1. What is the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

2.  Climate is weather information that describes the weather for a specified time (usually 30 years) and will include information about weather extremes. Climate

3. * Some of the same characteristics of weather are used to describe climate. * Climatologists depend on large amounts of data collected over a long period of time to determine if the current weather patterns are usual. * Weather measurements have been recorded for about 200 years.years.

4. What is the key factor in determining the difference between weather and climate?

5. Scientists study climate to look for trends or cycles of variability. * Changes in wind patterns * Ocean surface temperatures * Precipitation over the equatorial Pacific resulting in El Niño and La Niña

6. Climate change is described in terms of years, decades, or even centuries. Scientists study climate to place cycles or other phenomena into the bigger picture of possible longer term or more permanent climate changes

7.  Worldwide averages are often used to describe global climate.  Global climate can change, but it does not occur easily or quickly.  Regional averages may vary a bit without causing a change in global climate. Global Climate

8.  For example: If the climate of Africa becomes warmer and the climate of Mexico becomes cooler, the global average may not change. The cooling of one area may offset the warming of another.  However, if Africa keeps warming more and it’s not balanced by other areas that cool, then global climate warms. It appears that the warming trend has been the case over the past century. Examples of Change