Physical Features and Effects of Climate Change
Primary 6 · Social and Religious Studies
Physical Features and Effects of Climate Change
Lesson 3 of 4
15 min
Let's begin
In July, Keza visits her aunt in Musanze and needs a warm sweater at night. In the same month her friend Byiringiro, in Nyagatare, says the days are hot and dusty and the grass has turned brown.
Both places are in Rwanda. So why are they so different? The answer is climate.
Weather is what the air is like today or this week: sunny, rainy, windy, hot or cold. Climate is the usual pattern of weather in a place over a long time, usually 30 years or more.
"It rained heavily in Huye this afternoon" is about weather. "Rwanda usually gets its long rains from March to May" is about climate.
Rwanda is only about 1° to 3° south of the equator, so you might expect it to be very hot, like the Congo rainforest. But most of Rwanda is high land, well over 1,000 m above sea level, and the height cools the air. Geographers call this a modified equatorial climate (also called a tropical highland climate): an equatorial climate made cooler by altitude.
| Region | Climate | Human activities |
|---|---|---|
| West and north-west highlands (Musanze, Nyabihu, Nyungwe) | Cool and wet; cold nights near the volcanoes | Tea, Irish potatoes, pyrethrum, dairy cows, forest tourism |
| Central plateau (Kigali, Muhanga, Huye) | Mild, with two rainy seasons | Beans, bananas, maize, coffee; towns and trade |
| Eastern lowlands (Nyagatare, Kayonza, Kirehe) | Warmer and drier, with savanna grassland (a tropical savanna climate) | Cattle keeping, maize, bananas, rice in wet valleys, safari tourism in Akagera |
Some books use other names, such as sub-tropical highland, for Rwanda's coolest, highest areas. They all describe the same idea: height makes the air cooler.
| Climate | What it is like | Where | How people live there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equatorial | Hot and wet all year, with rain in almost every month; thick rainforest | The Congo Basin; parts of the Lake Victoria shores | Growing bananas and cassava, forestry, fishing |
| Tropical savanna | Hot, with a wet season and a long dry season; grassland with scattered trees | Eastern Rwanda, the Serengeti in Tanzania, much of Kenya and Uganda | Cattle keeping, maize, safari tourism |
| Semi-arid and desert | Very hot and dry, with little rain; thorn bushes or sand | Northern Kenya around Lake Turkana, the Sahara, the Kalahari | Moving with camels, goats and cattle to find grass; farming at oases |
| Mountain (montane) | Cooler the higher you go; snow and ice on the highest peaks | Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, the Rwenzori, Rwanda's volcanoes | Tea, coffee and potatoes on the slopes; mountain climbing |
| Mediterranean | Hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters | The far north of Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and around Cape Town in South Africa | Grapes, olives, oranges and wheat |
Worked example
Kigali is about 1,500 m above sea level and its afternoon temperature is about 27 °C. The top of Mount Karisimbi is about 3,000 m higher. How warm is it up there?
Step 1 3,000 m is 3 lots of 1,000 m.
Step 2 3 × 6 °C = 18 °C cooler.
Step 3 27 °C − 18 °C = 9 °C.
Answer: about 9 °C, and at night it can freeze.
Tip
Weather is today's mood; climate is the habit over many years
For height, remember "1,000 up, 6 down": climb 1,000 m and the air is about 6 °C cooler. That is why Musanze is cooler than Nyagatare.
"It rained heavily in Rubavu last night." Is this weather or climate?
Answer: weather, because it describes one day.
Name Rwanda's two rainy seasons.
Answer: the long rains (March to May) and the short rains (about October to December).
Why is Rwanda cooler than many other places near the equator?
Answer: most of Rwanda is high above sea level, and higher places are cooler.
A town at 1,200 m is 26 °C. About how warm is a place 2,000 m higher?
Answer: 2 × 6 °C = 12 °C cooler, so about 14 °C.
Which climate has hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters?
Answer: the Mediterranean climate.
What you learned today
Sources and credits
The practice questions were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Which of these sentences is about CLIMATE, not weather?
