Saturday, December 10, 2011

Reflection #2 - Christchurch, New Zealand vs. Ranohira, Madagascar

I chose Ranohira, Madagascar because it is similar in ways to Christchurch, but very different. Both locations are on a large island off the west coast of a large continent in the Southern Hemisphere. Ranohira differs in three major ways: 1 - it is much closer to Africa than New Zealand is to Australia, 2 - it is about 20 degrees closer to the equator than Christchurch,  3 - it is much further away from the coast, despite being an on an island.

The distance off a large continent makes all the difference in the world regarding the climatology of an island. Christchurch, under the Koppen/Geiger scheme of climate classification, is Cfb (marine west coast climate) while Ranohira is Cfa (humid subtropical climate). The major difference here is the overall heat in the area. Being close to the equator, Ranohira has much hotter summers and relatively hotter winters. Both places receive a lot of precipitation.





 
Christchurch is much more developed than Ranohira, therefore urban heat island effects are far more prevalent. Christchurch is also in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps while Ranohira is not influenced by any mountain range. However, Ranohira is much higher so the climates a similar.



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