Climate and Weather By: Stefanie Sams

What is climate? The weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years.

What is weather? The state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc.

What are the similarities between climate and weather? They are both used interchangeably sometimes but differ in their measure of time, trends that affect them etc.

What are the differences between climate and weather? Weather speaks to the atmospheric conditions now or in the past or future. Climate speaks to the variations of weather over time. Weather changes from season to season, but the "sum" of the weather over time is climate. Weather changes, but climate isn't so changeable. The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time.

How has the change in climate created a change in weather patterns? The earth is heating up which is causing ice to melt and the melted ice causes floods.

How is the global climate changing? Is it getting warmer or colder? How do we know? Global warming changes the climate because of the way the earth is warming underground, therefore creating water temperatures to also rise, and changing weather, with really bad storms. Temperatures are getting warmer We know that the earth has become warmer over the last century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), reports that the average surface temperature of the earth has increased during the twentieth century by about 0.6° ± 0.2°C. (The ± 0.2°C means that the increase might be as small as 0.4°C or as great as 0.8°C.) This may seem like a small shift, but although regional and short-term temperatures do fluctuate over a wide range, global temperatures are generally quite stable. In fact, the difference between today’s average global temperature and the average global temperature during the last Ice Age is only about 5 degrees C. Indeed, it’s warmer today around the world than at any time during the past 1000 years, and the warmest years of the previous century have occurred within the past decade.

Tundra Biome changes are…… Extremely cold climate Low biotic diversity Simple vegetation structure Limitation of drainage Short season of growth and reproduction Energy and nutrients in the form of dead organic material Large population oscillations

Is carbon related to climate change? Is water vapor related to climate change? How?

What could be causing global climate change? Studies show that global warming will increase the frequency or intensity of many kinds of extreme weather. While we can't attribute a particular heat wave or hurricane to global warming, the trends are clear: Global warming loads the atmospheric dice to roll "heat wave" or "intense storm" more often.

How does the changing climate impact biota: turtles, polar bears, penguins, migratory birds, humans, food production? The effects and impacts of climate change can be very serious. A major effect is the temperature rising higher. That means that places that are very hot like Africa will get hotter and very cold places such as Antarctica will cause the ice to melt.

How does the changing climate impact abiota: weather patterns, jet stream, hurricanes, precipitation levels, human events (e.g. Winter Olympics)?