Science Forums 2

[lemit]

If we assume the biomass makes The Amazon more like another ocean than like another pole, is there any other land area that affects the climate as much as The Amazon?

For example, what about the boreal forests that mass along the continents at the border of the Arctic? What about the other major river basins, such as the Yangtze or the Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio? (Other examples?)

Living in the lee of a major mountain range, I know our local microclimate is different from our region's climate. In the summer, I love to lie in my backyard and watch mesocyclones wax and wane, and to see the supercells that form over my head and create tornadoes 50-200 miles to the east. Any suggestions about the influence of mountain ranges on the global climate?

(As an addendum to that, last spring I watched--from inside--as a tornado went over my house. I didn't know what I was watching at the time; I just suddenly had the wash from a helicopter in my backyard. A friend called later to ask how much damage I'd had from the tornado. That's how I found out.)

So anyway, what are the major land-based, non-polar influences on our climate? How would you rank them?

Please do not assume that I'm abandoning the original concept that The Amazon is the major land-based, non-polar influence on our climate and that the historical record might support that position. It's just that now I want people to try to persuade me I'm wrong in a couple of ways.

--lemit