Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather forecast - What's the difference between weather and climate?

What's the difference between weather and climate?

Weather refers to the comprehensive atmospheric physical phenomenon and physical state of temperature, precipitation, air pressure, wind and clouds in an instant or in a short time. The science that studies the formation and variation of weather is called synoptics. Meteorology is a branch of meteorology and the main theoretical basis of weather analysis and forecast.

Climate refers to the weather characteristics and meteorological conditions of the whole earth or a country or region for many years. For example, through years of practical observation and research, we can divide the climate in some areas into temperate climate, tropical rain forest climate, Mediterranean climate, polar climate and so on. Each climate has many obvious characteristics that are different from other climate types.

The main difference between weather and climate is that for the same area, the climate has a long time span and is a regular weather feature; The weather time span is short and random. For example, it rained one day in Kunming, China, which is an atmospheric physical phenomenon. At this time, we can only say the weather, not the climate; Kunming has a small temperature difference between spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the four seasons are like spring. It is not appropriate to say that the weather is fine at this time.