Lesson video

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Hello, my name is Ms. (indistinct).

I'm so excited to be learning with you today.

I will be guiding you through our lesson.

We're going to have a great time learning together today.

Let's start our learning.

Welcome to today's lesson on our unit UK Region: Why is the Lake District a national park? This lesson is called Lake District Weather and Climate.

You'll be learning to research and explain some of the impacts of weather and climate on the Lake District.

Some of this learning is brand new, but I am here to help you.

This links back to previous learning you might have done on physical and human features around the UK, locating and labelling our national parks on a map, and also exploring our learning about the human and physical landscape of the Lake District.

Here are the keywords that we'll be using in today's lesson.

Before we find out what these keywords mean, let's practise saying them doing My Turn, Your Turn.

Climate.

Gulf Stream.

Latitude.

Wind farm.

Hydroelectric.

Fantastic.

You said those words really clearly.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Climate.

Climate is a long-term pattern of weather, usually taken over more than 30 years.

Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream is a strong, warm ocean current that travels across the Atlantic Ocean towards Western Europe.

Latitude.

Lines of latitude are imaginary lines on Earth showing the position north or south of the equator, measured in degrees.

Wind farm.

A wind farm is an area in the countryside where a group of wind turbines has been placed to generate electricity.

Hydroelectric.

Hydroelectric power generates electricity by using water.

Good job, everyone.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout our lesson as well.

These are the learning cycles that we will be working through together in today's lesson.

In our lesson, we will be researching and investigating the weather and climate of the Lake District.

To begin, we'll find out what the climate of the Lake District is like, and then we will look at what the impact of the weather and the climate is.

This means what effect the weather and climate have on the land and how people use it.

Are you ready to start your learning for today? Fantastic.

Let's begin.

Has anyone been to the Lake District? What was the weather like when you visited? Which season did you visit in? Britain usually gets cold wet winters and warmer wet summers.

How does the Lake District compare to this? Let's start by looking first at the temperature of the Lake District.

The average temperature of a place is linked to its location on the globe.

Places close to the equator are usually warmer, and the further away you are from the equator, the cooler it will be.

I wonder if you can locate where the United Kingdom is on this map.

Pause the video, see if you can find the UK.

Great job, everyone.

I'm sure you located the UK and you can see just how far away from the equator it is.

Therefore, we might expect places on the same line of latitude to have similar temperatures.

Can you see where the UK is on this map? Are we close to the equator? No.

We're much further north.

That means we can expect a cooler climate.

The Lake District, there it is on the map, lies between 54 degrees and 55 degrees north of the equator, and there you see it's located between those lines of latitude.

However, it has much milder winters and cooler summers than would normally be expected at this latitude.

We might expect it to have similar temperatures to other places and countries that are found between 54 and 55 degrees north.

So let's have a quick check here.

Let's check our understanding of the temperatures in the Lake District.

In general, we say that the climate in the Lake District has? A, milder winters and cooler summers.

B, warmer summers and cooler winters.

C, wetter summers and drier winters.

Pause the video and complete this check.

How did you get on? Did you remember that the Lake District has milder winters and cooler summers than other places on the same latitude? Well done if you got that right, you can give yourselves a thumbs up.

Let's continue with our learning.

The climate of the Lake District is influenced by the sea and particularly the Gulf Stream.

The ocean current that flows northwards across the Atlantic Ocean, bringing warm water from the Gulf of Mexico.

The red arrows on the map there show the direction that the warm ocean water travels.

So you can see that it comes there from the Gulf of Mexico, northwards across the Atlantic Ocean, and it brings in that warmer water to the Lake District.

In winter, the sea insulates the UK.

Just like an insulated jacket would keep your body temperature warm, the water from the Gulf Stream keeps the waters around the UK warm.

The water cools more slowly than the land, and this helps to keep the UK warmer than most other countries of the same latitude.

This causes milder winter temperatures in the Lake District.

So you can see there that that is the reason why the UK and the Lake District in particular have milder winters and cooler summers because of the water that comes via the Gulf Stream from the Gulf of Mexico.

Let's have another check here.

What is the name of the ocean current which helps to keep the UK warmer in winter than countries at similar latitudes? Pause the video here and think about the name of the ocean current.

How did you get on? Did you remember the name of the ocean current which helps to keep the UK warmer in winter than other countries at a similar latitude? Let's look at Laura's answer.

She said, "The Gulf Stream is an ocean current which results in milder winter temperatures for the Lake District and the rest of the UK." Good job, everyone.

I hope that you got similar answers to Laura.

Well done if you did.

You can give yourselves another thumbs up.

That's fantastic learning so far.

Another important factor that affects the temperature in the Lake District is altitude.

You might have done some previous geography lessons on mountains, and you would've learned that altitude is the height of an object or point in relation to the sea level.

Altitude affects the temperature of a place.

Basically, the higher the altitude, the colder it is.

This is because at higher altitudes, the air is thinner with less molecules, which makes it very difficult for heat to be transferred between the molecules as they are further apart.

