Heat Budget Modifications

You will have noticed that the climate for different locations around the world at the same latitude as each other, will vary. For example, Moscow's climate is much more extreme (colder winters and warmer summers) than say Glasgow. Iceland at a latitude north of 64° and just south of the Arctic Circle experiences warmer winters than New York at a latitude of just 41°N. Variability in oceanic temperatures is much less than land surfaces. Therefore distance from the ocean will directly affect the range in annual temperature across the Earth.

As we move further from the oceans, temperature extremes are greater than those locations adjacent to the sea. Oceanic currents (such as the Gulf Stream) help to warm land masses that lie in its current. Therefore, England, Iceland and northern Scandanavian countries like Norway, are kept ice free all year round, whilst Eastern Canadian provinces not warmed by the Gulf Stream experience colder temperatures and ice flows at lower latitudes.

In addition to distance from the sea, altitude of a location will influence the heat budget. Higher altitudes are cooler whilst lower altitudes are warmer. This is because lower atmosphere is denser and more able to absorb and radiate heat than higher altitudes. In addition, re-radiated heat from the Earth's surface warms the lower altitudes. This rate of cooling is known as the adiabatic lapse rate.

Finally, the heat budget may be influenced by the distribution of cloud cover. Cloud enables re-radiated heat to be held in the Earth's atmosphere, but will also reflect away and absorb insolation.