# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How climate change and the coronavirus are linked

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
COVID-19 has disrupted communities worldwide but could this period teach us anything about another existential threat we are facing: the climate crisis?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Twice per year, Ed Dever's group at Oregon State University in Corvallis heads out to sea off the Oregon and Washington coasts to refurbish and clean more than 100 delicate sensors that make up one segment of a US$44-million-per-year scientific network called the Ocean Observatories Initiative. "If this had been a normal year, I would have been at sea right now," he says.

Instead, Dever is one of many scientists sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, watching from afar as precious field data disappear and instruments degrade. The scientific pause could imperil weather forecasts in the near term, and threaten long-standing climate studies. In some cases, researchers are expecting gaps in data that have been collected regularly for decades. "The break in the scientific record is probably unprecedented," says Frank Davis, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Davis is the executive director of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) programme, a network of 30 ecological sites stretching from the far north of Alaska all the way down to Antarctica. Consisting of both urban and rural locations, the LTER network allows scientists to study ecological processes over decades - from the impact of dwindling snowfalls on the mountains of Colorado to the effects of pollution in a Baltimore stream. At some sites, this might be the first interruption in more than 40 years, he says. "That's painful for the scientists involved."

Weather forecasting takes a hit

Other monitoring programmes are facing similar gaps. Scientists often ride along on the commercial container ships that criss-cross the world's oceans, collecting data and deploying a variety of instruments that measure weather, as well as currents and other properties of the ocean. Most of those ships are still running, but travel restrictions mean that scientists are no longer allowed on board, says Justine Parks, a marine technician who manages one such programme at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

Port strikes and political instability have halted specific cruises in the past, Parks says. But to her knowledge, this is the first time that the entire programme has shut down for an extended period of time.

Measurements made at sea are important for forecasting weather over the oceans, as well as for keeping longer-term records of ocean health and climate change, says Emma Heslop, a programme specialist in ocean observations at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris. Her group is still trying to assess the extent of the damage that the pandemic is doing to the ocean-observing community as a whole, but researchers are already feeling some effects. Over the past 2 months, they've seen steadily declining numbers of shipboard observations - amounting to, since the beginning of February, a 15% loss of stations that are reporting data. And although the community is working hard to figure out other ways to collect important data, the situation is likely to worsen as the pandemic stretches on. "The longer the restrictions are in place," she says, "the longer it will take for our operations to recover."

Commercial flights provide invaluable weather data, too - measuring temperature, pressure and wind speeds as they cruise. The meteorological data provided by the US aircraft fleet had decreased to half its normal levels as of 31 March, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Maintenance woes

Satellites and weather balloons can fill in some gaps, but certain aircraft data are irreplaceable. "It's certainly the case that with the virtual loss of worldwide aviation, there is a gap in some of the records," says Grahame Madge, a spokesperson for the UK Met Office in Exeter.

The Met Office estimates that the loss of aircraft observations will increase their forecast error by 1-2%, but notes that, in areas where flights are typically more abundant, scientists' forecast accuracy might suffer even more. The Met Office maintains more than 250 UK weather stations that provide continuous or daily feeds of autonomously collected atmospheric and weather data. For now, those systems are functioning just fine, but if an instrument goes down, Madge says, it will be difficult to get staff out to fix the problem.

Much of the world's atmospheric-monitoring data are collected with little to no human intervention, and such projects should be able to keep running. The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment, for example, measures ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases and other trace components in the atmosphere at 13 remote sites around the globe. Many of their systems are autonomous: the stations are each staffed by one or two people who perform routine maintenance to keep the instruments running. Ray Weiss, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps who leads the project, says that two instruments have broken down so far, but the loss of a single instrument or even a whole site for a few weeks is unlikely to jeopardize the network's monitoring capabilities. Arlyn Andrews, who runs NOAA's greenhouse-gas-monitoring programme, says that impacts on that network have been "relatively minor", and less than 5% of the NOAA sites have lost data so far.

Unless the situation gets a whole lot worse, Weiss anticipates that the programme will escape relatively unscathed. "We're limping through, is the bottom line."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How COVID-19 could ruin weather forecasts and climate records

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Twice per year, Ed Dever's group at Oregon State University in Corvallis heads out to sea off the Oregon and Washington coasts to refurbish and clean more than 100 delicate sensors that make up one segment of a US$44-million-per-year scientific network called the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sure, emissions have fallen. But a closer look at how the global crisis is influencing the environment reveals some surprising dynamics.

It is an invisible, deadly menace. It's causing almost unfathomable economic destruction. We knew it was coming, but were caught woefully unprepared. It tricked nations into blaming one another-the US being the primary antagonist-instead of working together to stop it.

It is the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and it is climate change. The two are intimately linked: As you'd expect, emissions have fallen as people drive less and industries grind to a halt. But dig deeper into how the pandemic is influencing the climate, and surprising and often counterintuitive dynamics begin to emerge. This is your guide to those complexities.
Editor's note: We'll be updating this story as more research becomes available.