Temperature usually decreases by one degree Celsius for every 100 metres in altitude.

You can see this demonstrated perfectly in this photo of Helvellyn.

In this photo of Helvellyn in the Lake District, it is cold enough for the snow to lie and not melt at the top or the summit of the mountain.

But at lower altitudes, the temperature is warmer so there's no snow on the ground.

It would feel very cold right up at the top, but a lot warmer down in the valleys.

So there you can see that as the altitude increases, the temperature decreases.

So let's have another check here.

Let's see if we can understand what happens as land increases in height.

Can you remember what happens to temperature as altitude increases? Let's answer this question together.

What happens to temperature as altitude increases? A, temperature increases, it gets warmer.

B, they stay the same.

Or C, temperatures decrease, meaning it gets colder.

Pause the video and answer that check.

How did you get on? Did you say C? That's correct.

So as the altitude increases, the temperature decreases, meaning it gets colder the higher up you go, or as altitude increases.

The temperature drops as altitude increases, meaning that the tops of the mountains are always colder than the valleys.

Good job, everyone.

That was fantastic learning.

Let's continue with our lesson.

Now that we've investigated the temperature of the Lake District, let's look at the amount of rainfall that it receives.

We can see from this rainfall map that the Lake District gets a lot of rain.

In fact, it receives more than four metres of rainfall in a year.

You can see the Lake District is located there on the map with the arrow, and you can see that it's got quite a dark patch of colouring, and that shows you that it's quite wet.

The wettest parts of the UK are in the west, especially over the mountainous regions like the Lake District.

The climate in the west is especially influenced by the Atlantic Ocean.

Westerly winds bring wet ocean air over the land.

This is because as we've just learned, prevailing winds in the UK blow from the southwest across the Atlantic Ocean.

This brings warm, moist air, which helps to produce mild and wet winters.

The west side of the UK gets more rainfall than the east.

Let's look more closely at how this happens over the Lake District.

The rainfall that happens in mountainous areas is also known as relief rainfall.

Relief rainfall occurs when warm air rises.

It cools down and condenses to form clouds, which brings in rain.

Once the air has passed over the mountains, it descends and warms. This creates drier conditions on the west of the mountains, known as a rain shadow.

You can see there that the warm air is represented with that red orangy colour and cooler air is represented with that blue colour.

So let's have a quick check here.

Which words are missing from the relief rainfall diagram? Warm moist air, mm, over mountains.

Air cools and, mm, forming clouds.

Then mm air passes over the tops of the mountains and warms as it descends.

Pause the video and talk to your partner to see if you can fill in those missing gaps in the sentences.

Pause the video now and complete this check.

Good job, everyone.

How did you get on? Did you say rises? So let's just read that sentence through.

Warm moist air rises over mountains.

And then did you say air cools and condenses forming clouds? Well done if you said that.

What did you say for the third part of this relief rainfall diagram? Did you say rain for that section? Good job.

Well done if you did.

And then finally, air passes over the tops of mountains and warms as it descends.

So well done for completing all of the missing words in that relief rainfall diagram.

Good job, everyone.

So now that we've learned all about what the climate of the Lake District is like and why, we are ready for task A.

I would like you to complete this passage about the Lake District's climate.

You can use words from the word bank below to help you and make sure you add all those words in the correct places in the passage.

Let's read this passage together.

The Lake District has mm winters and mm summers than would normally be expected at this latitude.

The climate of the Lake District is influenced by the sea and particularly the mm.

In winter, the sea insulates the UK as it cools more slowly than the land.

This helps to keep the UK warmer than most other countries of the same mm.

The temperature drops as altitude mm, meaning that tops of the mountains are colder than the valleys.

The Lake District is one of the wettest places in the UK.

High rainfall is a result of mm where damp ocean air meets the mountains.

See if you can use the words in the word bank, increases, cooler, Gulf Stream, relief rainfall, milder, and latitude, to complete that passage.

Pause the video now and complete task A.

How did you get on, everyone? Did you correctly place all of the words from the word bank? Let's go through this together.

The Lake District has milder winters and cooler summers than would normally be expected at this latitude.

The climate of the Lake District is influenced by the sea and particularly the Gulf Stream.

In winter, the sea insulates the UK as it cools more slowly than the land, and this helps to keep the UK warmer than most other countries of the same latitude.

The temperature drops as altitude increases, meaning that the tops of the mountains are colder than the valleys.

The Lake District is one of the wettest places in the UK.

High rainfall is a result of relief rainfall where damp ocean air meets the mountains.

Well done, everyone, if you managed to get all of those answers correct.

This was quite a tricky passage to complete, but you've worked through it so well.

You can give yourself another thumbs up.

Let's continue with the next part of our lesson.

Now let's investigate what the impact of the weather and climate is.

This means what effect the weather and climate have on the land and how people use it.

We have just learned that the climate of the Lake District is wet and cooler in the summer and wet and milder in the winter.

Some people, especially tourists, might complain about this type of weather, but for people living in the Lake District, it can be very useful.

