impact named oceanic circulation where the factor nearness to the ocean plays a role in how the water releases heat, where this heat is transported as water is circulated from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean [1]. The position of Colombo is between 7 degrees north and 80 degrees east so the atmosphere of this island is categorized as tropical monsoon where regional differences in temperature can be observed in air temperature mainly due to altitude than latitude.[2]

"The researchers found that substantial vegetation - precipitation feedback loops often occur in semi - arid or monsoonal regions" [3]. This explains at the lower troposphere which is the planetary boundary layer that there is an enhancement of heat transfer due to the vegetation growth which expands the peak of this boundary layer in the atmosphere and this part of the atmosphere is the most responsive to the surface radiation, which leads to more cloud cover which means an increase in surface temperatures as more radiation is reradiated back to the earth[8]. This is a very highly likely factor to affect the climate in Colombo since Sri Lanka as a whole has nearly 30% of the forest of the land area which is a substantial amount when comparing the total area of the country where Colombo is right in the center and since being a very small island undergo the same impact throughout the country.

Climate Change in Dubai

The U.A.E.(United Arab Emirates) Is situated in the Middle East, a perceived land district of southwestern Asia, and is arranged in both the northern and eastern sides of the equator where Dubai one of its most notable urban areas is found where practically throughout the entire year you appreciate daylight since this city is located in the region of the middle east where presently on the globe is right on the equator thus affected with very high temperatures, especially during the summer [5]. Scourging temperatures of 45 degrees celsius or more experienced in this part of the world. Geologically this nation being not huge encounters a similar climate all through the nation thus climate change is constant throughout cities such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc.

Dubai because of its position geographically encounters such a large amount of daylight since it is situated near the equator, where there is lower convergence of daylight at the poles than at the equator where the phenomenon explains that since the sun is directly overhead, it hits this small area of land so this is the reason the temperature doesn't shift much. Latitude influences the temperature too since nations with higher latitude are a lot colder where the latitude of Dubai is 25 degrees north 55 degrees east [5]. Altitude influences climate since Dubai is just 15 m above sea level so another type of precipitation such as snow would never occur. Temperature and dampness likewise play a role since Dubai has a closer nearness to the ocean yet at the same time the surrounding temperatures are much higher so there is very little influence with the change in the climate. Wind assumes a significant job in the amount of precipitation received so winds originating from the heading of water bodies should impact in any land with the proximity of it to have more precipitation however this isn't the situation for Dubai as the breeze originates from west and moves towards the east so the wind direction is towards the Persian gulf thus proving on why Dubai receives very less precipitation.

Climate Change in Johannesburg

Johannesburg is located in South Africa and is said to be the largest city in the country. South Africa is located 31 degrees South and 2 3 degrees East in the southern hemisphere and is the southernmost tip of the African continent. This city, in particular, is situated on the highveld plateau and has a subtropical highland climate [6]. Most areas in South Africa are at approximately the same latitude where the cold Benguela current declines the temperatures along the west shoreline of South Africa while the east coast is affected by the warm Mozambique current which is a tributary of the Agulhas current. The city experiences its winter when the northern hemisphere experiences its summer [7].

Due to having a tropical type of climate, factors such as cloud cover affect the seasonal temperature trends, Johannesburg results in receiving a cool dry winter, hot dry spring and warm wet summer. Air temperature is affected by the various winds such as the very dry berg winds, which blow from the hot, dry interior plateau down the slope onto the coastal plateau during the summer where during the winter months they are stuck by biting cold winds. Two ocean currents affect the climate which is the warm Agulhas Current which flows along the Indian Ocean coastline in the east and the cold Benguela current which flows along the Atlantic

Ocean coastline in the west [7]. The impacts of these two sea flows can appear at the right finger of the Cape Peninsula where water temperatures are normally 4? C higher on the east side than on the west. These result in warmer air temperatures emitted to the surroundings as well as rising sea levels which can lead to having a greater flood risk. Cold air masses also have an influence over the climate occasionally as they arrive from the south to Johannesburg since winter is a dry season as mentioned previously, the air is typically mild during the day, snow is an extremely uncommon event, but due to this many decades ago, it was recorded that just before dawn there was a t rail of light snowfall but this is a very rare occurrence since this was recorded lastly in the year of 2012 in a couple of spots in the city [6].

Differences and Similarities in Climate

The similarity between these three cities is that they all do not receive one type of precipitation which is snow. A major difference between the three cities is the levels of precipitation such as rain, where Dubai receives the least, Colombo with the most and Johannesburg receiving middling amounts of precipitation . Dubai has an elevation of 15 m; Colombo has an elevation of 1 m while Johannesburg has an elevation of a bewildering 1753 m. These statistics impact the temperature, and this unmistakably demonstrates lower temperatures with higher elevation since there is a cooling impact that causes condensation which negates why Johannesburg still gets more precipitation than Dubai yet at the same time off the mark to coordinating the precipitation of Colombo [4].

Climate cannot be compared with these three cities in the respective countries as all three of them belong to different continents of the world and are not even located close to each other to inhibit similar weather patterns. To elaborate further, as an example could be India where they share a common interest which is the monsoon season, which is the same in Colombo in Sri Lanka, so the weather conditions are quite relatable and thus have the same factors and conditions affecting both of these countries.

References

  1. "Seasonal Monsoon Rains Block Key Ocean Current - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet", Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet , 2019. [Online]. Available:- monsoon - rains - block - key - ocean - current/.[Acce ssed: 27 - Oct - 2019].
  2. "Climate of Sri Lanka", Meteo.gov.lk , 2019. [Online]. Available:=en. [Accessed: 27 - Oct - 2019].
  3. "How vegetation alters climate", Stanford Earth , 2019. [Online]. Available:- vegetation - alters - climate#gs.cam. [Accessed: 27 - Oct -2019].
  4. "How does altitude influence climate?", Kenyaplex.com , 2019. [Online]. Available:53 - how - does - altitude - influence - climate.aspx.[Accessed: 27 - Oct - 2019].
  5. "Dubai climate: average weather, temperature, precipitation, best time", Climatestotravel.com , 2019. [Online]. Available:- arab - emira tes/dubai . [Accessed: 28 - Oct -2019].
  6. "Johannesburg climate: average weather, temperature, precipitation, best time", Climatestotravel.com , 2019. [Online]. Available:  africa/johannesburg. [Accessed: 28 - Oc t - 2019].
  7. "Factors Influencing Temperature", Southafrica.co.za , 2019. [Online]. Available:- influencing - temperature.html. [Accessed: 28 - Oct - 2019].
  8. "Planetary boundary layer | atmospheric science", Encyclopedia Britannica , 2019. [Online]. Available: - boundary - layer. [Accessed: 28 - Oct -2019].
Updated: May 21, 2021
Cite this page

Climate Change in Three Cities. (2019, Nov 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/climate-change-in-three-cities-essay

Climate Change in Three Cities essay
Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment