Post 3: Climatology

Climate controls ranging from the macro or global scale to the micro or local scale dictate the long term climate for any location. For Lima, the global factors are that it is located at a latitude of about 12 S. This puts it in the a region that has a high sun angle and therefore high energy zone. This also classifies the region as subtropical which is characterized by Dominantly warm, dry summers, and cool, wet winters.  Winter rains come from cyclonic disturbances associated with the Polar Front (Climate slides). On the regional level the climate controls are features such as the Andes Mountain Range and the Pacific Ocean. There is also the dominant air mass which is the Maritime Polar air mass that is constantly blowing in from the south.

The mP air-mass located to the south Of Lima, Peru is the dominant air-mass that affects the temperature and precipitation for this weather station.

Lima peru, is classified as BWh under the Koppen-Geiger Climate Classification. The classifications is denoted as  B:Arid, W: desert and h: Hot arid. This is pretty much saying that Lima has a hot arid desert climate. This is surprising in that this is the same classification that is assigned to the Sahara Desert and Great Victoria Desert in Australia. The Geiger classificatin is based on a 49 year record spanning from 1951 to 2000.

Koppen Map for South America, Lima, Peru Shown as Star. Source:Wikipedia