Understanding Weather & Climate

Weather – Refers to rain, sunshine characteristics, temperatures, humidity, wind characteristics, atmospheric pressure, and cloud cover. Weather can, for example, be: Sunny or cloudy, rainy or foggy, cold or hot etc.

• Weather changes every day and within a short time. It can be sunny now and rainy later and this varies from place to place.
• The main source of energy that drives the weather patterns is the sun.
• A meteorologist, sometimes called a weatherman, is someone who studies and analyzes weather patterns and predicts how the weather will be in the coming days.
• Weather is therefore the condition of a place over a short period, usually, hours, days, or weeks.

Climate – Climate refers to the long-term average of the weather conditions of a place, usually 30 years or more! It could be a tropical, polar, or desert climate.

• So, Climate could be a long-term average of weather.
• Did you know that it is very possible to have a cold winter (weather) even though the long-term average global temperatures are noted to be rising (Climate).
• The former is a weather event that occurs in a matter of days while the latter is a long-term change in the weather conditions that usually happens in decades.

The prevailing weather conditions of a place dictates the human activities in the area at such times. For example, most outdoor activities such as leisure and sporting in East Africa are planned during the dry and sunny seasons. When the wind is too strong and unpredictable during a heavy storm, aircraft take-off and landing are halted temporarily in an airport for some time.

The climate of a given area dictates the type of animals and plants that live and thrive in the same environment. For example, camels can easily survive the desert climate while polar bears can live and thrive in polar climate.

Climate does however definitely influence the weather. Places with a polar climate will have more snowy days (weather) and places with a tropical climate will usually have a lot of rainy weather during the rainy season.