Climate Versus Weather - In general, climate is defined by the long-term (monthly or longer) pattern of weather conditions in a given region. Climate is not the same as weather, as weather deals with short-term variations tied to them movement and development of individual weather systems (fronts, cyclones, air masses).

Unlike the traditional view, the earth's climate is now recognized as a dymanic system, with regional variations on many different time scales from seasonal, to year-to-year, up to decades and even longer.

Image shows the unusual warming of the tropical Pacific during the 1997 El Nino (top left) and abnormal cooling during the last La Nina (bottom right),courtesy of NASA.