Science
What is Weather?
Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere in a place — its temperature, rain, wind, humidity, and cloud cover at a given moment. It changes hour to hour and day to day, unlike climate, which is the average weather over many years.
See it, don’t just read it.
Watch a 2-minute lesson with voice + animation that explains weather.
Key things to understand
- 1Weather describes atmospheric conditions right now or over the next few days.
- 2It includes temperature, precipitation (rain or snow), wind, humidity, and cloud cover.
- 3It's driven by the Sun heating the Earth unevenly, which moves air and water around.
- 4Weather is local and short-term; climate is the long-term average of weather in a region.
- 5Meteorologists forecast it using satellites, sensors, and computer models.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between weather and climate?
- Weather is what's happening in the atmosphere now or over days; climate is the average pattern of weather in a place over decades. As the saying goes, 'climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.'
- What causes weather?
- Mainly the Sun heating Earth unevenly. That creates differences in temperature and pressure, which move air (wind) and water (clouds, rain) around the planet.
- Why is weather so hard to predict?
- The atmosphere is chaotic — tiny changes can grow into big differences — so forecasts become less reliable the further ahead they go.