Climate and Weather: Difference between the two terms

Many people often get confused while using the two words climate and weather. What exactly is the difference between the two terms?

Weather stands for the state of the atmosphere for a short period at a specific place. But, climate is the weather pattern for a longer period.   

We have seen weather forecasts in television channels. It covers the forecast for next day or next twenty four hours. The  best way to differentiate between weather and climate is relating the short period of weather to the announcement in television. 

weather climate

Let us go some more deep. 

What are the factors that influence weather and climate? 

Weather and climate at a place are decided mainly by five components and they are atmospheric pressure, wind, temperature, humidity and rain. The study of these components makes scientists to forecast weather and climate conditions.  The branch of atmospheric science that studies weather is meteorology. The study of climate is known as climatology. The study of ancient climates is termed paleoclimatology. 

Weather

Weather is the state of atmosphere for a short period. By state of atmosphere what is meant is whether it is dry or wet, cloudy or rainy, hot or cold etc. The main cause of weather is the air pressure differential between two places. As you are aware, air pressure and temperature vary as latitude and altitude vary. Weather changes occur in the troposphere, the lowest layer of atmosphere lying just below stratosphere layer. Weather patterns are influenced by the human activities in agriculture and industry.

Climate

Climate is the state of atmosphere over longer periods of time, usually over a 30 year period. It generally is a statistics of weather. Latitude, altitude, terrain and nearby waterbodies often impact climate. 

The axis of earth is tilted and sunlight reaches at different angles at different times of the year. The varying intensity of sunlight leads to climatic changes over periods of hundreds of years.

Why weather forecasts often fail?

Formal recording of data relating to weather started in nineteenth century. Despite the best efforts, human beings are yet to succeed in exact prediction of weather conditions. The atmosphere is chaotic in nature and a small change results in multiple impacts in the atmosphere. We are yet to develop precise method to assess such impacts and this often results in inaccurate prediction of weather.

 
                                                               TheCS

How does groundwater get accumulated?

What is desert varnish?

 

Comments

  1. By Rebecka

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*