WHAT IS CLIMATE?

Weather and climate are two very different things, and what separates them is time.
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​Weather is what happens day to day (like rain showers or sunny skies), while climate is the long-term pattern of weather in a region or area over many years.

When we talk about climate change, we mean big shifts in these long-term patterns. Understanding this difference helps us see why one hot day is weather, but hotter summers over decades signal a changing climate.