What is Climatology?
In order to understand Climatology, one must understand what a climate is. It is not the same as weather. Weather is the day to day changes in precipitation, cloud cover, atmospheric pressure, and wind. Climate is an accumulation of weather events over an extended period of time. Climatology is the study of the weather and its changes over long periods of time. What is a normal Climatological Period? The normal period used to study climates is 30 years.
Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere over a brief period of time. For example, we speak of today s weather or the weather this week. Climate represents the composite of day-to-day weather over a longer period of time. People in Minneapolis St. Paul expect a white Christmas, and people in New Orleans expect very warm, humid summers. And a traveler going to Orlando, Florida, in March will not pack the same kind of clothing as a traveler going to Vail, Colorado, in March. These examples show how climate influences our daily lives. Additionally: • Our houses are designed based on the climate where we live. • Farmers make plans based on the length of the growing season from the last killing freeze in the spring to the first freeze in the fall. • Utility companies base power supplies on what they expect to be the maximum need for heating in the winter and the maximum need for cooling in the summer. A climatologist attempts to discove
Climatology is the scientific study of climates, which is defined as the mean weather conditions over a period of time. Climatology, which is a branch of study within atmospheric sciences, also takes into account the variables and averages of short-term and long-term weather conditions. Climatology is different than meteorology and can be divided into different areas of study. Various approaches to climatology can be taken including paleoclimatology, which focuses on studying the climate over the course of the Earth’s existence by examining records of tree rings, rocks and sediment, and ice cores. Historical climatology focuses primarily on climate changes throughout history and the effects of the climate on people and events over time. Though both climatology and meteorology are areas of study that are considered branches of similar areas of study, climatology differs from meteorology because its focus is on averages of weather and climatic conditions over a long period of time. Meteo
