Weather vs. Climate

Weather and climate are closely related because they are concerned with the same elements of temperature, precipitation, and other environmental factors. However, weather deals with the immediate conditions of a specific time and place while climate looks at patterns over time.

Weather is the atmospheric conditions of temperature, wind, and precipitation at a specific location and time. It involves day-to-day and even moment-to-moment changes. Some elements are air temperature, barometric pressure, cloudiness, precipitation, humidity, and wind.

Climate is the typical atmospheric conditions of temperature, wind, and precipitation at a particular location over time. It is a more generalized description of weather over a longer time period. Large geographic areas can be classified into climate zones that share typical weather patterns.

Weather is often predicted based on prevailing conditions and patterns whereas climate is based on accumulated historical weather data. Both rely on the same types of atmospheric data (temperature, precipitation, humidity, barometric pressure, wind, cloudiness).