Climate and weather can be hard to differentiate, especially when we live in a country like Canada where we can experience extreme temperature variation in a short amount of time. But understanding the difference between the two is crucial to understanding climate change (1).
Weather describes the frequent, and sometimes rapid, variation in temperature, precipitation, and winds in an area at any given time (1,2,3,4).
Climate describes the long-term averages, in some cases 30 years or more, in weather conditions. It is relatively stable and determines the weather expected at a given time in a given area (1,2,3,4).
So while the two are related they are not the same – weather changes frequently and sometimes rapidly, while climate remains relatively stable (1,2).
For example, in Canada, it is expected that July will be warmer than February – that’s climate. However, whether you’ll need a rain jacket, a coat, a vest, or just a t-shirt will depend on the day’s weather. You might even have to change your outfit a couple of times in the same day because of the weather (3,5)!
When people talk about climate change, they describe a shift in the average weather conditions of a region over a long period of time (1,2,3,4,6,7). These fluctuations can occur within a few years (i.e. El Niño), but significant shifts typically happen over decades, centuries, or even millennia (2,3).
The changes in climate that we are experiencing right now are happening at a much faster rate than what our planet has experienced in the past due to human activities (2,3,6,7,8).
The difference between climate and weather explains why it is still possible to experience unusually cold weather in the winter even though our planet’s climate is warming up because of climate change (9,10).
Sources: https://tinyurl.com/SUFClimateVsWeather
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Is it climate or is it weather? It can be hard to tell the difference, you can read more about the finer details here https://t.co/rpMTHetlDa
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