Planet Earth – Great Plains

Comparing Climatographs

Three types of grasslands were featured in this episode of Planet Earth. These include temperate grasslands, with seasonal fluctuations in temperature, tropical grasslands, which have seasons more based on precipitation, and tundra, which have the shortest growing seasons.

For this assignment, you will be given data from three specific locations on the Earth. For each location, construct a climatograph, a combined chart showing the precipitation and temperature levels across an average year.

Komakuk /

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High Temperature (°F) / -6 / -2 / 7 / 28 / 45 / 52 / 50 / 48 / 37 / 18 / 9 / -2
High Temperature (°C) / -21 / -19 / -14 / -2 / 7 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 3 / -8 / -13 / -19
Precipitation (inches) / 0.2 / 0.1 / 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.1 / 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.4 / 0.8 / 0.7 / 0.3 / 0.2
Precipitation (mm) / 5 / 3 / 2 / 5 / 3 / 15 / 30 / 36 / 21 / 19 / 8 / 4

Source: www.myweather2.com

1.  Does the data suggest this location is a temperate grassland, tropical grassland, or tundra? Explain.

2.  Define when each season occurs during the year based on this data. Define spring, summer, autumn, and winter for temperature-based seasons, or dry season and we season for precipitation-based seasons.

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High Temperature (°F) / 90 / 91 / 91 / 88 / 86 / 82 / 82 / 82 / 84 / 84 / 88 / 90
High Temperature (°C) / 32 / 33 / 33 / 31 / 30 / 28 / 28 / 28 / 29 / 29 / 31 / 32
Precipitation (inches) / 1.5 / 0.4 / 1.9 / 4.9 / 9.4 / 3.3 / 2.4 / 2.4 / 2.1 / 4.4 / 4.6 / 2.7
Precipitation (mm) / 37 / 10 / 49 / 124 / 238 / 84 / 61 / 60 / 54 / 112 / 118 / 69

Source: www.myweather2.com

1.  Does the data suggest this location is a temperate grassland, tropical grassland, or tundra? Explain.

2.  Define when each season occurs during the year based on this data. Define spring, summer, autumn, and winter for temperature-based seasons, or dry season and we season for precipitation-based seasons.

Chicago /

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High Temperature (°F) / 36 / 37 / 48 / 61 / 72 / 82 / 86 / 82 / 77 / 64 / 50 / 37
High Temperature (°C) / 2 / 3 / 9 / 16 / 22 / 28 / 30 / 28 / 25 / 18 / 10 / 3
Precipitation (inches) / 1.8 / 1.6 / 2.2 / 3.1 / 4.4 / 3.5 / 3.2 / 4.8 / 3.4 / 3.3 / 2.8 / 1.9
Precipitation (mm) / 46 / 40 / 55 / 79 / 111 / 88 / 81 / 123 / 86 / 85 / 70 / 49

Source: www.myweather2.com

1.  Does the data suggest this location is a temperate grassland, tropical grassland, or tundra? Explain.

2.  Define when each season occurs during the year based on this data. Define spring, summer, autumn, and winter for temperature-based seasons, or dry season and we season for precipitation-based seasons.