ABSTRACT
Tropical climates are usually characterised as climates where there is no true temperature distinction between summer and winter. They normally occur between 300 N and 300 S. This is the area of the Hadley cell, so that much of the weather is controlled by the prevailing barotropic conditions. In some areas the weather and climate can be summarised almost completely simply by considering this cell. However, in other areas mid-latitude influences are superimposed, creating the monsoon climates. Thus it is very convenient to divide this tropical area into two distinct, but interlinked, climatic types, which are treated in separate sections below.
