CLIMATE

(Gr. xXifx-oe., from xXivu, I incline.) Among the ancient geographers, was applied to denote that obliquity of the sphere with respect to the horizon which gives rise to the inequality of day and night. They divided the space comprehended between the equator and the pole into thirty parts, which they denominated Climafi's or Inclinations; viz. twenty-four between the equator and polar circle, and six between the polar circle and the pole. The first are called half hour climates, because from one to another the longest day receives an augmentation of half an hour; the second are called month climates, because at the two parallels between which any one of them is comprehended the difference of the time of perpetual sunshine is one month. The first half-hour climate reaches from the equator to that parallel of latitude where the length of the longest day is twelve hours and a half; the second ends at the parallel where the longest day is thirteen hours, and so on. If, therefore, from the number of hours in the longest day at any particular place we subtract twelve, the number of half hours remaining will indicate the climate in which that place is situated. Thus, the longest day at London being a little more than sixteen hours and a half, London is situated in the tenth climate. The first month climate extends from the polar circle to the parallel under which the sun continues above tlu; horizon during a month; the second reaches from tha [s. 251]