What’s That Weather Word? Climate
November 29, 2011
Definition from the AMS Glossary of Meteorology
| climate—The slowly varying aspects of the atmosphere–hydrosphere–land surface system.
It is typically characterized in terms of suitable averages of the climate system over periods of a month or more, taking into consideration the variability in time of these averaged quantities. Climatic classifications include the spatial variation of these time-averaged variables. Beginning with the view of local climate as little more than the annual course of long-term averages of surface temperature and precipitation, the concept of climate has broadened and evolved in recent decades in response to the increased understanding of the underlying processes that determine climate and its variability. |
While this definition is very wordy, the idea is straight forward. Climate is the word used to describe the average weather of a location over a relatively longer period of time, which could be a month, a season, a year, or more. The climate of a place is a snapshot of what could be considered “normal” for that place.
Editor’s note: As this definition explains, “the concept of climate has broadened and evolved in recent decades,” and in the process “climate” has unfortunately become a politically charged word. More on that issue in an upcoming blog post.