Climograph


A climograph is a graphical representation of a location's basic climate. Climographs display data for two variables: monthly average temperature and monthly average precipitation. These are useful tools to quickly describe a location's climate.

Representation

One form of representation uses an overlapped combination of a bar and line chart used to show the climate of a place over a 12-month period. The horizontal axis displays the 12 months while the vertical axis contains the precipitation scale on one side and the temperature scale on the other.
While temperature is typically visualized using a line, some climographs opt to visualize the data using a bar. This method's advantage allows the climograph to display the average range in temperature rather than a simple monthly average.

Use

The patterns in a climograph describe not just a location's climate but also provide evidence for that climate's relative location. For example, a climograph with a narrow range in temperature over the year might represent a location close to the equator, or alternatively a location adjacent to a large body of water exerting a moderating effect on the temperature range. Meanwhile, a wide range in annual temperature might suggest the opposite. We could also derive information about a site's ecological conditions through a climograph. For example, if precipitation is consistently low year-round, we might suggest the location reflects a desert; if there is a noticeable seasonal pattern to the precipitation, we might suggest the location experiences a monsoon season. When combining the temperature and precipitation patterns together, we have even better clues as to the local conditions. Despite this, it is important to note that a number of local factors contribute to the patterns observed in a particular place; therefore, a climograph is not a foolproof tool that captures all the geographic variation that might exist.