What is the difference between Weather and Climate? Explain.?

Question

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Be specific! And tell me what you know!

Answer 1

The difference is the time scale.  Weather is short term.  It is highly variable.  Climate is longer term, and much steadier.

So what's "short term' and "long term"?  Giving you a picture helps a lot here.  Since I can't post a graph I HAVE to post a link.  The graph below gives you a great idea.  See how the yearly average jumps around?  That's weather.  The red line is the "5 year average".  See how much steadier it is?  That's climate.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

EDIT - The term "steadier" refers to the time scale of a human lifetime.  I'll agree climate is just as variable over millennia.

The whole thing here is the time scale.

Answer 2

Weather is what they predict and it always changes.

Climate is the average of all the numbers you have

Answer 3

The definition of weather, from the source listed  below.

"Atmospheric condition at any given time or place. It is measured in terms of such things as wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, and precipitation. In most places, weather can change from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the "average weather", or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system. A simple way of remembering the difference is that climate is what you expect (e.g. cold winters) and 'weather' is what you get (e.g. a blizzard)."

This is the best, most useful definition I've found.  I hope it's helpful to you.

Answer 4

Bob said:

"Climate is longer term, and much steadier."

This is false. Climate is almost as variable as weather, but on a different time scale.

Answer 5

weather is short term (less predictable and always changing)

climate is summary of the weather of a certain location from information gathered over a period of time.

ie. a sentence referring to weather would be:

It is raining tomorrow.

a sentence referring to climate would be:

Mexico is usually very hot in the summer.