Yes, Emissions Are Falling. But Not for Long

Back in February, an analysis by the climate group Carbon Brief found that as the pandemic seized hold of China's economy and heavy industries shuttered, emissions from the country plummeted by an incredible 25 percent. Another analysis by Carbon Brief in early April estimated that globally this year, emissions could fall by 5.5 percent from 2019 levels. That figure may seem low, given that fewer cars are on roads and industries have stalled, but with context, it's stunning: Until now, emissions have been reliably increasing by a few percent year after year. That's happening even though the world's nations pledged to individually reduce their emissions as part of the Paris Agreement, with the ultimate goal of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial global temperatures.

The 5.5 percent figure tops the 3 percent reduction in emissions that followed the 2008 financial crash, when economies also slowed and people traveled less. But emissions bounced right back as the economy recovered. Indeed, says Zeke Hausfather, the director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute, which advocates for climate action, we can expect economies to roar back with fervor to make up for lost income. "Broadly speaking, the only real times we've seen large emission reductions globally in the past few decades is during major recessions," Hausfather told WIRED in March. "But even then, the effects are often smaller than you think. It generally doesn't lead to any sort of systematic change."

Electricity Use in the US Has Declined Slightly, But Gasoline Sales Dropped Big Time

Anecdotally, we can say that Americans are driving far less, given all the empty freeways. And now Northern Arizona University climate scientist Kevin Gurney has the data to back it up: The amount of gasoline supplied in the US-a close measurement of direct consumption-fell by 50 percent over the two-week period ending April 3. "Not surprising, given what we all would expect to happen, but it's just stunning to see it," Gurney says. "I've never seen anything like it in my 25 years of looking at this data."

Interestingly, the amount of diesel supplied has remained fairly stable. That's probably due to it being more of a commercial fuel, used for the semi trucks that are still making deliveries while the rest of us keep our cars in the garage.

Got a coronavirus-related news tip? Send it to us at covidtips@wired.com.

Electricity use across the country has declined a bit, but nowhere near as dramatically as with fuel supplies. "I think the speculation is a lot of the activity that uses electricity isn't going down, it's just shifting where it's occurring," Gurney adds. "So instead of commercial buildings being leaned on a little more heavily between 9 and 5, we're at home using energy."

This might offer a clue to why the emissions reductions worldwide are so much smaller than the 25 percent reduction scientists saw in China's emissions earlier this year. It could depend on the structure of different nations' economies. China is a major manufacturing center, which uses massive amounts of energy to keep production running. But the US and many other nations have offshored much of their manufacturing and transitioned into being service economies. When China's workers go home, those emission-heavy industries close down. When workers in some other nations go home, they keep working, shifting the energy consumption from offices to houses.

Don't assume, though, that industrial energy consumption in the US won't also change dramatically in the coming weeks. "We're still in the middle of this," Gurney says. "I would be hesitant to say that we're not going to see a big industrial signal. I think it tends to lag a little bit because a lot of industry will continue to produce."

This Is Our Chance to Reinvent Cities

If the streets are a city's veins, cars are the blood coursing through them-but they're a pathogen, of sorts. Cars killed over 6,000 pedestrians in 2018 in the US, and air pollution kills perhaps 200,000 more here each year.

With all those cars now sequestered in garages, air quality around the world has gone through the roof. In March, for instance, researchers at Columbia University calculated that carbon monoxide emissions in New York City, mostly coming from vehicles, fell by 50 percent. With that will come a dramatic improvement in public health, and at just the right time: New research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has shown that air pollution is associated with higher Covid-19 death rates. They did this by looking at 3,000 US counties and comparing Covid-19 deaths and levels of fine particulate matter in the air. They found that even small increases in long-term exposure to the pollutants leads to significantly higher mortality. That makes sense, since this is a disease that attacks the lungs.

Read all of our coronavirus coverage here.

But maybe our suddenly clearer skies don't have to be temporary. We're getting a taste of how much more livable our cities would be if we designed them for people, not cars. Closing roads to cars altogether-as cities like Boston and Oakland, California, have done during the crisis-means people can walk and bike in safety, itself a boost to public health.

"We call this a 'psychic outcome,' of people realizing what we've absorbed from the slow intensification of urban life as it relates to vehicles," Gurney notes. "It's potentially a moment where we can get a clearer picture of what we've slowly kind of numbed ourselves to. Cities are profoundly dominated by vehicles."

Done incorrectly, though, a rethinking of cities could exacerbate inequalities. Cities have, necessarily, severely curtailed public transportation to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. But this disproportionately affects those who can't afford cars, and who might rely on public transport to get to their essential jobs or shop for food.

"The actions cities are taking that are purely to give people room to roam, not necessarily room to get anywhere, I think they're useful," Tabitha Combs, who studies transportation planning and policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told WIRED in April. "But I don't think they're enough and I don't think they're equitable."

In a Weird Way, Some Air Pollution Actually Reduces Warming

In March, researchers at the University of Washington and Goethe University Frankfurt published a study that quantified one of the stranger consequences of air pollution: It can actually bounce the sun's energy back into space, thus helping cool the planet.

