Climate, its factors and climate change

Weather is the state of the troposphere at a place at a given moment or period (day, week, month, season); it changes often. Climate is the long-term weather regime typical of a place. There are two main climate types: maritime – near the sea, with mild winters, cool summers and plenty of precipitation; continental – cold winters, hot summers and little precipitation. Air gets cooler from the equator towards the poles, so climate zones form on Earth. Main zones: equatorial (hot and rainy all year, about +24…+26 °C), tropical (hot, dry), temperate (four clear seasons), polar (cold all year). Intermediate zones: subequatorial, subtropical, subarctic and subantarctic. In main zones the same air masses prevail all year; in intermediate zones the air masses change with the seasons. According to the book most of Uzbekistan lies in the temperate zone and the south in the subtropical zone.