Temperature
Geography: KS3, topic 5.1.3
Temperature
There are many different ways to record temperatures. Average temperatures vary a lot across the world.
Measuring temperature
- The temperature is measured with a thermometer.
- The measurement itself is degrees Centigrade (oC).
- The climate of a place (determined by latitude) will affect temperature.
Altitude
- Altitude also affects temperature.
- Temperature decreases with altitude.
- The temperature on Mount Everest never goes above freezing.
- It averages -19°C in summer.
- It averages -36°C in winter.
Types of temperature measurement
- The current temperature.
- The maximum temperature in, a day, week, month, year or ever.
- The minimum temperature in, a day, week, month, year or ever.
- The difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures in a day.
- This is called the diurnal range.
Why measure temperature?
- Temperature measurements allow meteorologists to calculate average monthly and annual temperatures.
- They can also calculate the temperature range.
- Weather forecasts are used by people such as pilots, farmers, cavers and tourists to inform their decisions.
Temperature records
- The world’s highest ever recorded temperature was 56.7°C in 1913 at Furnace Creek, California.
- The coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth is a village in Siberia where it was -67.7°C in February 1933.
- Vostok in Antarctica has recorded -89.2°C but this is not permanently inhabited.
Temperature records in Britain
- Coningsby in Lincolnshire holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK at 40.3°C in 2022.
- The coldest temperature in Britain was -27.2°C was Altnaharra, Scotland in December 1995.
Test yourself on Temperature
What unit is temperature measured in?
Which of the following affects temperature?
Where was the world’s highest ever recorded temperature?