What is the Difference Between Weather and Climate?

Weather and climate are usually considered identical. However, they are two completely different terms, main difference is their duration. Weather deals with short-term atmospheric conditions while climate deals with long-term weather conditions. Weather is what you are experiencing and climate is what you can expect for a specific location over a longer period.

What is Weather?

Weather is the local atmospheric conditions of a location over a short period like hours, days, and months. Weather is what you experience while climate is what you expect weather-wise. Atmospheric conditions may include rainfall, temperature, wind direction, wind intensity, etc.

What is Climate?

Climate deals with the atmospheric conditions of a location for longer periods like years, decades, and centuries. The climate of an area is calculated by averaging the weather of the past 30 years. For example, July is considered the hottest month of the year in New York City using the weather data of previous years.

In conclusion, understand the difference between climate and weather from an example. The climate of Dubai is known as dry and hot for most of the year. However, there are days when it rains in Dubai and the temperature is also lower than normal, this is what you call weather.

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