Lesson video

Hi, geographers, my name is Ms. Hoggett and I'm really excited that you're joining me today to learn some geography.

I'm sure if you try your best, you're going to be absolutely fantastic.

Don't worry too much if you've not studied this before, I'm here to help you every step of the way.

We are going to be looking at weather and climate and how do they vary for today's lesson.

Our title is Weather and Climate.

Our outcome for today's lesson is that I can understand the difference between weather and climate and use climate graphs to compare different climates.

We have a number of keywords that are going to be useful for today's lesson.

Weather, climate, climate graph, and precipitation.

Weather is the day to day condition of the atmosphere, whether it's sunny, snowing, warm, cold, windy, et cetera.

Climate is an average of weather conditions such as rain, sun, and wind in a place taken over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

A climate graph shows the amount of precipitation and the temperature each month for a location.

And precipitation is water that falls from the sky as rain, snow, hail, or sleet.

So they are our keywords for today's lesson.

We have three learning cycles today.

How do weather and climate vary? What are climate graphs? How do I analyse climate graphs? And we are going to start with our first one, how do weather and climate vary? Weather refers to the day to day condition of our atmosphere.

It includes temperature, sunshine, wind, humidity, and precipitation.

There are lots of different types of weather as we can see from the symbols on the screen.

Sun, cloud, wind, rain, snow, thunder, and lightning.

It also applies to temperature, so whether it's warm, whether it's mild, whether it's cold.

And our weather can change really frequently.

I want you to look out the nearest window.

What's the weather like today? If I look outside my window, I can see that it's sunny, but there's no clouds in the sky.

It is January though, so I know it still feels really cold outside.

Have a look outside your window now.

Do you have a look? Izzy looked out of her window and said, "It is raining outside of my window.

There are lots of clouds in the sky too.

It also feels really chilly.

It's been like this all week!" Was yours the same or was it different? Weather can change all across the UK at different times on different days.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of the following is not part of the weather? A, humidity, B, temperature, C, rivers or D, precipitation.

Pause the video now and have a go.

Well done if you said rivers.

Humidity, temperature and precipitation are all considered to be part of our weather, but rivers are not.

Climate is the average weather conditions for a given place.

It is based on records from over 30 years and it helps us to know what to expect.

If we choose where to go on holiday, we might think about what we know about the climate.

Laura said, "I can't wait to go to Spain this summer, it will be really hot!" Andeep said, "I'm going skiing in the French Alps as it will be really cold and covered in snow!" Both Laura and Andeep have chosen their holidays based on what they know about the climate.

Temperature and precipitation are measured daily.

Both of these are included within the climate, so gathering this data means that we then know how to report on the climate.

Precipitation refers to any type of moisture that falls from the sky.

It can include rain, snow, sleet, hail, and fog for example.

The UK has a temperate maritime climate.

This means it's generally mild, so there's few extremes of temperature and wet all year round.

It's not normally too hot and it's not normally too cold.

However, the weather doesn't always match the climate.

Sometimes the weather can be unusual for the time of year.

Laura said, "I went to Spain this summer, but it rained." And Andeep said, "Yeah, and I went to the French Alps, but there was no snow." So even though we expected the climate to be a certain way in both places, actually what we got was very different to that.

True or false? Climate refers to the state of the atmosphere at a specific place in time.

Pause the video now and have a go answering this question.

Well done if you said false.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a specific place in time, whereas climate is the average conditions over 30 years.

Well done, geographers, you're doing really well.

Now, climate varies around the world and we've already seen that because Laura and Andeep were going to very different places.

Some places like this rainforest in Costa Rica are hot and wet, whereas other places like Antarctica are cold and dry.

Now in some places the climate can vary throughout the year and in the UK we have a seasonal climate.

The weather we typically associate with each season varies.

We expect our summer is going to be much warmer than our winter when it's much colder.

That's our seasonal climate.

Our seasons are caused by the way the earth is tilted on its axis.

During the summer, the northern hemisphere, which is where we are, is tilted towards the sun.

