Recently, I learned more about weather & climate, particularly at higher elevations in the atmosphere; I used to feel a little intimidated to think about those things, so essentially all of my posts on this blog explaining features of different climates only used surface-level weather phenomena to the greatest extent possible (and arguably sometimes to a greater extent than was appropriate or justifiable). Although the insights that I gained from such learning are not especially groundbreaking compared to my previous two posts about wind divergence or seasonal changes to subtropical ridges over oceans, I feel like I have rounded out my basic understanding of weather & climate, and I wish to share that here. These explanations make clear why there are larger weather from day to day at middle latitudes than closer to the equator or poles as well as why certain analogies, like between middle latitudes at west coasts & tropical latitudes at east coasts, have limits.
The sources that I used are many relevant pages from Wikipedia, the Columbia University interactive maps of mean monthly wind velocities, and these meteorology lecture notes from the University of Arizona. Again, I am not a trained climatologist or meteorologist; I can't guarantee that this information is accurate, and I can only say that my intuitions seem through my limited understanding to align with superficial aspects of more detailed explanations. Follow the jump to see more.
