Weather vs. Climate: What You Get vs. What You Expect

There is a simple way to keep them straight: climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.

A storm darkens the sky at the mouth of the Russian River, north of Bodega Bay, California. Credit: NOAA.

Weather

Weather is what you see outside on a given day. It might be 75 degrees and sunny, or 20 degrees with heavy snow. In most places it can change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day and season to season.

Climate

Climate is the average of that weather, over time and across a place. You can expect snow in the Northeast in January, or heat and humidity in the Southeast in July — that is climate. The climate record also includes extremes, such as record high temperatures or record rainfall. When a forecaster says "today we hit a record high for this day," that is a climate record.

Why the difference matters

Most of us check the weather forecast to plan our days, and climate change is constantly in the news, yet the two are still often confused. When we talk about climate change, we mean changes in the long-term averages of daily weather — not what happens on any one day.

Sources

Based on "What is the difference between weather and climate?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.