What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

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.

 branch of ivy covered in frosta grey and rainy day in a small Victorian rural town, Australia

Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effects upon life and human activity. The difference between weather and climate is that weather consists of the short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere. Most people think of weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, visibility, wind, and atmospheric pressure, as in high and low pressure.

In most places, weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, however, is the average of weather over time and space.

two lightning strikes touching down on a metropolitan citya man riding a camel in the desert in Morocco

An easy way to remember the difference is that climate is what you expect, like a very hot summer, and weather is what you get, like a hot day with pop-up thunderstorms.

looking out of the car on a wet and miserable weekendalpine scene with a thick covering of clean white snow

Want to learn more? NASA has great resources for understanding the difference between weather and climate. 


Sources of images used for this section as they appear, top to bottom: