The climate
'Climate' is a term normally used to describe average weather over a period of time.
Normally the weather over a 30-year period is averaged to describe climate. Using these 30-year averages or 'means' scientists are able to compare changes in climate over very long periods.
In central England, temperatures have been recorded continuously since 1659 - the longest temperature record of anywhere in the world.
To find out what Earth's temperatures were like thousands or even millions of years ago, other methods have to be used, such as investigating ice core samples from the arctic and looking at rocks and sediments of past geological periods.
Weather, however, is more than just temperature variations from day to day. Also included in the make-up of the weather are:
- precipitation, including rainfall, snowfall and sleet, and
- humidity of the air − the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere giving us mist or fog on days of high humidity or good days for drying the washing when humidity is low.
Weather variations
Weather does vary considerably from one year to the next and we have experienced many extremes over the last few years but these are all within the natural variation of weather patterns for example:
- the hottest year on record
- the wettest autumn on record
- the earliest spring.
2006 is currently the warmest year on record for the UK with average temperatures 1.1 degrees Centigrade (oC) above the average of 9.7oC.