Polar Adventure!

How are the north and south polar regions the same?

Both polar regions are covered by snow and ice throughout the entire year. In these regions, the sun is never high enough in the sky to cause much melting and the temperature rarely rises above freezing. During the long polar nights, which last six months at the poles, temperatures can fall to extremely low values. The lowest temperature ever recorded occurred in Antarctica, where a value of -88°C (celsius) was reported. (Water freezes at 0°C.)

Polar climates tend to be dry. Some polar regions receive less than 10 inches or 250 millimetres of precipitation (rain or snow) each year, and can be as dry as hot deserts. The continental ice sheets of Greenland in the north and Antarctica in the south have taken many millions of years to form. Both polar regions include plants and animals especially adapted to this climate.

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By Alfia Wallace 2001
Map courtesy of maps.com

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