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A country's latitude, or distance from the equator,has an important effect on its climate. In places locating at low latitudes, or near the equator, like__1__ Ecuador and northern Brazil, the amount of sunshine changes the most during the years. At mid-latitudes, in __2__ places like Japan or Argentina, there is less sunshine__3__ in the summer than in winter. The greatest change occurs at the highest latitudes, in places like northern Canada and Alaska. In these places, the nights are very long for half the year, and the days are long during other half. At the North or South Pole, sunlight lasts __4__ the longest during the winter. But light and heat are __5__ the most intense at the equator.
Altitude and distance from the sea also affect climate.The thin air in the high mountain areas absorb less of the __6__ sun's heat than the thicker air at sea level. The daily change in temperature also increases with distance from the sea. Snow and rain are not very important to __7__ climate. Snow reflects as much as eighty or ninety percent of the heat from the sun, and making the __8__ weather even colder. But a large forest area can reflect as little as five percent of the sun's heat. This makes the weather warmer. Of course, the general effects of climate do not explain everything about the weather.For example, either the driest places in the world and __9__ the place with the most rainy days are located in Chile.Calama, in the Atacama Desert, has had no rain over__10__ 400 years. But during the year 1916, it rained in Bahia Felix, Chile for 348 days.
