Climates and People
Activity 1
Read the following passages. They tell the story of two weather observers at different latitudes. One from Finland and the other from Kenya. Their daily recordings of weather are important information in classifying the climate of each place.

Recording the Weather at High Latitudes - Finland

In 1957, Mrs. Rikkinen was the weather observer at a small village in Finland. She went outside to the Stevenson Screen, a white box filled with thermometers and barographs with an anemometer top, every six hours throughout the day to record the weather conditions. In addition, she entered her observations of snow, rain, clear, partly cloudy, or overcast skies, etc. in a weather station logbook. Every month the logbook was sent to Helsinki, the capital, where it was entered in the national climate database for Finland. A copy of the data was then sent to the International Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2004, Mrs. Rikkinin was still the weather observer. A new instrument box was near her house to replace the old one. It was filled with more modern equipment. Computer-operated instruments now read temperature, precipitation, wind, sunshine, air pollution, and ultra-violate rays from the Sun. The information is sent by radio signal to the national center in Helsinki. Today she records the weather conditions without having to step outside. That is unless it snows. Measuring snowfall is a regular task during Finland's winter months. The chart shows the average temperatures over more than 40 years.

Jyvaskyla, Finland: Temperature (F) and Precipitation (Inches) Averages
City
Location
Data
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Jyvaskyla 62N/26E Ave. Temp 15 15 23 34 47 57 60 57 47 38 28 20
    Total Precip. 1.7 1.2 1.2 1.3 1.6 2.3 3.1 3.6 2.5 2.2 2.3 1.9

Recording Weather in the Low Latitudes - Kenya

Far to the south of Finland on the African continent is Kenya. Mr. Kimosop records the information four times a day near Nairobi, Kenya. Here is a summary of the information he collected for the year 2002. His information was sent to the National Weather Service Office in Nairobi, and then to the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva. Here is how he summarized the information recorded during the year.

Nairobi, Kenya: Temperature (F) and Precipitation (Inches) Averages
City
Location
Data
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Nairobi 1S/37E Ave. Temp 64 65 66 65 63 61 59 60 63 66 64 63
    Total Precip. 1.9 4.2 3.7 8.3 5.2 2.0 0.8 0.9 0.9 2.0 5.8 3.5