Weather vs Climate
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Essential Questions
1. How do weather and climate differ from
one another?
2. Is there a relationship between climate
and weather?
3. How do scientists determine the climate
of a region?
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Enduring Understandings
1. Weather changes on a daily basis; Climate refers
to trends in weather patterns over an extended
period of time - years).
2. Climate data comes from weather data;
Scientists keep day-to-day weather statistics for 30
years in order to draw conclusions about local and
regional climates; When a location has 30 years of
weather statistics, meteorologists can generalize and
comment on the climate of a particular area.
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Key Vocabulary
• Meteorologist – Scientist that studies the
Earth’s atmospheric phenomena.
• Climatologist – Scientist that studies the
climate
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Why is it Important to Understand
Climate?
• Climatologists need to understand past
weather in order to develop accurate
diagrams and data about climate change.
• Global warming data is collected by
gathering climate variables over time
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Trends in Climate Change
• “Temperatures from 1895-2006 are on the
rise possibly due to global warming. With
average contiguous United States
temperatures rising over the course of the
last century, the mean temperatures seem
to be accelerating at unprecedented
levels.” (National Climate Data/NESCIS/NOAA)
•
Source:http://weather.about.com/od/imagegallery/ig/Global-Warming-ImagesGraphs.--5K/1895-2006-Global-Warming-Graph.htm
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National Temperature Graph
Source:http://weather.about.com/od/imagegallery/ig/Global-Warming-Images-Graphs.--5K/1895-2006Global-Warming-Graph.htm
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