Specifically, they looked at a phenomenon called cloud brightening, in which the particulate sulfate pollution that cargo ships spew makes its way into clouds. The sulfate particles attract water vapor, making a cloud brighter, and therefore better able to reflect sunlight. Ships actually leave trails of brightened clouds known as "ship tracks" as they chug across the oceans.

The researchers analyzed a shipping lane in the south Atlantic Ocean, which conveniently has winds blowing along it, instead of across it. For this reason, they could clearly delineate how reflective the clouds are directly over the lane, and just outside it, and compare the two. The effect turns out to be substantial: The brightened clouds can block an additional 2 watts of solar energy from reaching each square meter of the ocean's surface.

They then calculated what that would mean at the planetary scale over both land and sea, and found that, in general, pollution-seeded clouds block 1 watt of energy per square meter of planet Earth. For comparison, anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions trap 3 watts per square meter. "We're saying globally, from all types of industrial pollution, that has offset approximately a third of the greenhouse gas warming that we've experienced to the present," says University of Washington atmospheric scientist Michael Diamond, lead author on the study.

That's got Diamond and his colleagues wondering how that phenomenon is now playing out across the world as air quality improves. This of course varies with the fuel: The reason cargo ships seed clouds so well is that they use super-dirty fuel that flings lots of sulfate into the air (less so now, though, as international regulations mandating low-sulfur fuel went into effect January 1). Coal and natural-gas power plants on land don't produce sulfates on the scale that ship fuel does. The researchers also have to factor in how land and sea absorb the sun's energy differently. While you might think the ocean would be great at reflecting light, if you look at it from space, it's basically black. That's why the oceans have been warming so dramatically of late.

To be clear: Air pollution is a major threat to human health. The carbon monoxide cars spew is toxic, and CO ₂ has led to runaway global warming. But in a bizarre way, this specific type of emission seems to help cool the planet.

Cheap Oil Means the Pandemic Is Producing Mountains of Plastic Waste

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the economics of recycling were a mess. For it to make financial sense to recycle plastic bottles, a recycling company has to make more money selling the recycled material than it takes to gather and process those bottles. Given the low price of oil in recent years, it's often cheaper for companies to buy virgin plastic bottles than recycled ones. (And oil producers' sales have crashed and the price of oil cratered even further now that we're all staying home.)

In the age of coronavirus, many recycling facilities are shutting down to protect their workers, so what little was recycled before now isn't recycled at all. At the same time, we're consuming more single-use plastic than ever. We're stocking up on soap and hand sanitizer, and Amazon is hiring 100,000 extra workers to keep up demand, packing individually wrapped products into boxes. People are getting plastic-sheathed takeout from restaurants instead of dining in and eating off of reusable plates with metal utensils. "So disposability is going like crazy," Tom Szaky, the founder and CEO of the recycling company TerraCycle, told WIRED. "And during Covid, we saw that the recycling equation that was bad anyway and trending down is even worse."

Every Nation Needs a Big, Bold, New Green Deal

An inconvenient truth about fossil fuels is that they're an extremely useful and cheap form of energy. For an economically developing country in particular, the allure of fossil fuels is they allow rapid industrialization. Renewable energies like solar wind are still relatively expensive to set up compared with coal and natural gas, which is why governments usually subsidize them to green their economies.

But looking back at the 2008 financial crisis shows a way forward: The stimulus package in the US helped invigorate the green-energy economy by pumping $90 billion into the development of technologies like geothermal power, biofuels, and solar energy. "If you look at the data, a few years after that, you do start to see a huge increase in solar," says Louisiana State University environmental scientist Brian Snyder.

The likelihood of the Trump administration doing the same has about a snowball's chance on this increasingly warm planet. But if the feds keep interest rates low to make borrowing easier and jump-start the economy, it'll be easier to finance a wind farm or solar facility. "So that might be an effect where certainly the administration didn't mean to do it, but they nonetheless sort of juice the ability of some renewable energy systems to replace coal," adds Snyder. The challenge, though, will be making those systems economically attractive enough given the staying power of oil, which is now even cheaper thanks to the pandemic.

Climate Research in the Coronavirus Age

Scientists, they're just like us-in the sense that they too are stuck at home during the pandemic. And that's a big problem for climate science. "It's disruptive, there's no question," says Gurney, the climate scientist at Northern Arizona University. "For anybody who's got to do fieldwork, or relies on things that aren't automated instrumentation out there, this is a serious, serious problem."

If you can't get on a boat, you can't collect data on how the oceans are warming and acidifying. Scientists who monitor the effects of climate change on wildlife can't go out and collect photos from camera traps. Conserving species imperiled by climate change isn't a passive process-conservationists have to be out there actively monitoring and preserving their habitats. If you study how permafrost is thawing in the Arctic, you're out of luck as well. Even if a scientist can collect data remotely, for instance by aggregating government data, they may not have access to the requisite computing power at home.

"There will probably be a record gap that'll be a problem, and if it goes on long enough it'll be a real problem," says Gurney. "A few weeks, you could say 'Well, we might be able to deal with that.' But if it turns into months, that becomes a significant problem for anybody who has to go out in the field."

