Weather versus climate. Do you know the difference?

(This is an edited version of an article published in the Sustainable Macleod newsletter in 2019)

Weather is not the same as climate!
 
Weather is a short term phenomenon referring to everyday atmospheric conditions. It works on a short-term day to day basis, varies constantly and is affected by all the things you see on the weather map – air pressure, rain, clouds, sun, humidity, wind etc. It is what you experience on a particular day. Meteorologists study and predict weather.

Climate is a long term measure reflecting the way the atmosphere acts over a long period. It is the standard pattern of weather and is meant to be constant. It reflects average long term changes in behaviour of weather, such as the usual changes in season. It helps you work out what weather behaviour is normal for the particular time of the year.  It is studied by climatologists. 
 
Climate change refers to the rise in long term world temperature of both the atmosphere and the oceans – which have risen by almost 1C, and closing in on a rise of 1.5C. 
 
This rise in temperature may seem very small and it would be in weather terms but it is huge in global climate terms. It is caused by carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels and trapping heat from the sun in our atmosphere, a bit like a thermal blanket. This cannot be solved by technology or nature. It can only be solved by reducing emissions very fast indeed.

Written by Robin Gale-Baker and Catherine Ganter. Catherine is a member of Sustainable Macleod and a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology.