A quick way to get an idea of the climate of a particular place is to look at a "climate-graph," or climograph. A climograph is what scientists create to show a particular location's average temperature and precipitation during the year.

Image of Monthly precipitation and temperature climograph for Boston, Mass. that represents its total annual precipitation of 43.81 inches and its average annual temperature of 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit for a year. Precipitation is represented by a bar graph; temperature is represented by a line graph. It lists its elevation as 15 feet above sea level. Boston’s Latitude is 42 22 N and the Longitude is 71 02W.

How to Read a Climograph

Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required. To understand the climograph, scroll over each area of the image below.

Sources of images used for this section as they appear, top to bottom: