Avatar: Weather and Climate

Weather describes an area’s short-term physical conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed, humidity, and cloud cover. Climate, on the other hand, describes the area’s average weather conditions over a long time. Climate is a region’s general pattern of atmospheric and weather conditions over years, decades or even centuries. In other words, weather is what we have one day at a time; climate is what we observe on average for a place over long periods of time. Mark Twain, a famous American writer, summed it up well when he said, "Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."

Listen to the following presentation on the connection between the atmosphere, oceans, weather, and climate. Select Play to begin the avatar video, and then use the navigation buttons to pause/stop, continue, or reset the avatar. Watch the presentation as often as you would like and take notes as you follow along. Be sure to set your volume at a reasonable level before you begin.

Text Version

Answer the following questions to practice what you learned. Click on the question to check your answer.

What is the difference between weather and climate?
 

Weather describes the short-term conditions of temperature, precipitation, humidity, cloud cover, and wind speed. Climate describes the long-term expectations of temperature and precipitation for a given area.

What are some ways that the atmosphere and the oceans drive weather and climate?
 

The atmosphere creates winds that transport heat around the globe. The oceans, likewise, have currents that transport heat energy and redistribute it over Earth. Also, evaporation of water from the oceans into the atmosphere allows for the creation of clouds and the formation of precipitation.