Climate Change Impacts in Canada

Specific Climate Impacts:
After reading and looking at the graph from the IPCC Report, I identified the major impacts for North America where the country of Canada is located. Canada has many different types of impacts including physical and biological systems with a little bit of human and managed systems. In the physical system Canada deals with major coastal erosion near the North West region. In the biological system it deals with major wildfire and marine ecosystems along with minor terrestrial ecosystems around the western coast. The human and managed systems include major livelihoods and health ecosystems that are located in the North East region. The key risks in the North America region include wildfire ecosystem loss, property loss due to wildfires, urban floods in river and coastal areas and water quality impairment due to sea level rise.

Regional Climate Projections:
After reading the North America section in Chapter 14, because Canada is located in the North America Region, I found out many different things about climate. The climate of North America is effected by a ton of different phenomena. This part of the chapter states that cold days and nights in the last half century have decreased, whereas warm days and nights have increased. It also talks about the vast increase in precipitation in the Central and Eastern part of North America. The North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program observes many different climate patterns and talks about the extreme warming patterns in North America. In the winter the warming is greatest in Alaska and Canada, while during the summer the warming shifts south. With that the Program states that it is very likely the warming signal with become larger compared to the natural variability in all other North American regions throughout the year. On the other hand it also talks about the excessive precipitation increase in Alaska and Northern Canada by the centuries end.

Detailed Look at Future Climate:
North Americas climate has had huge changes throughout the years, like increased occurrence in severe hot weather, heavy precipitation, and a decrease in frost days. And it is said to keep happening in North America in the next decades. North America is in threat of having its ecosystems under stress from rising temperatures, Carbon Dioxide concentrations and a rising sea level. In the near future, if done correctly, there can be a reduce in stress on the ecosystems. By using conservation and adaptation practices we could see some decreases in the degree of stress. Another thing that is being put under stress is North America's water resources. With all of the droughts and the big decrease in snow fall, we could see a difference in climate change. Human health has also been observed from the extreme climate changes. Hotter temperatures, coastal storms and the gradual increase in carbon dioxide gives North America no choice but to stress about human health. The severity of these climate changes also impact human settlements. Some parts of North America have already been affected and have felt with these climate changes, but there is still a lot of concern for the upcoming places that haven't been effected.

Most Interesting Threat:
One issue that is most interesting to me is the aspect of Human Health and what climate change can do to it. There can be consequences due to extreme heat temperatures that can be dangerous to humans. Human health can also be compromised due to air pollution. North America is being examined for future climate influences in air quality. Things can be done to help humans in times of need when it comes to these climate changes. Early warning and response systems can be developed in the emergency of heat waves, floods and storms. This can help infants, children and the elderly form upturning any unnecessary diseases. Another thing that is said to help is the increase in summer cooling and the decrease in winter heating. This will help energy demand in North America.

Severe Weather in Canada

Tornado development happens in three different steps. The first thing you need is a horizontal rotating body of air near the ground. This happened because of vertical wind shear which is the change of winds due to height. You then need your horizontal rotating body of air to be lifted off of the ground and become more of a vertical rotating body of air. Once the body of air changes from horizontal to vertical it then becomes known as a mesocyclone. Mesocyclones become fully developed in the updraft of a thunderstorm.
Tornadoes in the U.S. usually travel from west to east. This is because  U.S. isn't the only country that encounters tornadoes. Canada also comes in contact with tornadoes, there are about 80 within each year. The average number of tornadoes that have been observed in the U.S. are 1,200. (http://www.noaa.gov/features/protecting/tornados101.html)

In the picture below it shows the hot spots for tornadoes. The little red dots show the hot spot areas and the hot spot areas in my country are in the central part of Canada.

The three requirements for hurricane formation are warm ocean temperature greater than 80º F, deep warm ocean water going 200m in depth and the Coriolis effect for spinning greater then 5º N. The country of Canada does not have ocean water that is greater than 80º F because Canadas ocean water temperature is around 46º F, with that temperature the water doesn't have a warm depth. The three different terms for hurricanes in different regions are hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. Hurricanes occur near the Atlantic and East-Pacific. Cyclones occur around Australia and typhoons happen near the coast of China and Indonesia.
The picture below shows the regions of hurricanes.

The general path the hurricanes travel in the U.S. in from east to west this is due to trade winds blow to the west. Intense hurricanes rarely happen in Canada because of the cold water temperature, but hurricanes can leave Canada with light storms. There have been 12 named storms for Canada's seasonal average. On average there are about 6 hurricanes per year in the U.S. (http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E17.html)

Daily Weather in Ottawa

Today's blog post is going to be about the daily weather in the capital city of Canada. The capital of my country Canada is Ottawa. My three day forecast will be based around the days April 4th, 5th and 6th. The forecasted high for April 4th is 35º F and the forecasted low is 23º F. The precipitation precent is 20%. The forecasted high for April 5th is 34º F and the forecasted low is 24º F. The precipitation precent is 0%. The forecasted high for the last day April 6th is 37º F and the forecasted low is 24º. The precipitation precent is 20%. The average pressure over these three days was 30in. The pressure slightly increased over the three days, but not by very much. The average wind speed was around 5mph. The wind speed slightly decreased over the three day period.

