weather and climate
Weather
Weather systems create the varied conditions of the atmosphere on multiple scales:
- Planetary- As represented by waves in the atmosphere's general circulation. The waves last for several weeks and are 500 - 10000 km in size.
- Synoptic- Includes systems several thousands of kilometers across such as mid-latitude depressions, lasting for 5 days.
- Mesoscale- Includes systems featuring Thunderstorms, lasting for a few hours and they have a spatial extent of 10 km across.
- Microscale- Includes systems on a local, small scales such as urban areas, lakes or tree top canopies.
Climate
Climate is the long term state of the atmosphere. It encompasses the combined effect of weather phenomena from extreme to every day weather.
Microclimate looks at regional and global climate.
Topo-climate looks at smaller scale areas such as towns, valleys and slopes.
Click the links below or the top of this page to explore this section:
Air Masses and weather systems
Mid-latitude weather systems
World precipitation patterns
Local weather and climate