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A Nice Piece of Real Estate
01/10/2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook. You know one way to look at the
earth's five climate zones is from space. Admittedly that's something we can't all do, so
let's use our imaginations.
Pretend for a moment that you're from another planet and you're cruising the solar system
looking for a nice piece of vacation real estate on the other side of the galaxy. So you grab
a couple brochures from your interplanetary real estate agent and blast off. As you swing by
earth, the lovely blue atmosphere catches your eye. As you buzz in for a closer look you
glance at the brochure: "Earth oblate spheroid with five climate zones to choose from".
From your ship, it's clear to see that the top and bottom of the earth are polar zones -- too
cold to live there. The middle of the planet has tropical and desert zones -- too hot. And
then there are a bunch of mountain ranges scattered all over that have their own cold and
variable mountain climate zones. Too rugged and risky.
But then, there's this great temperate zone [in between the tropics and the poles] that looks
pretty inviting. So you zoom down to get a good look, maybe chat with a few of the aliens, and
you find that of all the earth's climate zones, from the hot equatorial jungles and deserts to
the cold polar tundra, that the temperate zone fits your taste-- as well as that of seventy
percent of earthlings.
So of the five basic climate zones - temperate, tropical, desert, polar and mountain, the
temperate zone is a good location.
Our show is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory (with a pretty wicked mountain
zone of it's own) with support provided by Subaru, and the National Science Foundation.
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