What is the effect of topography on climate?

According to the variation law of tropospheric temperature, the higher the terrain, the lower the temperature in the same latitude zone. In a certain height range, the precipitation increases with height, and after reaching the maximum precipitation height, the precipitation decreases with height.

2) Terrain fluctuation

Towering mountains often become obstacles to low-level airflow, which can block the cold air in the north and the warm air in the south, so that a large amount of water in the airflow is lost. The mountains on both sides often become the dividing line of climate. For example, the Qinling Mountains in China.

3) Topographic distribution

Terrain distribution will change the temperature distribution in a certain place, and it will also limit a certain climate to a narrow area. For example, the temperate maritime climate on the west coast of North America is only distributed in the long and narrow coastal zone, while the temperate maritime climate in Western Europe can be distributed in the mainland, which is related to the fact that "the western European plain is wide and the mountains are distributed in the east-west direction, which is conducive to the warm and humid west wind from the ocean to penetrate into the mainland".

4) Terrain type

In the same latitude area, due to different terrain types, the factors affecting climate are also different, thus forming different climate types. For example, Naqu is affected by the high terrain of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the temperature in winter is particularly low, while the temperature in Nanjing, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River at the same latitude, is higher, indicating that the difference of terrain types will have a certain impact on the climate.

5) Slope direction

There are obvious differences in temperature and precipitation between windward slope and leeward slope in mountainous areas. On the windward slope of the mountain range, the warm and humid airflow is forced to rise, which is easily caused by clouds. Leeward slope is wetter than leeward slope, and sunny slope has higher temperature than leeward slope. Because the trend of hillside has a significant impact on various elements of climate, it also has an important impact on climate. For example, Changbai Mountain in China presents this obvious phenomenon.