“Boy, it sure is hot today Billy Bob,” complained Cooter. “Yeah, that must be cause of that global warmin’ stuff they’re talkin’ about on the TV,” Billy Bob explained.

If you are willing to believe those two and leave it at that, so be it. If you’ve got half a brain more than Billy Bob, you may begin to wonder if global warming is really causing that unusually hot summer day. Is that dagnab climate changing on us due to our smoke and pollution? Or could it possibly be the good ole’ weather that is making Cooter complain? What the heck is the difference between the weather and the climate anyways?

Well we’ll try to explain it so even Cooter can understand.

What we call “weather” is pretty much just that, it’s the events that happen every day in our beautiful atmosphere. (Yup Cooter, that big blue sky up there.)
Things like rainfall, humidity, temperature and other “weather stuff” are what we refer to when we ask our neighbor, “How about that weather?”

The more difficult concept for someone like Cooter to understand is that funny word - “Climate”. As the climate is different around the earth, the weather at your house is different than at Zookoo Tu Tu’s hut in Africa. Climate controls the weather. Did you get that? Let’s repeat that slowly…climate controls the weather. That hot sunny day that Cooter was complaining about is very common in many parts of the world, global warning or no global warming.

Now why is it hotter this year than last year? Well, climate temperatures have historically gone up and down. Right now climates are heating up because our planet is warming. So, is that why it’s hotter this year? It’s global warming right? It just may be, but climate change across the globe is a lot trickier than a simple yes or no to the questions raised due to many other factors.

Still confused like Cooter?

Stay tuned for more of our Global Warming Basic Facts.