Gina Grusman, Natasha Landes, Htet Lin, Jennifer Orona

Geography - Aguilar
18 October 2015

Florida - Hydropshere
Rainfall patterns of the state of Florida at a local scale

The whole state of Florida is shaded in the color of turquoise. The shaded area covers
both land and the water part of the states. The legend shows colors of the shaded areas. In this
case, the turquoise is shaded at the average of 1000-1500. The scale of the map lengths to
166.27mi (187.12km). Overall, the shaded area of this map represents the precipitation and the
rainfall. The reason behind Florida's extremely moist conditions is due to several factors. It's
warm subtropical climate, sea-breeze fronts are just a couple of contributing elements that play a
significant role in Florida's relatively high precipitation rates. Because Florida has a climate that
is both warm and subtropical, it paves the way for rain clouds to take their formation. The warm
factor in of itself kick starts the process of cloud formation. Additionally, sea breeze fronts have
the ability to contribute the wet conditions because of the air masses that develop over the ocean.
Citations "NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Is Responsible
for Preserving, Monitoring, Assessing, and Providing Public Access to the Nation's Treasure of
Climate and Historical Weather Data and Information. Learn More about NCEI ." National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Formerly Known as National Climatic Data
Center (NCDC). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Gina Grusman, Natasha Landes, Htet Lin, Jennifer Orona

Geography - Aguilar
18 October 2015

Rainfall patterns of the state of Florida shown at a regional scale

The map of the regional scale is almost similar to the map of the local scale. They are
both shaded in turquoise that defines 1000-1500 in the legend. Although they have the same
legends, the scales of the maps are different. The regional scale shows a length of
195.23mi(314.20km). In general, the regional scale shows more of the map while it also covers
the precipitation and rainfall. According to the map, the entire state of Florida is shaded in a
turquoise color. What this is means is that the entire experiences an average of 1000-1500
millimeters of rainfall each year. The process behind this, again, is due to Florida's warm climate.
This climate contributes to the immense amounts of rainfall that Florida receives in its annual
summer months. Additionally, because of Florida's location (around large bodies of water), the
warmth and moisture from its climate lead to frequent developments of large air-mass
thunderstorms. These thunderstorms gradually become worse if accompanied by cold fronts or
upper level divergences.
Citations: "NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Is Responsible for
Preserving, Monitoring, Assessing, and Providing Public Access to the Nation's Treasure of
Climate and Historical Weather Data and Information. Learn More about NCEI ." National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Formerly Known as National Climatic Data
Center (NCDC). N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Gina Grusman, Natasha Landes, Htet Lin, Jennifer Orona

Geography - Aguilar
18 October 2015

Rainfall patterns of the state of Florida at a global scale

In the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas, it shows that they are the driest out of the entire
country. This is indicated by the legend showing both red and orange colors. The areas such as
Florida and Atlanta experience more rainfall. This is shown on the map with turquoise colors
presented in the legend. Another noticeable pattern is the spots of turquoise near the western
side. One particular reason as to why the west coast appears drier than the east coast happens to
be caused by the rain shadow effect. As stated before, the warm subtropical climate of Florida
plays a significant role in the formation of rain clouds as well as air mass thunderstorms.
However, in the west coast, it is quite the opposite. When warm air rises, cools, and condenses,
precipitation occurs before it has the chance to rise over the top of the mountain. These
mountains tops are present in the west coast tend the block the passage of the rain clouds and
create a rain shadow. This allows for precipitation to occur on only one side (leeward side) of the
mountain and leaves the other side of the mountain drier after clouds are diffused. As a result,
areas such a Los Angeles, are relatively drier than other areas out of the whole continent.

Citations: "Rain Shadow." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 16
Oct. 2015. <http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/rain-shadow/>.

Screencast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=rFsQrV77u70&feature=youtu.be&hd=1
Maps created by Natasha Landes and Htet Lin using National Geographic Mapmaker

Gina Grusman, Natasha Landes, Htet Lin, Jennifer Orona

Geography - Aguilar
18 October 2015