What Kind of Map Shows the Average Temperature?
Maps that show the average temperature are a type of climate map. Most maps show temperature in annual or monthly time segments. While temperature information can be illustrated by itself on the map, it is most often shown along with average precipitation data. This is because both temperature and precipitation are the two criteria in categorizing climate regions.
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History
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Grouping regions of the world by average temperature can be traced back to Aristotle, who divided the world into three classifications: temperate, torrid and frigid. The first modern climate map was created in 1817 by Alexander von Humboldt, who made a map of the Northern Hemisphere showing mean annual temperatures. This work was further developed upon, and cartographers began adding information to the maps, including average precipitation, barometric pressure and even cloud cover.
Modern Maps
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Most climate maps today include both average temperature and average rainfall data. Temperature data is obtained from weather stations from all over the world. Because of varying temperatures in any region over the course of a year, many maps are presented using monthly data. Many maps on the Internet use animation to show changes over the course of a year, or even changes from one year to another.
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Lines and Colors
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Most early maps, especially before color printing became widespread, used isothermal lines to show boundaries between regions and sub-regions. These were first used by Humboldt in 1817. Today, many maps use color schemes to show temperature ranges. Maps used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, for example, use dark red for the hottest regions, orange for hot regions, yellow and green for temperate regions, blue for cold regions and gray for the coldest regions.
Categories
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Most climate maps today use a system based on the work of Wladimir Koeppen, from 1928, which divides the world climates into six regions based on average temperature and annual precipitation, each with an alphabetical index. These climates are Tropical (A); Dry (B); Temperate (C); Cold (D); Polar (E) and Highlands (H). Each of these categories is divided into 24 sub-categories. Type A climates, for example, include Wet Equatorial (Af) and Tropical wet-dry (Aw) sub-classifications.
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