Characteristics of world weather and climate

How Are Climate And Weather Related?

Many people confuse climate and weather as the same thing. However, they do refer to two different atmospheric conditions. Weather is referring to short term conditions, and we look at the weather in terms of days and weeks, whereas climate is a much longer-term conclusion.

When we talk about the climate of a location, we are often looking at a time period of years, decades or even centuries. While they are two separate things, they are still related and do have an impact on one another.

How Is Weather Measured?
The weather of any given area can change on a daily basis and involves several factors that occur within the atmosphere. Temperature, humidity and rainfall all contribute to the weather, and these things will vary between locations.

Some areas will have hot and dry weather, while others may have cold and windy weather, and these weather conditions are monitored and predicted by meteorologists on a daily basis.

The daily temperature and precipitation make up the weather of a location, and the weather could be rain, sunshine snow, dry, humid, hot or cold.

How Is Climate Measured?
When the climate of an area is determined, scientists will consider the average temperature, precipitation, humidity, sunshine and wind over a long period of time. All these various aspects of the weather are used to make up the region’s climate, and the weather statistics of an area will be monitored for 30 years to determine the climate.

A region’s climate is made up of the average weather conditions over a long period of time, and the frequency of these different weather events including severe weather like snow and heavy rainfall.

How Are Climate And Weather Related?
The climate of a region is directly linked to the weather that occurs within that area. If a location has very cold weather the majority of the time, then it will be a cold climate as the average over a long period will be mainly cold weather. The climate of a region can also be used to help forecast the weather, for example, if an area has a hot climate, then there is a good chance that the weather will be hot as that is the norm for the region.

People often confuse climate and weather - the two really are quite different.