More From WIRED on Covid-19

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Is the Coronavirus Pandemic Affecting Climate Change?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sure, emissions have fallen. But a closer look at how the global crisis is influencing the environment reveals some surprising dynamics. It is an invisible, deadly menace. It's causing almost unfathomable economic destruction. We knew it was coming, but were caught woefully unprepared.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On Earth Day's 50th anniversary, Petteri Taalas - secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - and Lars Peter Riishojgaard, who directs its Earth-system branch, talk to James Dacey about the WMO's response to the global pandemic

Facing the storm Petteri Taalas believes that COVID-19 recovery efforts must include investment in climate-friendly infrastructure. (Courtesy: WMO)

Petteri Taalas, WMO secretary-general

Do you think the current - temporary - reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and other human activities since the world went into lockdown following the COVID-19 outbreak can have a lasting impact on the environment and long-term climate trends?

There have been reported 6% reductions in carbon emissions and 40% reductions in atmospheric pollution, especially nitrous oxide emissions [over the last few months]. The pollution drop varies according to geographical location - polluted areas in China, India, Italy and France have seen short-term improvements following the drop of traffic and industrial activities. There was a phaseout of the previous continuous carbon-emission growth after the 2008 financial crisis, but thereafter the emission growth unfortunately continued. This is likely to happen once again when the COVID crisis is over, if no other efforts are made.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that fast and co-ordinated global action is possible in the face of emergency. What do you see as the main lessons that can be applied to tackling climate change?

As as optimist, I hope that the ability of mankind to join forces to act against a common enemy will be an asset while tackling the climate problem. One should keep in mind that both the economic and human wellbeing impacts of climate change would be an order of magnitude higher and would persist for hundreds of years, if we fail in climate mitigation.

It would be desirable to invest in climate-friendly industrial, energy and transport solutions while recovery investments are being made. In the best case this would speed up the crucially needed transition. The science community has shown - and will show - its power while tackling the COVID challenge. This may help in recovery of scientific authority after several post-truth years.

What is your key takeaway message on this 50th anniversary of Earth Day?

We are living on a unique and great planet. It is worthwhile to preserve it in good shape for the coming generations by tackling the climate change and population growth problems. Let's make Earth great again!

Lars Peter Riishojgaard, director of the WMO's Earth-system branch in the WMO's infrastructure department

How does the WMO's Global Observing System (GOS) feed into weather forecasting and climate modelling?

The observations provided by the WMO's Global Observing System (GOS) provide the basis for any predictive modelling of weather and climate. Numerical weather prediction is what is mathematically called an initial value problem - the initial value comes from the observations, and without those no model predictions can be made. Fortunately most parts of the GOS continue to function despite the challenges of the pandemic, albeit at a reduced level for some components.

Many aspects of the GOS are automated, but what will be the major challenges if national lockdowns continue for months?

There are three major areas of impact. First, the observations provided by commercial aircraft are currently down to about 25% of normal in terms of volume. Second, we are already seeing substantial reductions in standard meteorological observations in those parts of the world where automation has not yet been widely adopted - locations in Africa, South and Central America. And third, there are challenges for the marine parts of the observing system: ships, floats, drifting and moored buoys. Most of these systems are automated, but planned repair, maintenance and resupply work is currently halted, and we are seeing a slow decline in observation numbers as a result.

Many nations in the world - particularly developing countries - were already facing challenges due to weather and climate-related hazards. In what ways does the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbate those challenges?

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis is likely to be asymmetric also in terms of its impact on weather and climate prediction. The biggest impact on the availability of observations is seen in the regions that were already the mostly poorly observed, notably Africa and the small island states everywhere on the globe. There is very little redundancy and resilience in the observing system in those areas. In terms of impact on specific weather situations, this will not be fully known until after the crisis is over and statistical studies can be done over a period of time.

With the reduction of meteorological data from commercial flights, the use of "radiosondes" has increased during the pandemic. What are these instruments and where are they being used?

Radiosondes are small instrument packages flown under balloons rising up through the atmosphere to altitudes of 20 to 30 km, transmitting measurements of wind speed, temperature and humidity back to the ground. These are flown all over the world twice per day. But over Europe, where few aircraft observations are currently available, some services have increased their radiosonde flights to four per day.

Life in a carbon-neutral world

How about space observations of Earth's climate system - are the ground-based elements being affected?

The space-based systems are highly resilient to this particular type of crisis. Operational satellite systems, including their ground segments, are typically considered critical national assets. As such, they are planned, installed and staffed to ensure continued operation even in situations like the current one.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How COVID-19 is impacting global weather and climate observation - Physics World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On Earth Day's 50th anniversary, Petteri Taalas - secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - and Lars Peter Riishojgaard, who directs its Earth-system branch, talk to James Dacey about the WMO's response to the global pandemic There have been reported 6% reductions in carbon emissions and 40% reductions in atmospheric pollution, especially nitrous oxide emissions [over the last few months].

