Local Climate

(or mesoclimate), the climate of comparatively small regions with fairly uniform natural conditions—for example, a particular wooded area, seashore, part of a river valley, intermontane basin, small city, or urban district. It is intermediate in scale between the macroclimate and the micro-climate. The local climate is largely determined by the nature of the ground surface in the given region—the topography, soil, vegetation, urban buildings, and so forth. These features are most pronounced in the lower layer of the atmosphere to about several hundred meters but they gradually level out with increasing altitude. The local climate is usually characterized by statistical conclusions drawn from long-term observations made by meteorological stations in the region.