It’s one of the most common arguments that people have against climate change. They look out the window on the coldest days of winter, gesture to the temperature and the snow and say. “What do you mean the Earth is warming? Look at this weather.” Almost everyone who is an advocate for climate action has heard this argument. It’s been made by politicians and world leaders alike, and as ridiculous as this thought process seems to some of us. It makes sense without understanding what is meant by climate change.

The problem lies with one fundamental truth. climate and weather are not the same thing. I find that even people who consider themselves advocates for climate change don’t really understand the difference between these two concepts. Or at least wouldn’t be able to explain them to someone who makes a weather/climate comparison. To be honest as much as I feel I know about the subject of climate change, I needed to do some research to figure out the best way to describe the difference myself.

Weather

The definition for the noun weather in the Merriam-Webster dictionary (the one us real word nerds prefer) is

“The state of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness.”

Weather pertains to the study of how the atmosphere is behaving and effecting the environment in the short term, days, weeks or months. It encompasses all the effects of the atmosphere including wind speed, humidity and pressure, beyond the normal precipitation, temperature and state of sunniness or lack thereof.

Even a natural disaster such as a flood or a hurricane is a force of weather. Since what is being measured by weather are the current or short term variables in the atmosphere that are creating a particular weather event. If it is cold today and warm next week, we say that the weather has changed, not the climate. This distinction is made because this span of time is short and not an indicator of a long term pattern but a variable that will be used to calculate a long term patterns

Climate

The definition for climate is:

“The average course or condition of the weather at a place usually over a period of years as exhibited by temperature, wind velocity, and precipitation”

At once you can see the main difference between these two concepts is time. Weather tells us the state of things today or a month from now whereas climate tells us how variables like precipitation and temperature have varied over time. There is no standard for how much time must pass before we use the word climate, but many climate scientists use about 30 years to indicate a pattern for climate.

To return to the example of natural disasters, an event like a hurricane is weather the increase in intensity and frequency of hurricanes over many years is climate or more specifically a change in climate.

When we talk about climate change, we are talking about a change in long standing patterns that have been stable over years and are now finding a new pattern. In many instances this just means that the climate is becoming more unstable and the patterns that we are used to seeing are becoming unpredictable. Weather events are becoming more extreme, and climate is in fact not the same as it was 30 years ago or 60 years ago or 90 years ago.

So, the next time you are faced with a climate denier who makes this sort of argument it is worth trying to explain the difference between weather and climate to them. There are a handful of scientists who will acknowledge that climate change is occurring but refuse to acknowledge humanities impact on it. This is an argument for another day.

Resources

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/microplastics-laundry-filters-dramatically-reduce-fibres/

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weather

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html