The five factors that determine the weather of any land area are: the amount of solar energy received because of latitude; the area's elevation or proximity to mountains; nearness to large bodies of water and relative temperatures of land and water; the number of such storm systems as cyclones, hurricanes, and thunderstorms resulting from air-mass differences; and the distribution of air pressure over the land and nearest oceans, which produces varying wind and air mass patterns.
FROM SCHOLASTIC