Weather

Weather is what the air and sky are like right now. It tells us the temperature, if it is wet or dry, and what clouds look like. Most weather happens in the lowest part of the sky above us. This part is very close to the ground where we live.

Weather changes from day to day. Climate is what the weather is like over many years. Weather is about today or tomorrow. Climate is about what happens year after year. The Sun makes weather happen because it heats different parts of Earth in different ways. Places near the middle of Earth get more heat from the Sun. Places near the North and South Poles get less heat. This makes air move around the world in big patterns.

The Earth is tilted like a spinning top. Because of this tilt, some places get more sunlight in summer and less in winter. The hottest places on Earth can reach about 104 degrees. The coldest places can drop to about minus 40 degrees. Over thousands of years, small changes in how Earth moves around the Sun can make the weather warmer or colder for a very long time.

People try to guess what the weather will be tomorrow. They use science and machines to help them do this. But weather is very tricky. A tiny change in one place can cause big changes somewhere else. People have changed some weather patterns by farming and building factories.

Other planets have weather too. Jupiter has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot. This storm has been spinning for more than 300 years. Even the Sun loses gas into space. This gas travels through space as a wind made by the Sun. Learning about weather on other planets helps us understand our own weather better.