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South America has several distinct climates. There are deserts, rain forests, mountains and even places so cold that penguins live there!
South America has opposite seasons from North America due to the earth's tilt.
Tropical Zone
Tropical Zone
A tropical climate is a warm, wet climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures of at least 18 °C (64 °F). Every month has an average temperature close to 80° F (27° C). Temperature variations are small, so that many such locations never experience high temperatures over 100° F (38° C) or lows below 60° F (16° C).
Tropical climates are warm all year and have no winter. They lie near the Equator. Some tropical climates have a lot of rain. Others are dry.
Vegetation consists of dense rainforests of broad-leaved evergreen trees. Poorly drained areas have mangrove swamps. Where tree cover is thin and sunlight reaches the ground, there is dense undergrowth known as jungle.
Rainy tropical climates generally occur located in the equatorial lowlands and along mountainous tropical coasts exposed to the moist easterly trade winds.
Temperate Zone
Temperate Zone
In the Temperate Zone, also called “Sub-Tropical”, the Sun is never directly overhead, and the climate is mild, generally ranging from warm to cool. The four annual seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, occur in these areas. The temperatures in these regions are generally relatively moderate, rather than extremely hot or cold, and the changes between summer and winter are also usually moderate.
Eight months of the year within the subtropics have an average temperature at or above 10 °C (50.0 °F), with their coldest month averaging between 2 and 13 °C (35.6 and 55.4 °F). The heaviest rains occur in the Amazon Rainforest and in the temperate rainforests of southern Chile. These climates do not routinely see hard frosts or snow, which allows plants such as date palms and citrus to flourish.
Arid Zone
Arid Zone
An arid climate, is a climate in which precipitation is too low to keep any vegetation at all, or at most a few shrubs or cactus. An area that features this climate usually experiences less than 250 mm (10 inches) per year of precipitation and in some years may experience no precipitation at all.
Arid, or desert areas, can have a wide range of temperature. There are hot, cold and mild deserts. Most of the arid zones in South America are cool and mild. In the picture to the left, you can see snow in the Atacama Desert.
In South America, this climate is found adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in sections of the Atacama Desert, especially along the central and southern coast of Peru; Lima, its capital, has a mild desert climate that makes it one of the driest capital cities in the world.
Cold Zone
Cold Zone
Areas where average annual temperatures are less than 50° F (10° C) are characterized as cold climates. These occur in the southernmost parts of Argentina and Chile and in the high Andes above about 11,500 feet. In Argentina and Chile and in the high Andes the climate at such altitudes is cool and damp. Temperatures, always low, may on the average vary daily from 54° F (12° C) during the daytime to 28° F (-2° C) at night. Rainfall generally is high and well distributed throughout much of the year.
In the Altiplano (an area of the Andes), the average annual temperature is only about 34° to 36° F (1° to 2° C); November is the warmest month, with an average temperature of 41° F (5° C), while the coldest month, July, has an average of 28° F (-2° C). The dry season is long and is characteristically accompanied by drought. Winds are continuous and often violent, aggravating the coldness and the dryness of the climate, which produces a harsh environment.
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