The notion that the terms weather and climate are, in some way, interchangeable adds confusion to the politics of climate change and global warming in the media. The two phrases are frequently used interchangeably, apparently because they are both determined by the same factors (sunlight, temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, precipitation, etc.), but there is more to the tale. The duration of weather and climate is their primary distinction. Much like how one baseball inning compares to the entire game, weather and climate are related to one another.
The term “weather” refers to a group of atmospheric conditions that exist in one place for a brief length of time, such as throughout the day, at night, or at any given time of the day. Your local meteorologist is describing the weather for a certain period of a given day when they state that it will be partly sunny and 80 degrees today with 10-mile-per-hour southwesterly winds and high humidity. However, climate refers to the average state of the atmosphere for a certain location over a lengthy period of time, such as spanning spans of 30 years or more. Additionally, weather conditions for a specific location, neighborhood, town, or city on the surface of the Earth change from hour to hour and sometimes even from moment to moment. On the other hand, climate conditions are far less erratic and are frequently used to define larger areas, such as regions, entire countries, or even groups of countries.
Climate conditions also differ between one section of the earth and another. We are aware that the Amazon River region in South America and the rocky coast of Alaska have far colder and wetter climates than Africa’s Sahara. Each of these regions in the world has a very different set of factors that influence atmospheric conditions. Because of the Sahara’s high pressure and tropical climate, more solar radiation may penetrate the atmosphere and heat the land all year long. The Pacific coast of Alaska, on the other hand, is influenced by warm ocean currents that flow close by, the area’s subarctic location, the large changes in daylight hours between summer and winter, and its proximity to the ocean.
Given that the weather is constantly changing, it is understandable why those who view weather and climate as being equivalent might not consider the issue of climate change to be very serious. However, the effects of even a small change in climate can be far worse than a bad afternoon of weather. Specialized plants and animals that have evolved to adapt to a particular set of climatic circumstances in the wild struggle when suddenly placed in environments that are unsuitable for them. Because of increased risks from unforeseen flooding, droughts, or the consequences of unseasonable cold snaps, formerly predictable climate conditions become more variable in the human realm, and crop yields suffer as a result.
