Climate Kids Corner

Climate vs. Weather

	The familiar surface conditions of Earth result from a complex interaction of atmosphere (air, clouds), hydrospere (oceans, lakes, ...), lithosphere (land, rocks, ...), cryosphere (ice, snow, ...) and biosphere (plants, animals - including humans, ...) with the incoming solar radiation.

The surface climate is the average or normal state of Earth's surface conditions.
The surface weather is the actual state of the Earth's surface at a given time. Since this is usually close to the climate, it is most easily be shown as the departure from normal conditions, or an anomaly.
anomaly = weather - climate

Surface temperature movies

Print your Climatoscope

What were conditions like on your birthday? Was there a heat wave, cold snap or very wet month? Was it during a strong El Niño?

Surface temperature anomaly of a particular day (Jan 1, 1948 to Sept 2, 2003):

Month: Day: Year: Domain: Data Range: - ^oC
Name of Event (optional label):

NIÑO3 Index

Precipitation Movies and Pictures