Where is Global Warming

You’ve all heard somebody say “Where is global warming when we need it?”, during cold weather. This sort of statement indicates that the person does not understand the difference between weather and climate, although probably they are only mocking global warming.

Of course, we will never notice global warming. With it, the climate may only warm by 2C over 100 years. Weather variations of temperature always exceed climate variations because climate is just smoothed weather. The daily weather variation often exceeds 10C. The yearly weather variation usually exceeds 40C, at least in a place like Manitoba.

Weather is the only meteorologic event experienced by humans. It consists of storms and spells, like wet spells or dry spells. Where I live, there are also hot spells or cold spells. Weather is what we remember.

Climate is just the long-term average of weather. It could be calculated over a period of 100 years, for example. The long term is used to eliminate daily and yearly variations of temperature. Humans never experience climate because they do not live long enough. Climate is a measure used by scientists for geological time. In this instance, the period could be even longer, like thousands of years.

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