Hydrology BC ENV 3025

Global precipitation (evaporation)  patterns and variability

1.) Average annual precipitation onto the continents is a function of:

2.) Global patterns in evaporation

Exercise: Analogue to the above, look at the global patterns of evaporation (Fig), and explain why it is high or low for five locations, e.g. Antarctica, western north Atlantic, northern Africa, the Amazon region. Note: the graph shows modeled global precipitation and evaporation, because there is no global network of stations that measures these parameters everywhere.

3.) Global variability of precipitation

4.) Discharge of the Colorado River