Page 328 - Geosystems An Introduction to Physical Geography 4th Canadian Edition

292 part II The Water, Weather, and Climate Systems
(a line of equal precipitation). Farther west, the presence of shortgrass prairies reflected lower precipitation receipts.
Deep sod made farming difficult for the first settlers of the American prairies; however, domesticated crops such as wheat and barley soon replaced native grasses. Various inventions (barbed wire, the self-scouring steel plough, well-drilling techniques, windmills, railroads, and the six-shooter) aided the expansion of farming and ranching into the region. In the United States today, the humid continental hot-summer region is the location of corn, soybean, hog, feed crop, dairy, and cattle production (Figure 10.13).
humid Continental
mild-summer Climates
Located farther toward the poles, humid continental mild- summer climates are slightly cooler. Figure 10.14 presents a climograph for Moscow, Russia, which is at 55° N, or about the same latitude as the southern shore of Hudson Bay, in Canada. In Canada, a characteristic city having this mild-summer climate is Ottawa, Ontario.
Continental air mass (summer convection)
▲Figure 10.13 Cornfields in the humid continental prairie. east of Minneapolis near the boundary between humid continental hot- and mild-summer climatic regions. [Bobbé Christopherson.]
Agricultural activity remains important in the cooler microthermal climates and includes dairy, poultry, flax, sunflower, sugar beet, wheat, and potato production. Frost-free periods range from fewer than 90 days in the
35.0 32.5 30.0 27.5 25.0 22.5 20.0 17.5 15.0 12.5 10.0
7.5 5.0 2.5
0
38
Station: Moscow, Russia Lat/long: 55° 45′ N 37° 34′ E Avg. Ann. Temp.: 4°C
JFMAMJJASOND Month
(a) Climograph for Moscow, Russia.
▲Figure 10.14 Humid continental mild-summer climate. [(b) Dave G Houser/Corbis. (c) CBW/alamy.]
(c) Snowshoeing in the Gaspésie region, Québec.
32 Total Ann. Precip.: 57.5 cm Elevation: 156 m
27 Population: 11 460 000 Ann. Temp. Range: 29 C°
21
16
10
4
0 –1
–7
–12
–18
Ann. Hr of Sunshine: 1597
–23 (b) Landscape between Moscow and St. Petersburg along the Volga River.
–29 –34 –40
Moscow
RUSSIA
0 1200 KILOME
TRES
0°
180°
80°
Precipitation (cm)
Temperature (°C)