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Sarah has two Master's, one in Zoology and one in GIS, a Bachelor's in Biology, and has taught college level Physical Science and Biology.
Thomas Jefferson seems to have done it all. He was our third president. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. He designed the University of Virginia. He helped create the Bill of Rights. He organized the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Northwest.
But did you know that he was also one of the first climatologists? Jefferson loved science and technology and had a keen interest in weather data. He kept detailed records of hourly and daily temperatures, described differences in wind patterns between inland areas and the coast, and understood changes in the Virginia climate due to land clearing.
Much of what we now consider common knowledge about weather and climate patterns was described by Thomas Jefferson, and his zealous record keeping provides current climatologists with a lot of past information. Though Jefferson didn't know it at the time, he was actually measuring two different, but related, types of data. The short-term atmospheric conditions are what we call weather, and these are all of the daily, hourly and monthly data he collected. The long-term atmospheric conditions are what we call climate, and these are those short-term weather conditions averaged over long periods of time.
If you think about it, this makes sense. Do you check the climate report for the day's temperatures and rain forecast? Probably not - you check the weather report. You also don't hear scientists and politicians talking about global weather change - they're discussing global climate change.
Let's look at another example. If you want to look at the average temperature of North America over the past 100 years, this would be the climate of North America for that period of time. However, if you wanted to look at conditions for each month, day or hour, this would be the weather of North America for those shorter periods of time.
As you can see, though weather and climate describe different things, they depend on each other to have any sort of meaning. Think about it this way: the weather is like short-term climate, and the climate is like long-term weather. The specific weather of any area depends on the climate, and the climate is the average weather conditions for that area.
For example, if you were going to vacation in the tropics, you might expect high temperatures, lots of sunshine, afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity. This is the tropical climate. However, you would still want to know what the conditions of each specific day of your trip are going to be, and that's the weather.
If you were going to visit Maine, the contents of your suitcase would have a much different look and would depend on the time of year you visit. In the summer, you might expect cooler temperatures, drier air and less rain than in the tropics. In the winter, you would definitely want to pack your heavy jacket, hat and gloves since there tends to be a lot of snow and a lower average temperature. The climate in Maine changes with the seasons, but the weather throughout the season would be any daily change.
Weather and climate are often used interchangeably but are actually different things. Weather is short-term atmospheric conditions like temperature, air pressure, wind and humidity. Weather occurs in minutes, hours and days. If you look at trends in long-term atmospheric conditions, this is the climate. Climate data examines the same factors as weather but is an average of the weather conditions over seasons, years, decades and more.
Weather and climate are different but are closely related to one another. You know what type of weather to expect in different places and at different times of the year because you know the climate. But if you want to know if it will rain today or what the exact temperature will be for today, that's the weather. If you have trouble remembering the difference, just look at the weather report - this gives you short-term information about the conditions outside. Likewise, climate is a hot topic right now, which is why people are discussing trends that go back hundreds of thousands of years.
This lesson will help you explain how weather and climate may be different but closely related to one another in terms of atmospheric conditions.
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