Science
What is Climate?
Climate is the long-term average pattern of weather in a place, measured over decades — its typical temperature, rainfall, and seasons. While weather changes day to day, climate describes what conditions a region can usually expect.
See it, don’t just read it.
Watch a 2-minute lesson with voice + animation that explains climate.
Key things to understand
- 1Climate is the average of weather over long periods (usually 30+ years) for a region.
- 2It covers typical temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind, and seasonal patterns.
- 3It's shaped by latitude, altitude, distance from oceans, and ocean currents.
- 4Earth has many climate zones — tropical, arid, temperate, polar, and more.
- 5Climate change is a long-term shift in these averages, largely driven today by human activity.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between climate and weather?
- Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere; climate is the long-term average over decades. A cold day is weather; a region being cold most of the year is climate.
- What determines a place's climate?
- Mainly latitude (distance from the equator), altitude, how close it is to oceans, ocean currents, and prevailing winds.
- Is climate the same as climate change?
- No. Climate is the long-term pattern; climate change is a lasting shift in that pattern — today mainly the warming driven by greenhouse gases from human activity.