Chapter 22. Chapter 22: Climate Change

What is the difference between climate and weather?

Why You Should Care

One can speak of “spring coming early” or a “late spring snowstorm” and everyone would agree that there are strange weather events like this every year. Each year includes a different combination of warm and cold, dry and wet, early and late months or seasons. These are all part of what scientists agree is weather. Predictions for weather are short term (up to 7 or 10 days) and are expected to be fairly specific and accurate about temperature and precipitation. Any period of time longer than that (2 weeks to 100 years) is termed climate and represents average weather patterns over those longer periods.

Scientists have records from the past century (or more) of daily temperatures and any given day will likely be within a few degrees (above or below) of the historic average daily temperature. Over the course of a year, days with temperatures above the average tend to be matched by days with temperatures below the average. Imagine what daily weather would be like if the historical temperature average increased 3 degrees: All the daily temperature predictions would use a higher temperature to make their predictions. There would still be days that were warmer or colder, but the higher average would shift everything. A warmer climate has a much greater impact than a warmer day or month.

1.

Which of the following would NOT happen in a warmer climate?

A.

Cool summers

B.

More colder events

C.

More hotter events

D.

Warm winters

999

Try again.

Correct.

Incorrect.

2.

When looking at an average temperature distribution for a climate, which events would be found on it?

A.

Few days with extreme cold temperatures

B.

Few days with extreme hot temperatures

C.

Many days with average temperatures

D.

More days with hotter temperatures

999

Try again.

Correct.

Incorrect.

3.

Comparing today's climate to the climate in 1900, which would you expect to see?

A.

Cooler overall temperatures

B.

Fewer hotter days

C.

Hotter overall temperatures

D.

None of the above

999

Try again.

Correct.

Incorrect.

4.

Based on this climate profile, what would you predict should occur in a warmer climate?

A.

Less record cold weather

B.

More record cold snaps and winters

C.

More record hot days, months, and years

D.

Both a and c are correct.

999

Try again.

Correct.

Incorrect.

5.

Imagine that last winter there was a record blizzard during one of the warmest years on record. Now imagine that a friend argued that this blizzard proves that climate change isn’t real. How would you use Infographic 22.1 to counter this argument?

Climate change doesn’t suggest that there are not still cold winters, just that they are less common and warmer events are becoming more common. It is worth noting that this blizzard occurred during a year that was one of the warmest when you look at the whole year, not just the period of the blizzard.

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