The difference between weather and climate primarily lies in the time scale and scope of atmospheric conditions they describe:
- Weather refers to the short-term atmospheric conditions in a specific place at a specific time. This includes daily or even minute-to-minute changes such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and other factors. Weather events can be a rainstorm, a sunny day, or a cold snap, and they typically last from hours to weeks
- Climate is the average of weather conditions over a long period, typically 30 years or more, in a particular region. It reflects the typical patterns of temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, and other atmospheric factors, providing an expectation of what the weather is generally like in that area. Climate is less variable and describes long-term trends rather than daily fluctuations
In summary, weather is what you get day-to-day, while climate is what you expect based on long-term averages. For example, a snowy day in April is weather, but the fact that northern Europe generally has cold, snowy winters is climate
. This distinction helps explain why short-term weather can vary greatly even as the long-term climate trends continue to change, such as in the context of global warming
