What is the difference between climate change and weather?

Answer 1

WEATHER: Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effects upon life and human activities. Most people think of weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, visibility, wind, and atmospheric pressure, as in high and low pressure. In most places, weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season.

CLIMATE: Climate is the description of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area.

Some scientists define climate as the average weather for a particular region and time period, usually taken over 30-years. When scientists talk about climate, they're looking at averages of precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hail storms, and other measures of the weather that occur over a long period in a particular place.

For example, after looking at rain gauge data, lake and reservoir levels, and satellite data, scientists can tell if during a summer, an area was drier than average. If it continues to be drier than normal over the course of many summers, than it would likely indicate a change in the climate.

In the context of climate change: Weather varies all the time, but climate doesn't vary nearly as quickly.

The Earth's climate is changing relatively quickly (relative to its usual pace) now due to an enhanced greenhouse effect caused by humans emissions of greenhouse gases, and most locations are experiencing a net warming as a result. This doesn't mean it can't get cold anymore, or even that record cold temperatures will no longer occur. But it does mean that, in most areas, heat waves (or unusual warmth in the winter) will be warmer and cold snaps (or cool periods in summer) will not be as cold.

The time scale of climate is not nearly as intuitive as that of weather, so even people who understand this have a tendency to be influenced only by the most recent weather they experience. You can observe this effect by watching the news during both cold snaps and heat waves, which will be either given as evidence for or against the warming of the Earth. In reality, you cannot attribute either to a changing climate due to the small spatial and temporal scale of these events; weather variability will always be of greater magnitude than observed changes in climate.

Answer 2

Weather refers to short-term conditions, whereas climate refers to long-term conditions.

Answer 3

Weather is what is happening today.

Climate is the average weather over a period of time, say, thirty years.

Answer 4

Weather reflects short-term conditions of the atmosphere while climate is the average daily weather for an extended period of time at a certain location

A storm darkens the sky at the mouth of the Russian River, north of Bodega Bay, Calif. Weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, is the average of weather over time and space.

We hear about weather and climate all of the time. Most of us check the local weather forecast to plan our days. And climate change is certainly a “hot” topic in the news. There is, however, still a lot of confusion over the difference between the two.

Think about it this way: Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.

Weather is what you see outside on any particular day. So, for example, it may be 75° degrees and sunny or it could be 20° degrees with heavy snow. That’s the weather.

Climate is the average of that weather. For example, you can expect snow in the Northeast in January or for it to be hot and humid in the Southeast in July. This is climate. The climate record also includes extreme values such as record high temperatures or record amounts of rainfall. If you’ve ever heard your local weather person say “today we hit a record high for this day,” she is talking about climate records.

So when we are talking about climate change, we are talking about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. In most places, weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, however, is the average of weather over time and space.

Answer 5

Weather refers to short-term variations in atmospheric conditions at a specific place and time, whereas climate change refers to long-term changes in average temperature, precipitation patterns, and other aspects of the Earth's climate system over a much larger spatial and temporal scale. Weather can change rapidly from day to day or even hour to hour, while climate change refers to trends and shifts in weather patterns over decades to centuries.

Answer 6

weather involves atmospheric changes such as rain tornados snow storms

climate involves the temperature of the planet such as climate change

Answer 7

The length of time over which the conditions are measured

Answer 8

WEATHER is what the weather man (or woman👩) tells ya

CLIMATE is like the average weather that a certain country gets e.g spains climate is hot most of the time.

Answer 9

Weather refers to the atmospheric conditions in an area at any given time. Climate change is a shift in the long-term trends in the weather, over the course of decades or more.