Tropical weather

There are two reasons why tropical weather is different from that at higher latitudes. The sun shines more directly on the tropics than on higher latitudes (at least in the average over a year). This makes the tropics warm. And, the vertical direction (up, as one stands on the earth’s surface) is perpendicular to the earth’s axis of rotation at the equator, while the two are the same at the pole. Because of these two factors, clouds and rain storms in the tropics can occur more spontaneously compared to those at higher latitudes, where they are more often controlled by larger-scale forces in the atmosphere. Because of these differences, clouds and rain are more difficult to forecast in the tropics than at higher latitudes. On the other hand, temperature is easily forecast in the tropics, because it doesn’t change much.