Weather vs. Climate: What is the difference?

• How can we reconcile the variability of weather with that of climate?  How does our humanness restrict our thinking?

I have been taking Environmental Studies courses for as long as I can remember; continually covered in class is the topic of Climate Change.  The first lesson on Climate Change is always the difference between “weather” and “climate.”  The distinction between the two always seems to be a common misconception for us humans.  The general public has a tendency to believe that the terms weather and climate are interchangeable.  In truth, they are quite different.  Weather is defined by the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, etc.  Climate, on the other hand, is defined as the composite of prevailing weather conditions in a region, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years.  It is often thought, “the climate cannot be warming; we had more snow than usual this month.”  Or, on a cool day in August, “there’s no global warming, it’s supposed to get down to 60 degrees tonight.”  The distinct difference between day-to-day weather happenings and changes in climate over a period of years is what humans struggle with most.  Because we tend to see things as they are right in front of us, it is often difficult to understand changes over a long period of time.

Our humanness confines our thinking about what to believe when facts and theories are presented to us.  As Weart states,

“Everyone has his own theory – and each sounds good – until the next lad comes along with his theory and knocks the others into smithereens.”

Humans’ strict, narrow minds allow us to only believe what is right in front of us.  When a new theory is presented, we believe the evidence until something better comes along.  The topic of Climate Change is something so controversial and complex that humans struggle to grasp the concept.  Weather is much more simple to understand because we see, experience, and feel changes in weather every day.  The climate is too broad for us to notice variability, so we rely on weather patterns to form opinions on Climate Change.  A simple understanding of the difference between weather and climate is what will change the public opinion about Climate Change.