Weather and Climate

Weather is what the sky is doing right now — sunny, rainy, windy, or snowy. Climate is the usual weather a place gets over many years. Here is an easy way to remember the difference: weather is what you decide to wear today, while climate is the kind of clothes you keep in your wardrobe all year round.

Almost all weather is powered by the Sun. The Sun heats the air and the seas, but it does not heat them evenly. Warm air is lighter, so it rises; cooler air is heavier, so it sinks to take its place. This constant movement of air is what we feel as wind. Without the Sun, there would be no wind, no clouds, and no weather at all.

Clouds form when warm, damp air rises and cools. As it cools, the invisible water vapour in it turns back into tiny droplets, and millions of these droplets together make a cloud. When the droplets join up and grow too heavy to float, they fall to the ground. If the air is warm they fall as rain; if it is freezing cold they fall as snow or hail.