WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEATHER AND CLIMATE?

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.

03_packice2.jpg (11638 bytes)

Understanding Antarctic weather and climate:

What was the coldest temperature recorded in Antarctica?
What was the warmest temperature?
What is today's temperature in McMurdo Station?
Compare today's daily weather report for Antarctica with the coldest and warmest temperatures recorded.

South Georgia Island.jpg (24609 bytes)

Questions and Answers about Snow

Find two new facts about snow.

Go back to home page