# data[].attributes.body
Thanks

# data[].attributes.body
guys i sent all the good articles i could find the other i did not send because they were not capable
by avi

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Climate isn't the same thing as weather. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere over a short period of time; climate is the average course of weather conditions for a particular location over a period of many years.

One of the factors that influences climate is the angle of the sun's rays. In the tropics, between 23.5° N and 23.5° S, there is at least one time of year when the noontime sun is directly overhead and its rays hit at a direct angle. This produces a hot climate with relatively small temperature differences between summer and winter.

In the Arctic and Antarctic (north or south of 66.5° latitude), there are times of year when the sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day (a phenomenon known as midnight sun) and times when it never rises. Even in the summer, the sun is low enough for temperatures to be lower than in the tropics, but the seasonal changes are much greater than in equatorial regions. Interior Alaska has seen temperatures as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

Closer to the Equator lie the temperate regions. These include the United States, Europe, China, and parts of Australia, South America, and southern Africa. They have the typical four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Climate is also controlled by wind, oceans, and mountains.

Winds bring moisture to land. North and south of the Equator, the trade winds blow from the northeast and southeast, respectively. These winds converge in the tropics, forcing air to rise. This produces thunderstorms, humidity, and monsoons.

North and south of the trade winds, about 30° from the Equator, there is relatively little wind, and therefore little moisture blowing inland from the oceans. Also, dry air is sinking back to the surface, warming in the process. This is why many of the world's great desert regions-the Sahara, Gulf, Iran, Iraq, and chunks of Mexico-lie at the same latitude. A similar band of deserts lies to the south in Australia, South America, and southern Africa.

Mountains force wind to rise as it crosses over them. This cools the air, causing moisture to condense in clouds and rain. This produces a wet climate on the upwind side of the mountains and an arid "rain shadow" on the downwind side.

Oceans provide moisture that fuels rainstorms. They also buffer the temperature of coastal regions, regardless of latitude.

In the early 1900s, climatologist Wladimir Köppen divided the world into five major climate groups.

Moist, tropical climates are hot and humid. Steppes and deserts are dry, with large temperature variations. Plentiful lakes, rivers, or nearby oceans give humid, midlatitude climates cool, damp winters, but they have hot, dry summers. Some of these climates are also called Mediterranean. Continental climates occur in the centers of large continents.

Mountain ranges (or sheer distance) block off sources of moisture, creating dry regions with large seasonal variations in temperature. Much of southern Canada, Russia, and parts of central Asia would fall into this category. Cold, or polar, climates round out Köppen's list. A sixth region, high elevations, was later added to the classification system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate isn't the same thing as weather. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere over a short period of time; climate is the average course of weather conditions for a particular location over a period of many years. One of the factors that influences climate is the angle of the sun's rays.

# data[].attributes.body
all articles in red
by avi

# data[].attributes.body
articles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Image

Weather-like this lightning storm in the Grand Canyon, in the U.S. state of Arizona-refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, whereas climate refers to atmospheric changes over longer periods of time.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Contrary to popular opinion, science is not divided on the issue of climate change. The overwhelming majority (97 percent) of scientists agree that global warming is real, and that it is largely caused by human activity. And yet we seem to be experiencing record-breaking cold winters; in January 2019, a polar vortex plunged parts of North America into Arctic conditions. It may seem counterintuitive but cold weather events like these do not disprove global warming, because weather and climate are two different things.

Understanding Weather

Weather refers to the short-term conditions of the lower atmosphere, such as precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure. It could be sunny, cloudy, rainy, foggy, cold, hot, windy, stormy, snowing ... the list goes on.

The sun drives different types of weather by heating air in the lower atmosphere at varying rates. Warm air rises and cold air rushes in to fill its place, causing wind. These winds, along with water vapor in the air, influence the formation and movement of clouds, precipitation, and storms.

The atmospheric conditions that influence weather are always fluctuating, which is why the weather is always changing. Meteorologists analyze data from satellites, weather stations, and buoys to predict weather conditions over the upcoming days or weeks. These forecasts are important because weather influences many aspects of human activity. Sailors and pilots, for example, need to know when there might be a big storm coming, and farmers need to plan around the weather to plant and harvest crops. Firefighters also keep track of daily weather in order to be prepared for the likelihood of forest fires. Weather forecasts are also useful for military mission planning, for features of trade, and for warning people of potentially dangerous weather conditions.

Understanding Climate

While weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, climate refers to atmospheric changes over longer periods of time, usually defined as 30 years or more. This is why it is possible to have an especially cold spell even though, on average, global temperatures are rising. The former is a weather event that takes place over the course of days, while the latter indicates an overall change in climate, which occurs over decades. In other words, the cold winter is a relatively small atmospheric perturbation within a much larger, long-term trend of warming.

Despite their differences, weather and climate are interlinked. As with weather, climate takes into account precipitation, wind speed and direction, humidity, and temperature. In fact, climate can be thought of as an average of weather conditions over time. More importantly, a change in climate can lead to changes in weather patterns.