The image above shows a satellite and radar map of the city of Ottawa. This image shows that there is a lot of low warm clouds surrounding Ottawa. You know this by the grey shading all around the red pin point. There is also light precipitation going on in Ottawa. You can tell this because of the green color surrounding the pin point as well. Ottawa has a lot of green color surrounding it which means that it is surrounded by parks and forests. Ottawa also has a lot of water sources around it, it is pretty close to one of the great lakes.

This map shows a larger and smaller version of a map of central Canada. This map shows different isobars pressures, some of the ones you can see are 1020mb, 1024mb and a few others. This map also shows that there is a L for low pressure. There is also a cold front right next to the low pressure spot. Because this part of the map shows the central part of Canada, most of these things are located right in the middle of my country.

Global and Local Winds in Canada

Canada's latitude coordinates are 45º to 60º N and its longitude coordinates are 75º to 105º  W. Canada is located in the Northern Hemisphere, but more in the western part of the hemisphere. The Ferrell Cell is the atmospheric cell that my county is a part of, because of the 30º to 60º indicator. My country of Canada resides in the wind belt of the prevailing westerlies. The wind that Canada receives comes from the West. My country isn't located near a main pressure belt because of its 45º latitude and 75º longitude. This location doesn't put Canada near a significant pressure belt.

Canada's latitude and longitude coordinates place it into the Ferrell cell. Since Canada is at the borderline requirement of the Ferrell the weather is quite colder because its farther away from the equator and closer to the polar cell. Canada is often associated with cold weather and snow, but most of the time has 4 distinct seasons. The winds in Canada are usually cold and dry

Typical Weather and Tourism in Canada

The winter solstice in Canada occurs on December 21st. The maximum average temperature during the month of December is 28º F, or -9º C. The average minimum temperature in the month of December is 15º F, or -2º C. During the winter solstice precipitation is very unlikely to occur, meaning rain, snow etc.

The month of the summer solstice in Canada is June. The exact day of the summer solstice is June 21st. The average maximum temperature in June is 75º F, or 24º C. The average minimum temperature in the month of June is 56º F, or 13º C. The precipitation during the summer solstice is kinda high. July is the wettest month during the summer, not much snow or any other precipitation, but definitely rain.

March 20th is the date for the spring equinox in Canada. The maximum temperature in the month of March is 36º F or 2º C. The minimum temperature for the month of March is 20º F or -7º C. The snow, rain fall for the month of March is very little and unexpected.

The start of the autumnal equinox is September 23rd. The maximum temperature in the month of September is 69º F or 20º C. The minimum temperature for September is 50º F or 10º C. The precipitation fall is very little for the autumnal equinox. The people in Canada say "if the autumn leaves are slow to fall, prepare for a cold winter."

If I could recommend a season to travel into I would travel during the summer solstice. The summer solstice has the warmest average temperatures, and I prefer warm temperatures. If you were to travel during the summer solstice you could do actives like kayaking and mountain biking. Although the summer solstice has the warmest temperatures, you could run into some weather hazards. The typical summer weather hazards are thunderstorms and tornadoes.

"Looking for a nice place to vacation? Why not try Canada, were calm, cool and cooler."

Temperature Controls in the city of Ottawa in Canada

Today in this post I give you some information about the capital city of Canada. I talk about the geographic location of the city and some different temperature variations. I give you the average temperature of the hottest and coldest months and then the average annual temperature. I also talk about one temperature control that affects the city and one that does not. Lastly I express my prediction about the future climate changes because of these temperature controls.

The capital city of my country is Ottawa. The latitude of Ottawa is 45.4214° N, and the longitude is 75.6919° W. The warmest month in my city is July with the average temperature being 80° F. The coldest month in my city is January with the average temperature being 5.4° F. Based on the information above the annual range of temperature for my city is 42° F.

The website where I found this information is:

http://www.weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine,ottawa,Canada

One temperature control that affect Ottawa is the geographic location. Ottawa has semi-contential climate, with warm, humid summers and a very cold winter. The neutral location of Ottawa gives it a variety of different climates throughout the year. One temperature control that doesn't affect the city of Ottawa is altitude. Ottawa's altitude is 230 ft. This altitude doesn't drastically give a change in Ottawa's climate. Ottawa is a mild city that has four distinct seasons.

I believe that there is no major factor that with change the temperature of Canada. My prediction if the temperature were to change in the city of Ottawa it would be that the temperature in the summers is going to getter warmer and the temperature in the winters will get colder.

Learning about all the information about the location and climate of Ottawa was really interesting. I now know the exact longitude and latitude and what the average temperatures are in the winter and summers. I think Canada's capital city Ottawa has nice weather. I like the distinct four season and how the weather matches each season.