This makes our days in the UK longer and the temperature much warmer.

During the winter, however, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun.

This makes our day shorter and our temperatures much colder.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of the following causes the seasons that we experience in the UK? Is it A, the Earth's tilt, B, the Earth's wobble, or C, the Earth's orbit? Pause the video now and have a go at this question.

Well done if you said the Earth's tilt, that is what causes the seasons that we experience in the UK.

We are going to have a go at practising what we've learned so far.

I'd like you to fill in the gaps to complete the explanation of the difference between weather and climate in the UK.

At the bottom there is a box of words you can use to fill in the gaps, seasons, temperature, temperate, climate, weather, tilt, precipitation.

Pause the video and have a go at completing this task.

Well done for giving that a really good go.

Let's check your answers now.

The state of the atmosphere at a specific place and time is called weather.

This can include temperature, sunshine, wind, humidity, and precipitation.

The average conditions over 30 years is called climate.

This includes the average temperature and precipitation.

In the UK we have a temperate maritime climate as it's generally mild and wet.

However, due to the tilt of the Earth we have distinct seasons.

Well done if you've got those all spot on, you're doing a really great job.

So we are ready to move on to learning cycle number two.

What are climate graphs? This bar graph presents one set of data, the height of famous towers around the world.

Looking at that bar graph, I can see that the Eiffel Tower is the tallest tower, whereas the Tower of Pisa is the smallest tower looking at that graph.

When talking about climate though, we are referring to temperature and precipitation.

So a climate graph needs to present two different sets of data.

Therefore we have to make use of two different y-axes.

And remember y-axes point to the sky.

On this climate graph you can see that the vertical or y axis on the left hand side relates to the temperature and is used to plot the line graph.

Temperature is measured in degrees Celsius.

On the other side, on the right hand side of this climate graph, we have a Y-axis that's being used to draw the bar graph showing precipitation by month.

Precipitation is measured in millimetres, so the red line shows temperature and is measured on the left y-axis and the blue bars show precipitation and are measured on the right, right-hand axis.

But it's important we don't forget the x-axis along the bottom as well because this tells us the month of the year.

Generally climate graphs will be over about 30 years because we know that's what climate means.

So when we are referring to each month here, we are referring to an average of every January, February, March, et cetera, for 30 years.

It's important to remember that.

Let's check your understanding, true or false? The blue bars on climate graphs show temperature.

Pause the video and have a go at answering that question.

Well done if you said false.

The blue bars show precipitation.

You can remember this by imagining the blue bars are cylinders of water.

Something that geographers do is create their own climate graphs.

To construct a climate graph, you must remember all of the key elements.

The first one is the title, which usually contains the location.

Then we have our axis labels.

So whether we're referring to month, precipitation or temperature.

We have our blue bars which show precipitation.

We have our scale and it's really important to remember the units as well.

So yes, our numbers are listed, but on the labels we've also got the units of measurements, millimetres and degree Celsius.

And then lastly we have our red line.

So there's five key things to remember when constructing any climate graph for any location.

So we are going to have a go at practising this ourselves.

You have two parts to this practise task.

Step one, use the data provided to complete a climate graph for London from 1991 to 2021.

And step two, add a title to your climate graph.

In order to help you, the data is on the screen.

These are average temperatures and average precipitations for each month from 1991 to 2021.

Pause the video now and have a go at completing this practise task.

Well done for giving that a really good go.

I'm sure you did fantastically.

Let's check your climate graph against mine so we can make sure we were accurate with what we created.

The first thing I did was added on the precipitation for each month using blue bars.

I use the y- axis on the right hand side as that's where it says precipitation.

And this shows me that every month on average there's over 40 millimetres of precipitation.

I then added on my red line to show temperature and we can see that we've got that seasonal pattern because it's much colder in January, February and December than it is in June, July and August.

The last thing I needed to do was then add a title to my climate graph and I've put here, "London Climate 1991 to 2021" because it's really important you write down the location and the years that we're referring to.

This is gonna help us be more accurate later on.

