What Exactly Are the Tropics?
The definition has nothing to do with heat or humidity
If I hadn’t looked it up, I would have told you that the tropics are the part of the world where monkeys throw coconuts at you, where fist-sized mosquitoes bite you, where you always have sweaty armpits and a moist crotch, and where it’s so hot that to cool down it’s best to open up a window and stick your head into an air-conditioned building.
But you know what? That’s not the definition. What makes the tropics the tropics is not its climate. Not every patch of tropical land feels like a sauna. Some parts can get chilly enough that you’ll want to put a jacket on and take a hot shower. In Hanoi, for instance, the temperatures sometimes drop to below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), even though it’s pretty much at sea level.
Tropical climate is one thing. The tropics are another.
So what are the tropics?
The tropics — or tropical zone — refers to the region of the Earth that lies between two imaginary lines encircling the planet: the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
