<p>CASE STUDY: Responding to a Natural Disaster 4. The Difference between Weather and Climate The details of our day-to-day experience of the weather are quickly forgotten as we go about the business of our lives.</p><p>On the other hand, Meteorologists (those scientists who study the weather) make it their responsibility to maintain a long-term memory of these details. The daily weather data that they collect from a wide geographic area and from a wide variety of sources is recorded and stored systematically (in computer data bases) year after year. The reason meteorologists do this, is that when such data is processed to give a long-term history of the weather, it reveals patterns and trends which can be vitally important in assisting the weather forecaster to improve the reliability of predictions made about future weather events. This helps us to plan for the events. Definitions:</p><p>“Climate” and “Weather“ . Climate is the sum or synthesis of all the weather recorded over a long period of time. It tells us the average or most common conditions, or extremes, or counts of events, or frequencies. . Weather is a description of conditions over a short period of time - a "snap shot" of the atmosphere at a particular time. Source: Bureau of Meteorology</p><p>ACTIVITY: Consider these two “tags” used by the Bureau of Meteorology to describe the difference between weather and climate:</p><p>Climate is what you expect; Weather is what you get. </p><p>If weather is the watch then climate is the calendar. Now see if you can come up with a memorable “jingle”, “short poem”, “song” or “cartoon” that illustrates the difference between the concepts of weather and climate.</p><p>OPEN-ENDED QUESTION: The series of weather maps which you looked at before, on Page 3, were selected from a long sequence of weather maps published by the Bureau of Meteorology. They were selected to highlight particular moments in the development of the weather in June 2007. Examine the maps carefully and consider this question: Why would this particular selection of maps be considered an unscientific sample of June 2007’s weather, if these maps were being used to develop a long term picture of the Australian climate?</p>