Name: Mark Christian N. Luna It’s All In a Name: Weather versus Climate Mark Twain is one of America’s most beloved American authors and thought by some to be the father of American literature. He wrote such classics as, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain was fascinated by science and scientific inquiry. He is quoted as saying, “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” Using your knowledge of weather and climate explain what Mark Twain is saying. "Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get," as Mark Twain once said. However, although the terms "weather" and "climate" are closely related, their meanings are subtly different. It is true that both terms refer to changes in atmospheric variables such as temperature, humidity, wind, and clouds over different time periods, but they are not interchangeable in nature. According to Andrew (2019), weather describes the current weather conditions, such as rainfall, temperature, and wind speed wherein it varies daily. On the other hand, climate is the long-term average (or ‘normal') weather pattern for a place. Climate change is hard to detect without long-term records. Consider how weather, climate variability, and climate change operate on different time scale as shown in the figure 1 below. Figure 1. Weather and climate scales Based on Figure 1, weather events such as rain storms may last one or two hours, while tropical cyclones may last for several days or even weeks. Climate patterns such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, for example, can be used to define climate variability. Climate change refers to events that occur over a long period of time, such as global warming. From Mark Twain’s quote: "Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get” is has a very splendid connection to the current problem that we are facing, which is the global warming. Weather is a worthy environmental topic in and of itself (Gibbons, 2018). Many people (including myself) enjoy talking about the weather, whereas others do not. * Climate1- the long-term average (or ‘normal') weather pattern for a place. * Climate change2- change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. * Weather6- describes the current weather conditions, such as rainfall, temperature, and wind speed wherein it varies daily. It's time to make some observations about our perplexing fascination with weather forecasting. The remarkable saying of Twain should be banished since it is a wrong information about weather and climate. The idea here is that climate must be the result of that so-long process of weather. Different perspectives and different evidences were presented to clarify the statement. Forecasting future conditions is accomplished through the use of weather and climate models. Even though the models are constructed using the same physical laws of motion and energy, they are applied over a variety of different time and space scales. In order to be successful, a weather model must excel at accurately forecasting the details of fronts and storms for the upcoming week (see Figure 2a). However, it is not intended to model the long-term state of the atmosphere. When it comes to predicting expected patterns of temperature and rainfall over large areas, climate models are less concerned with the effects of individual storms than they are with regional patterns (see Figure 2b). Both weather and climate models have advanced significantly over time, and each type performs admirably at the task for which it was designed; however, neither model is particularly adept at tasks for which it was not originally intended to perform. Figure 2a. Weather model Figure 2b. Climate model Keywords: Climate1, Climate Change2, Global warming3, Humidity4, Temperature5, Weather6. References: Andrew (2019). Southeast Is it weather Climate or is Extension. it climate? Retrieved from What’s the difference?. http://agroclimate.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/03/Weather-Climate.pdf Gibbons, W. (2018). The weather is more fun to talk about than global warming. Savannnah River Ecology Laboratory. Retrieved from http://archive- srel.uga.edu/outreach/ecoviews/ecoview061126.htm *Global warming3 - gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants. *Humidity4 - atmospheric moisture *Temperature5 -it refers to hotness or coldness of a particular substance or object.
