Spacecraft travel farther and farther. They send back more and more information. The more we learn, the more we realize Earth is unlike other planets. It was created for every sort of living thing. People live almost everywhere. How they live depends on climate.

Today your weather may be hot and dry, but tomorrow it could be cool, rainy, and windy. Weather changes from day to day. Climate is the big picture. It is the overall type of weather we expect in regions of the world. Which climate area do you live in? Check the map and pick from this list:

• Tropical Wet—Always hot and wet. Heavy rains throughout the year.
• Tropical Wet and Dry—Always hot with very wet season and very dry season.
• Semiarid—Little rain. Daily temperature swings from very hot to very cold.
• Desert—Almost no rain. Daily temperature swings from very hot to very cold.
• Mediterranean—Warm or hot dry summer. Mild winter with moderate rain.
• Marine—Warm summer and cool winter with moderate, not extreme precipitation through the year, which often comes in the form of low clouds and fog.
• Subtropical Moist―Warm to hot summer. Cool winter. Moderate precipitation each year.
• Moist Continental―Cool to warm sum­mer. Cold winter. Moderate precipitation each year as snow in winter.
• Subarctic—Short, cool summer with some freezing temperatures. Long, bitter-cold winter. Precipitation almost always as snow.
• Polar—Long, freezing winter with very short, cold summer. Little precipitation during the whole year.
• Highlands—Climate affected by altitude (height). Colder and wetter than the surrounding lower land.
• Ice cap—Coldest. Below freezing all year. Permanent ice, much of it over ocean. Precipitation always as snow.

Climate on Other Planets:

• Mercury has no atmosphere. Its weather doesn’t change much. It is either super hot (800F) on the part of the planet nearest to the Sun, or super cold (-361F) at its poles, farthest from the Sun.
• Venus is farther from the Sun than Mercury. But its climate is hotter. A heavy atmosphere of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulphuric acid blocks the Sun and keeps the temperature as high as 896F.
• The atmosphere of Mars is thin, made mostly of carbon dioxide. A summer day on Mars might reach 80 degrees. But nights can be 200 degrees below zero. Huge dust storms can whip the planet’s fine soil around for weeks at a time.
• Jupiter is a ball of hydrogen and helium gasses. It actually throws off more heat than it soaks up from the Sun. This planet is constantly stormy. Winds can blow up to 220 mph.
• Saturn is a mass of gasses and days are clouded by ammonia, hydrogen, and helium. Winds can reach up to 1,118 miles per hour and Saturn’s outer layer of ice is six miles thick.
• Uranus is a -322-degree ball of gas and ice. Its blue color is a layer of methane gas.
• Neptune is the farthest from the Sun’s warmth. Its temperatures get down to -435F and winds move up to 1,304 miles per hour. While it is a gas planet, its core is solid ice.
• Sorry, Pluto. Not a planet.