Describe the difference between weather and climate.?

Question

Describe the difference between weather and climate.

Answer 1

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html


What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

02.01.05


The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time.

When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. Today, children always hear stories from their parents and grandparents about how snow was always piled up to their waists as they trudged off to school. Children today in most areas of the country haven't experienced those kinds of dreadful snow-packed winters, except for the Northeastern U.S. in January 2005. The change in recent winter snows indicate that the climate has changed since their parents were young.

If summers seem hotter lately, then the recent climate may have changed. In various parts of the world, some people have even noticed that springtime comes earlier now than it did 30 years ago. An earlier springtime is indicative of a possible change in the climate.

What Weather Means
Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effects upon life and human activities. The difference between weather and climate is that weather consists of the short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere. 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, however, is the average of weather over time and space. An easy way to remember the difference is that climate is what you expect, like a very hot summer, and weather is what you get, like a hot day with pop-up thunderstorms.


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http://nsidc.org/arcticmet/basics/weather_vs_climate.html

Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere, and its short-term (minutes to weeks) variation. Popularly, weather is thought of as the combination of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, visibility, and wind. We talk about the weather in terms of "What will it be like today?", "How hot is it right now?", and "When will that storm hit our section of the country?"

Climate is defined as statistical weather information that describes the variation of weather at a given place for a specified interval. In popular usage, it represents the synthesis of weather; more formally it is the weather of a locality averaged over some period (usually 30 years) plus statistics of weather extremes.

We talk about climate change in terms of years, decades or even centuries. Scientists study climate to look for trends or cycles of variability (such as the changes in wind patterns, ocean surface temperatures and precipitation over the equatorial Pacific that result in El Niño and La Niña), and also to place cycles or other phenomena into the bigger picture of possible longer term or more permanent climate changes.

Answer 2

the difference between weather and climate is the measure of time. Weather is what the conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time and climate is the average weather over a very long period of time. Weather means conditions such as air temperature, rain, snow, wind, or other atmospheric phenomena, on a particular day. Climate describes what kind of weather a particular location is likely to have either seasonally or all the time; for example, Albuquerque has a dry climate, so you expect that it will rarely rain there, because a low amount of rain is the average condition there measured long enough to know what to expect. Weather is changes that occur everyday, so it can be changed daily. Climate is statistics on weather, describing day to day patterns at a specific location for a certain amount of time, usually annually. Weather speaks to the atmospheric conditions now or in the past or future. Climate speaks to the variations of weather over time. Weather changes from season to season, but the "sum" of the weather over time is climate. Weather changes, but climate isn't so changable. Certainly we see climate changing rapidly now as the general warming of the earth has been characterized as "global climate change" meaning the general weather everywhere isn't going to "be like it used to" in the near future. Climate is recorded weather over a period of time (like over a year). Weather is current conditions (like today). Weather is the sun and the rain and the snow and the sleet and the hail and a sunny day. climate is what the weather isn't. Weather is wind. climate is heat

Answer 3

The weather is what is happening today. Climate is what happens over large periods of time. You have to have 30 years of data in order to be able to have a climatic average...but personally I think you should look at longer time periods than this.

Answer 4

Weather is the daily conditions of the atmosphere. Climate is derived from consistent and recurring weather patterns over a long period of time.