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.