Sophia is a tourist.

She says, "I wish the weather in the Lake District was different because in summer it's cooler and it rains a lot." Climate can have both a positive and negative impact.

Two examples of how it impacts life in the Lake District are farming and renewable energy production.

Let's have a closer look at how farming is affected by the climate.

About 2,500 people living in the Lake District work in farming, but because of the climate, only one main type of farming is possible in the Lake District.

Hill farming.

Because of the mountainous land, cooler temperatures and very wet climate, sheep farming is best suited to the Lake District.

Looking at the map, we can see the main type of farming is hill farming with sheep who are used to cool temperatures.

The climate of the Lake District suits hill farming with hardy sheep.

It's hard to grow crops on steep slopes with poor soil and a cool climate, so the land in the Lake District is not suited to arable crops.

Pause the video and have a look at this map.

See if you can use what we've just talked about and the map to explain why the Lake District is suited to sheep farming and not arable farming.

Pause the video now.

I'm sure you had a good discussion there.

Did you talk about the Lake District being a good place for sheep farming because of the steep slopes? Did you locate the Lake District on the map? Shall we have a look and see where it is? There it is.

I'm sure you did all of that really well.

Good job, everyone.

It's now time for a quick check.

Let's check our understanding of how the climate of the Lake District affects farming practises.

Which farming type is best suited to the Lake District? Is it A, hill sheep farming? B, dairy farming? Or C, arable farming? Pause the video and complete that check.

Good job, everyone.

How did you get on? Did you say A? It won't be B, dairy farming, because that means that lots of grassland is needed for the grazing of cows who produce milk.

And it won't be C, which is arable farming.

So well done if you got that correct, and you remembered that because of the mountainous land, cooler temperatures and very wet climate sheet, farming is best suited to the Lake District.

Good job, everyone.

The climate can also provide many other opportunities.

For example, the climate has allowed renewable energy production.

The combination of landscape and climate suits renewable energy schemes such as hydroelectric and wind farms. This hydroelectric plant is at Stickle Ghyll in the Lake District and uses the power of water flowing downhill to create electricity.

This image of Stickle Ghyll Hydro, which was installed in 2015, uses fast flowing water in the Langdale Valley to power the nearby pub.

All that rain certainly comes in handy at this micro hydro plant.

Another hydroelectric plant in the Lake District, Hayeswater hydro plant, generated over one million kilowatts of energy in its first year.

These are small scale schemes to preserve the special qualities of the Lake District.

Renewable energy can also be produced by wind turbines, which harness the power of the prevailing winds.

Large turbines like these are too big to be allowed in the Lake District, but smaller turbines can be found on farms and private property.

The windy climate and exposed landscape of the Lake District suits this type of energy scheme.

Let's have a quick check here.

Let's check our understanding of why the landscape and climate support schemes such as hydroelectric and wind farms. Think of some reasons, then come back here to share your answers.

You can do this as a think pair and share activity.

Pause the video and complete this check.

How did you get on? Did your answer include any of these reasons? Because the Lake District has high rainfall and lots of rivers and streams, it can generate hydroelectric renewable energy.

Or you could have said, higher areas receive more wind which allow wind turbines to generate electricity.

Your answer could have been similar to this as well.

You could have also said, higher areas receive more wind and the prevailing winds in the Lake District allow wind turbines to generate electricity.

You could have also said the landscape and climate allow renewable energy to be produced, which is great for the environment and can also save money.

Good job, everyone.

Now that we've investigated how climate affects farming and energy production, it is time for your last task in today's lesson.

What I would like you to do is to explain how the climate has an impact on farming and energy production in the Lake District.

You can use these sentence starters to help you.

The climate of the Lake District suits mm farming because.

And the climate of the Lake District suits mm energy because.

Pause the video now and complete task B.

How did you get on with task B? Did your answers include sentences like this? The climate of the Lake District suits hill sheep farming because of the mountainous land, cooler temperatures and wet climate.

The climate of the Lake District suits renewable energy schemes such as wind farms or hydroelectric energy because of the high rainfall and many rivers and streams. Good job, everyone.

You've worked really hard there.

Well done if you remembered how climate can impact farming and energy production.

As we've seen, there are positives and negatives to the climate of this region.

We've now come to the end of our lesson.

Let's go through a quick summary of all the learning that we've completed together today.

We've talked about the Lake District having milder winters and cooler summers than would normally be expected at this latitude.

The climate is influenced by the sea, particularly the Gulf Stream with relief rainfall, where damp ocean air meets the mountains.

The climate suits hill farming with hardy sheep, but has a short growing season which is not suited to arable crops.

The temperature drops as the altitude increases, so the tops of the mountains are colder than the valleys.

The climate of the Lake District suits renewable energy schemes such as wind farms or hydroelectric energy because of the high rainfall and many rivers and streams that are there.

Well done, everyone.

You've been brilliant today.

Thank you for joining me and completing your learning with me.

I'll see you soon for more geography lessons.

Goodbye.

I've finished the video