Climate conditions vary between different regions of the world and influence the types of plants and animals that live there. For example, the Antarctic has a polar climate with subzero temperatures, violent winds, and some of the driest conditions on Earth. The organisms that live there are highly adapted to survive the extreme environment.

By contrast, the Amazon rainforest enjoys a tropical climate. Temperatures are consistently warm with high humidity, plenty of rainfall, and a lack of clearly defined seasons. These stable conditions support a very high diversity of plant and animal species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.

Our Climate Is Changing

The global climate has always been in a state of flux. However, it is changing much faster now than it has in the past, and this time human activities are to blame. One of the leading factors contributing to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil, which we use for transport, energy production, and industry.

Burning fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO ₂) into the atmosphere; CO ₂ is one of a group of chemicals known as greenhouse gases. They are so named because they allow heat from the sun to enter the atmosphere but stop it from escaping, much like the glass of a greenhouse. The overall effect is that the global temperature rises, leading to a phenomenon known as global warming.

Global warming is a type of climate change, and it is already having a measurable effect on the planet in the form of melting Arctic sea ice, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and a change in animal and plant ranges. The planet has already heated by about 0.8°C (1.4°F) in the last century, and temperatures have continued to rise.

Scientists cannot directly attribute any specific extreme weather event to climate change, but they are certain that climate change makes extreme weather more likely. In 2018, at least 5,000 people were killed and 28.9 million more required aid as a result of extreme weather events. The Indian state of Kerala was devastated by flooding; California was ravaged by a series of wildfires; and the strongest storm of the year, supertyphoon Mangkhut, crashed into the Philippines. It is likely that more frequent and more severe weather events are on the horizon.

Climate change is not a new concept, and yet little seems to have been done about it on a global scale. The greenhouse effect was first discovered in the 1800s, but it was not until 1988 that the global community galvanized to form the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since then, leaders from around the world have committed to a series of goals to combat climate change, the latest of which is the Paris Agreement in which 185 countries have pledged to stop global temperatures from rising by more than 2°C (3.6°F) above preindustrial levels. In 2015, all United Nations member states agreed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed to "provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future." SDG 13 in particular commands member states to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts."

Part of the reason the global community has been so slow to act on climate change could be the confusion surrounding distinctions between weather and climate. People are reluctant to believe that the climate is changing when they can look outside their window and see for themselves that the weather appears typical.

Interactives

Video

Websites

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society
Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society
Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

Producer

Clint Parks

Last Updated

Oct. 22, 2019

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

Media

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society
Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society
Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

Producer

Clint Parks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather or Climate ... What's the Difference?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Image Weather-like this lightning storm in the Grand Canyon, in the U.S. state of Arizona-refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, whereas climate refers to atmospheric changes over longer periods of time. Photograph by Michael Nichols Tuesday, October 22, 2019 Contrary to popular opinion, science is not divided on the issue of climate change.

# data[].attributes.body
articles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recently published articles from Weather and Climate Extremes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NASA.gov brings you the latest news, images and videos from America’s space agency, pioneering the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

# data[].attributes.body
I have added Rekha ma'am and divya hasn't joined padlet yet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why climate change makes extreme weather worse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Link Between Extreme Weather and Climate Change

# data[].attributes.body
very important

# data[].attributes.body
very important

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How do ocean currents work? - Jennifer Verduin

# data[].attributes.body
watch it, it is important

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Climate change: Earth's giant game of Tetris - Joss Fong

# data[].attributes.body
guys when shall i make the water cycle and if u want me to search any particular topic then tell me
- avi

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Take a moment and think about the weather today where you are. Is it normal or typical? Is it what you'd expect? If it's been cool the past few days but the temperature is climbing today, is that weather or climate? Are weather and climate the same thing? Though they are closely related, weather and climate aren't the same thing. Climate is what you expect. Weather is what actually happens.

What exactly is weather?

More specifically, weather is the mix of events that happen each day in our atmosphere. Even though there's only one atmosphere on Earth, the weather isn't the same all around the world. Weather is different in different parts of the world and changes over minutes, hours, days, and weeks.

Most weather happens in the part of Earth's atmosphere that is closest to the ground-called the troposphere. And, there are many different factors that can change the atmosphere in a certain area like air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and lots of other things. Together, they determine what the weather is like at a given time and location.

What exactly is climate?

Whereas weather refers to short-term changes in the atmosphere, climate describes what the weather is like over a long period of time in a specific area. Different regions can have different climates. To describe the climate of a place, we might say what the temperatures are like during different seasons, how windy it usually is, or how much rain or snow typically falls.

When scientists talk about climate, they're often looking at averages of precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind, and other measures of weather that occur over a long period in a particular place. In some instances, they might look at these averages over 30 years. And, we refer to these three-decade averages of weather observations as Climate Normals.

Looking at Climate Normals can help us describe whether the summers are hot and humid and whether the winters are cold and snowy at a particular place. They can also tell us when we might expect the warmest day of the year or the coldest day of the year at that location. But, while descriptions of an area's climate provide a sense of what to expect, they don't provide any specific details about what the weather will be on any given day.

