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Climate in Ecuador
(page 1 of 3)
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In order to understand why there are so many
different types of climates in Ecuador, you need to consider the altitude
of each area of the country. Climatic variations depends more on altitude
than on the time of year. Further, as a result of Ecuador's "center
of the world" location, the typical four seasons are non-existent
In Ecuador, nine different climates can be identified: one dry, three
tropical (wet, monsoon and savanna), three meso-thermic (wet, semi-wet
and dry) and the "paramo" (alpine tundra). The ninth climate
is that of the Galapagos Islands.
Besides altitude, the latitude, the topography and the ocean currents
are also factors that help determine the climate in Ecuador. Two air
currents cross Ecuador: a cold and dry current coming from both hemispheres
which is mostly felt in the mountain region from May to October; and
a warm and humid current coming from the tropical zones that can be
felt from November to April.
These two currents cause only one rainy season on the Coast which
intensifies in March. In the mountains, it causes the months from
March to June to be rainy and from October to December to be another
rainy season. In the Amazon, they cause only one rainy season that
is uniformly rainy throughout the year. The topography of the Andes
causes climactic changes in the mountain region; as you go higher,
it gets colder by about -4.70 C for every thousand meters.
There are two opposing marine currents that influence the climate
of Ecuador. From December to May, the warm current of El Niño
coming from the north occurs in the Pacific ocean and for the rest
of the year, the cold Humboldt current comes from the south. When
one of these currents becomes stronger and persists longer than normal,
there are variations in precipitation on the continent. If the El
Niño current is stronger than the Humboldt current, the rains
on the continent increase causing floods. If the Humboldt is stronger,
the rains decrease causing drought.
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