Well done for having a go and I'm sure you've got that absolutely spot on, well done.

We are now ready to move on to learning cycle number three.

How do I analyse climate graphs? Now it's really easy to describe the climate using a climate graph once you know what you're looking for.

We can see here that the taller the blue bars, the wetter it is.

And the shorter the blue bars, the drier it is.

So here I can see my wettest month is October and my driest month is April.

The higher the red line, the warmer it is, so that would be in July.

And the lower the red line, the colder it is.

So it's coldest in Scotland in December, January and February.

Laura confirms that by saying, "So the wettest month is October, and the hottest month is July!" Well done Laura.

Let's check you can already do that.

So let's identify the following from this climate graph, the hottest month, the coldest month, the wettest month, and the driest month.

Pause the video now so that you can have a go at doing this.

Well done for having a go.

Let's check your answers.

So number one, the hottest months are July and August.

The coldest month is February.

The wettest month is November, and the driest month is May.

Now this different to what we just saw for Scotland because this climate graph is for Brighton.

So it's important you are referring to the title so you know exactly where you are referring to.

Now we can also extract specific data from climate graphs as well.

So looking at this climate graph for Scotland, we can see that the amount of precipitation in November is 100 millimetres.

So we've tracked to the top of the blue bar for November and worked across to the y-axis on the right hand side, which matches to a hundred millimetres.

Sams done the same by looking at at temperature and recognises that July's temperature is 13 degrees Celsius.

But this time Sam has used the axis on the left hand side to ensure that we are getting an accurate reading.

How about doing this for Coventry yourself.

I'd like you to find out the temperature in January and then the amount of precipitation in September.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, so hopefully you've recognised that the temperature in January is three degrees Celsius and the amount of precipitation in September is 50 millimetres.

Notice how I've used those units of measurement within my answer.

So rather than just saying the temperature was three and the amount of precipitation was 50, I've said the temperature in January was three degrees Celsius and the amount of precipitation in September was 50 millimetres.

It's really important you do that whenever you are taking data from a graph.

Now we can compare climate graphs to understand how climate varies around the world.

Here we have a climate graph for your Yakutsk in Russia and for the South Pole.

Now it your Yakutsk, we can see that it's wetter than the South Pole.

It receives more than 10 millimetres of precipitation during eight months of the year, but the South Pole doesn't receive that in any months.

So we can already see there's quite clear differences in the amount of precipitation between these two places.

Likewise, we can see how the temperature varies between the two places as well.

The warmest month in Yakutsk, Russia is July, but in the South Pole it's January.

So they seem to reverse in terms of their seasons.

At the South Pole, the temperature stays below 20 degrees Celsius all year round.

However, in Russia it does go above zero degrees Celsius for five months of the year.

So again, another clear difference using specific evidence and specific figures to help us accurately describe the climate in both places.

You are now gonna have a go at practising this yourself.

I'd like you to identify the similarities and differences between Coventry and Ushuaia using evidence from the climate graphs.

Make sure you use specific evidence and specific figures when you are filling in the table.

Pause the video and have a go at completing this.

Well done for having a go.

Now your answer may have included these points on the screen, but you may also have some similar or some different points as well.

For similarities, you may have said that both places have a seasonal climate or that both locations receive over 25 millimetres of precipitation each month.

For differences, you might recognise that the average temperature in the UK stays above zero degree Celsius.

Whereas for five months of the year it's below zero degree Celsius in Argentina.

Or that the warmest months in Argentina are from October to March, whereas the warmest months in the UK are April to September.

So they are just some suggestions of what you may have found when comparing the similarities and differences between those two locations.

We've come to the end of learning cycle three, well done for putting in lots of effort today.

To summarise, we can see that weather is the state of the atmosphere at a specific place in time, whereas climate is the average conditions over 30 years.

Weather can be seasonal, which means our weather changes throughout the year.

Climate graphs show us the precipitation and temperature of a place over a calendar year.

And analysing climate graphs can help us compare climates of different places around the world.