Here's one way to visualize it. Weather tells you what to wear each day. Climate tells you what types of clothes to have in your closet.

How do weather observations become climate data?

Across the globe, observers and automated stations measure weather conditions at thousands of locations every day of the year. Some observations are made hourly, others just once a day. Over time, these weather observations allow us to quantify long-term average conditions, which provide insight into an area's climate.

In many locations around the United States, systematic weather records have been kept for over 140 years. With these long-term records, we can detect patterns and trends. And, as the Nation's official archive for environmental data, it's our job to collect, quality control, and organize these data and make them available online for scientists, decision makers, and you.

Are regional climates different from the global climate?

Like the United States, different regions of the world have varying climates. But, we can also describe the climate of an entire planet-referred to as the global climate. Global climate is a description of the climate of a planet as a whole, with all the regional differences averaged. Overall, global climate depends on the amount of energy received by the sun and the amount of energy that is trapped in the system. And, these amounts are different for different planets. Scientists who study Earth's climate look at the factors that affect our planet as a whole.

How does the climate change?

While the weather can change in just a few minutes or hours, climate changes over longer time frames. Climate events, like El Niño, happen over several years, with larger fluctuations happening over decades. And, even larger climate changes happen over hundreds and thousands of years.

Today, climates are changing. Our Earth is warming more quickly than it has in the past according to the research of scientists. Hot summer days may be quite typical of climates in many regions of the world, but warming is causing Earth's average global temperature to increase. The amount of solar radiation, the chemistry of the atmosphere, clouds, and the biosphere all affect Earth's climate.

As global climate changes, weather patterns are changing as well. While it's impossible to say whether a particular day's weather was affected by climate change, it is possible to predict how patterns might change. For example, scientists predict more extreme weather events as Earth's climate warms.

Why do we study climate?

Climate, climate change, and their impacts on weather events affect people all around the world. Rising global temperatures are expected to further raise sea levels and change precipitation patterns and other local climate conditions. Changing regional climates could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. They could also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems. Deserts may expand into existing rangelands, and features of some of our National Parks and National Forests may be permanently altered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Though climate and weather are closely related, they aren't the same thing. The main difference between the two is time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The types of weather a region receives depends on its climate, or long-term weather characteristics. Some regions are hot and arid, while others are temperate and humid. The benefits of weather and climate depend on the region, but there are some consistencies across the globe. From producing rainfall to creating the perfect places to mine for metals, climate and weather determine the way humans interact with their world.

Perhaps the most obvious and the most important benefit of weather and climate is that they bring rain, snow and other forms of precipitation. Humans and all other organisms need to consume a regular supply of water to survive. Without a fairly consistent source of water, it would be difficult to predict what sorts of crops could be cultivated in a given region. If a change in climate were to alter the weather so that it produced too little or too much water, it could have a major impact on agricultural and livestock.

Different climates in different parts of the world allow for a wide range of plant and animal life. In places like the rain forest, hot and humid temperatures and heavy rainfall promote the growth of plants that cannot be cultivated anywhere else in the world. Many of those plants are used in medicines and are essential to the pharmaceutical industry. On the opposite side of the climate spectrum, the ultra-dry deserts provide an ideal location for mining minerals and metals that are used for many production industries such as electronics.

The stability of the climate is an important factor to human health. Because overall climates are stable for long stretches of time, humans adapt to a given climate. For example, the evolution of light skin from dark was to help humans become more resistant to cold weather and synthesize more vitamin D per each exposure to ultraviolet light as they moved away from the equator to areas where there was less direct sunlight and more cloud-covered days. Rapid climate change could be detrimental to human health because the body cannot adapt quickly enough to changes in the weather and environment.

Having a stable climate and weather patterns benefits national security. If a government can predict the amount of water and the average risk for drought or other natural disasters, it can better prepare its population for possible adversities. If the climate and weather were to suddenly change, disaster response teams may not be able to adapt quickly enough. It could also lead to international conflicts as the need for humanitarian aid rises in response to a higher demand on resources.

About the Author

An avid lover of science and health, Meg Michelle began writing professionally about science and fitness in 2007. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Creighton University and master's degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins. Her work has appeared in publications such as EARTH Magazine.

Photo Credits

Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The types of weather a region receives depends on its climate, or long-term weather characteristics. Some regions are hot and arid, while others are temperate and humid. The benefits of weather and climate depend on the region, but there are some consistencies across the globe. From producing rainfall to creating the ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Climate, conditions of the atmosphere at a particular location over a long period of time; it is the long-term summation of the atmospheric elements (and their variations) that, over short time periods, constitute weather. These elements are solar radiation, temperature, humidity, precipitation (type, frequency, and amount), atmospheric pressure, and wind (speed and direction).

