Climate Education

Climate affects every part of our lives - from when and where we go on holiday to how our food is produced and what it costs. Knowing about the climate can help us in many ways, such as helping us plant crops at the right time, designing comfortable houses to live in or planning for possible climate change.

Climate is what you expect; Weather is what you get.

Climate is about long-term records, trends and averages;
Weather is the day to day experience.

Climate is the sum or synthesis of all the weather recorded over a long period of time. It tells us the average or most common conditions, or extremes, or counts of events, or frequencies. Weather is a description of conditions over a short period of time - a "snap shot" of the atmosphere at a particular time.

If weather is the watch then climate is the calendar.

Climate Education Links

Climate of the 20th Century: Major Australian climate events of the 20th Century.

Climate of Australia: Climate zones, averages, variability and maps.

Climate Change: Long-term climate trends in Australia.

Climate and People: How climate influences the urban environment, health and sport.

Monitoring and Prediction: Indicators of El Niño, current climate analyses, drought monitoring, seasonal climate prediction.

Students and Teachers: Units of work, experiments school projects, brochures, web pages etc.