Lessons · Teaching · weather against climate
Weather is today and climate is the pattern
Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a place at a moment: temperature, precipitation, wind, cloud, pressure. Climate is the pattern of weather at that place averaged over decades. One cold week is weather and says nothing on its own about climate.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
This is the distinction on which almost every public confusion about climate rests, and an elementary examination asks it directly. It is also a statistics lesson wearing a coat: one observation against a long-run average.
How to think about it
Ask over what period a statement is made. Today, this week, this month: weather. Thirty years: climate. Then read any instrument by what it measures, since the names are examined: thermometer, rain gauge, anemometer, barometer, wind vane.
Worked example
Weather: a measurement now, at one placeIt changes hour to hour and is forecast, not averaged.
Climate: the average and the range over decades at that placeWhich is why one cold week proves nothing either way.
Thermometer for temperature, rain gauge for precipitation, anemometer for wind speedThe three an elementary examination names most often.
Barometer for air pressure, and falling pressure usually means unsettled weather comingPressure is the one pupils have never heard of and it predicts the most.
Your turn
Name the instrument that measures wind speed.
Wind speed is measured with an
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Offering one hot day or one cold week as evidence about climate. A single observation cannot speak about a thirty-year average, in either direction, and saying so is the honest teaching.