How’s the weather in your part of the world? Cold, sunny, windy, warm, dry, or freezing?
Weather, simply, is the daily state of the atmosphere of a region in terms of temperature, atmospheric pressure and particle count, wind, precipitation, humidity, and other meteorological variables. Climate, on the other hand, is the statistics of the prevailing weather conditions over extended periods.
The Earth’s climate system is generated by the cyclical interactions of the planet’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, driven by the energy from the sun. Due to the shape and tilt of the planet, the distribution of solar energy differs in various parts of the globe, leading to differences in temperature. While some of the heat bounces off to space, what remains within is distributed throughout the planet.
The differences in heat distribution and the transference of heat give rise to the weather we experience. Fluctuations in the amount of heat in the climate system then result to changing weather patterns. Now the amount of heat in the climate system depends on the amount of trapped energy resulting from the planet’s greenhouse effect.