ABSTRACT
Weather is the record of short-term, current conditions of the atmosphere. Climate is the long-term accumulation of weather averages. As part of the official weather record, data are regularly collected on: temperature, precipitation, evaporation, relative humidity, air pressure, solar radiation, and air movement. For more-specialized studies, unusual measurements such as soil temperature and air movements close to the ground are determined, but such measurements are not part of the usual official record. Latitude controls climate by determining the angle at which the sun's rays strike the surface of the earth, thus determining the amount of incoming radiation per unit of surface area. The higher the sun angle the greater the amount of sunlight falling on each square unit of surface. Colorado is located in the interior of the continent, so moisture-bearing air from the nearest ocean must cross hundreds of miles of mountains, deserts, and plains before it reaches the state.
