SC.5.E.7.5 Weather in Different Environments

SC.5.E.7.5: Recognize that some of the weather-related differences, such as temperature and humidity, are found among different environments, such as swamps, deserts, and mountains.

Target 1: Observe weather related differences such as temperature and humidity in swamps, deserts, and mountains.

Target 2: Recognize different environments such as swamps, deserts, and mountains.

Target 3: Identify weather related differences in grasslands, rainforests, tundras, and wetlands.

How is the weather different in swamps, deserts, and mountains?

Swamps are wetlands that are flooded all or part of the year, and whose dominant plant is trees. Since swamps are wetlands, the humidity in swamps is higher than other areas nearby. There are many swamps in Florida, one of the largest being Big Cypress. Big Cypress has many smaller areas in it, including swamps. A swamp can be next to a prairie. The swamp, being a wetland, has higher humidity than the prairie that it is directly next to.

Deserts are areas where very little precipitation falls. Because there is little precipitation, humidity is very low in a desert. Some deserts can be hot, and some deserts can be cold. There are even deserts in Antarctica: snow rarely falls in these deserts. Even hot deserts, like the Sahara Desert in Africa, can cool quickly at night since there are no clouds to insulate the temperatures. The main characteristic of a desert is low precipitation and low humidity.

Mountains are areas of land that rise above surrounding areas. Since mountain rise into the sky, the temperatures on mountains fall as elevation, or height above sea level, rises. The bottom of a mountain can hot, with temperatures in the 90’s, while the top of the mountain, depending on how high it is, can be very cold, often freezing. Because mountains often form long lines of mountains called ranges, they have a very important effect on weather. As rain clouds move inland from the ocean, they can build up on one side of a mountain range. This causes the clouds to dump their precipitation on one side of the mountain range. The side of the mountain range facing away from the ocean gets very little rain. These areas are often deserts. These deserts are caused by the “rain shadow” effect of the mountain range.