Learn the difference between weather and climate and how small climate changes can increase natural disasters Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. See all videos for this article

From the ancient Greek origins of the word ( klíma, "an inclination or slope"-e.g., of the Sun's rays; a latitude zone of Earth; a clime) and from its earliest usage in English, climate has been understood to mean the atmospheric conditions that prevail in a given region or zone. In the older form, clime, it was sometimes taken to include all aspects of the environment, including the natural vegetation. The best modern definitions of climate regard it as constituting the total experience of weather and atmospheric behaviour over a number of years in a given region. Climate is not just the "average weather" (an obsolete, and always inadequate, definition). It should include not only the average values of the climatic elements that prevail at different times but also their extreme ranges and variability and the frequency of various occurrences. Just as one year differs from another, decades and centuries are found to differ from one another by a smaller, but sometimes significant, amount. Climate is therefore time-dependent, and climatic values or indexes should not be quoted without specifying what years they refer to.

This article treats the factors that produce weather and climate and the complex processes that cause variations in both. Other major points of coverage include global climatic types and microclimates. The article also considers both the impact of climate on human life and the effects of human activities on climate. For details concerning the disciplines of meteorology and climatology, see climatic variation and change. See also the article atmosphere for further information about the properties and behaviour of the atmospheric system. Relevant data on the influence of the oceans and of atmospheric moisture on climate can be found in hydrosphere.

key people

related topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate, conditions of the atmosphere at a particular location over a long period of time; it is the long-term summation of the atmospheric elements (and their variations) that, over short time periods, constitute weather. These elements are solar radiation, temperature, humidity, precipitation

# data[].attributes.body
what is weather - defination

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
American British Scientific Cultural

noun

1. The radio announcer will read the weather right after the commercial.

2. Usually weathers. changes or vicissitudes in one's lot or fortunes:

She remained a good friend in all weathers.

verb (used with object)

1. Nautical. (of a ship, mariner, etc.) to pass or sail to the windward of:

to weather a cape.

2. Architecture. to cause to slope, so as to shed water.

verb (used without object)

to go or come safely through a storm, danger, trouble, etc. (usually followed by through ):

It was a difficult time for her, but she weathered through beautifully.

noun

1. the day-to-day meteorological conditions, esp temperature, cloudiness, and rainfall, affecting a specific place Compare climate

2. modifier relating to the forecasting of weather

1. (of a vessel) to roll and pitch in heavy seas

2. foll by of to carry out with great difficulty or unnecessarily great effort

3. under the weather informal.

adjective

prenominal on or at the side or part towards the wind; windward Compare lee

verb

1. intr to withstand the action of the weather

2. tr to slope (a surface, such as a roof, sill, etc) so as to throw rainwater clear

3. tr to sail to the windward of

Discover More

Derived Forms

ˌweatheraˈbility, noun

ˈweatherer, noun

Discover More

Other Words From

Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of weather¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English (noun), Old English weder; cognate with Dutch weder, German Wetter, Old Norse vethr

Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of weather¹

Old English weder; related to Old Saxon wedar, Old High German wetar, Old Norse vethr

Discover More

Example Sentences

Discover More

Weather Vs. Climate

What's the difference between weather and climate?

Weather refers to short-term atmospheric conditions-the temperature and precipitation on a certain day, for example. Climate refers to the average atmospheric conditions that prevail in a given region over a long period of time-whether a place is generally cold and wet or hot and dry, for example. It can also refer to the region or area that has a particular climate.

Weather can also be a verb, meaning to expose something to harsh conditions (such as by placing it outside, in the weather), often in order to change it in some way, as in We need to weather this leather to soften it. It can also mean to endure a storm or, more metaphorically, a negative or dangerous situation, as in We will simply have to weather the recession. As nouns, both weather and climate can be used figuratively to refer to the general (nonliteral) atmosphere of a place or situation, as in phrases like political climate and fair-weather friend.

In scientific terms, both weather and climate are about atmospheric conditions like temperature, precipitation, and other factors. But they differ in scale. Weather involves the atmospheric conditions and changes we experience in the short term, on a daily basis. Rain today, sun tomorrow, and snow next month-that's weather. Climate involves average atmospheric conditions in a particular place over a long period of time (this is often understood to mean 30 years or more). Is the place where you live consistently rainy and cool? Is it always 72 degrees and sunny? That's climate.

So, when you're making small talk about whether it's rainy or sunny that day, you're discussing the weather. If you're complaining that it's always way too hot where you live, all year round, you're discussing your regional climate.

Changes to climate-even an average temperature rise of a few degrees-can alter the weather patterns that we're accustomed to. More extreme and more frequent storms, floods, and droughts are some examples of weather events that are being fueled by a warming of the climate.

Here's an example of weather and climate used correctly in a sentence.

Example: When you live in an extremely dry climate, a rare day of rainy weather is thrilling.
Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between weather and climate.

Quiz yourself on weather vs. climate!

Should weather or climate be used in the following sentence? This week's hot _____ has brought people out to the pool in droves.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

weasel words weatherability

About

Careers

Contact us

Cookies, terms, & privacy

Do not sell my info

Follow us

Get the Word of the Day every day!

My account

© 2024 Dictionary.com, LLC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather definition: the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc.. See examples of WEATHER used in a sentence.

# data[].attributes.body
yo

# data[].attributes.body
Hello everyone. This padlet is made for the interdisciplinary approach on weather and climate