What's the difference between weather and climate?

Meteorological v. astronomical seasons, explained

Meteorologists and climatologists define seasons differently from “regular” or astronomical spring, summer, fall, and winter. Traditional seasons reflect the movement of celestial objects, known as the astronomical seasons; meteorologists mark seasonal change based on temperature averages.

View the 55 ECVs used to describe Earth's atmospheric conditions

Essential climate variables include physical, chemical, and biological variables that meaningfully contribute to Earth's climate and how it changes with time. Many of these variables influence one another through feedback mechanisms across Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.

Climatologists use past data and advanced models to forecast future climate trends

Unlike meteorology, which focuses on weather forecasting over several days, climatology identifies trends in data over periods of 30 or more years. This data can go back millions of years and help refine models to forecast centuries into the future.

Learn all about different types of extreme weather

Find out in more detail about different types of extreme weather, from flooding to thunderstorms, from tropical cyclones to sandstorms, and more (w/ helpful videos).

How is the climate like baseball?

A two-minute video taking a lighthearted look at an unexpected analogy, explaining why some people call carbon dioxide (and the other greenhouse gases) the steroids of the climate system.

What types of extreme weather can be attributed to climate change?

For decades, it was impossible to say that a specific weather event was caused, or even made worse, by climate change. But advanced research methods are changing that.

What are climate models?

Climate modeling what is a global climate model? What are their uses? Why do we believe them? What do they agree on? Why do they disagree? How do we improve them?

View an illustrative guide to climate change for kids

While climates have changed throughout Earth's history, they are now changing faster than usual, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases, which trap more of the sun's radiation.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Understanding the 1.5 degree Celsius climate benchmark

As more parts of the world are facing extreme weather, from high temperatures to increased natural disasters, there is much debate about what can be done. MIT News explores and explains the 1.5-degree benchmark for limiting the effects of climate change. Read to understand where the planet stands in relation to this threshold and what can be done at the global, regional, and personal levels to “keep 1.5 alive.”

The weather time machine

A fun interactive on how old ships’ logs are giving scientists new insights into the past and future of the Earth’s changing climate (w/maps and pictures).

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The difference between solstice and equinox, explained

A solstice marks the extremes in the amount of day or night, while the equinoxes come on days with a balance between the two. Learn why with this brief video.

Sets incorporating immersive mixed reality have transformed weather reporting

The technology enables presenters to step into virtual environments that incorporate 3D models and real-time data, providing more engaging and interactive forecasting. They have also facilitated the development of educational segments where meteorologists use virtual models to explain complex weather phenomena.

El Niño and La Niña are Pacific Ocean climate patterns that affect global weather

El Niño causes warm water to move east, disrupting ocean life and bringing wetter conditions to the southern US and drier ones to the North. La Niña strengthens the usual wind patterns, triggering cooler northern winters and more storms in the Pacific Northwest.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Temperature is a value that controls how predictable or creative an LLM's output is

In large language models, temperature adjusts the randomness in text generation by modifying how often words with lower probabilities are selected next in the sequence. Lower temperatures produce more obvious outputs while higher temperatures produce more creative responses.

Feels-like temperature indicates how our skin will feel

When the wind is moving faster, we tend to feel colder due to the so-called "wind chill," which cools our bodies by moving heat away from them and making water evaporate faster. On the other hand, high levels of humidity can make us feel 10 degrees warmer at times.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

What's the difference between an ale and a lager?

The major distinction is that ales are typically fruitier, while lagers are cleaner and crisper. This video breaks down several more of the nuanced differences between the two styles.

What is psychology? An overview

What is psychology and why should we study it? This short video from Macat explains how the subject has developed over the years and introduces some of the key thinkers and ideas.

How facts, hypotheses, theories, and laws in science differ from everyday language

Facts are observations of the world, and they can be pooled together for a given phenomenon to develop a hypothesis—a proposed explanation consistent with observations that requires further investigation. Experiments and additional data can rule out many hypotheses or graduate a proposed explanation into a widely accepted and validated theory.

The complexity of classifying a tree

It may seem obvious to us when we see a tree, but very specific characteristics cause scientists to distinguish trees from other types of plants. This video provides a visual and verbal explanation of distinctions that separate trees from other plants like shrubs or herbs. See a scientific breakdown of these traits.

The difference between marketing and advertising: Advertising is technically a type of marketing

While the terms are often used interchangeably, technically speaking, marketing is any effort to promote a product or service. Advertising, on the other hand, is any paid effort to promote a product or service. Learn more about the difference in this article.

The difference between standard cancer treatments and emerging immunotherapies

If you've ever wondered what the difference was between immunotherapy and chemotherapy, this short video takes you through the steps. Briefly, chemotherapy attacks cancer in tumor cells directly, while immunotherapy encourages your immune system to fight it. There's more to it than that, but this delightful two-and-a-half-minute video provides a good primer.

Learn the differences between mild cognitive impairment and age-associated memory loss

Mild cognitive impairment is a condition in which people experience more thinking and memory problems than expected for their age. It's often associated with depression and anxiety. Daily routines, writing things down, and healthy lifestyle choices can help cope with the condition, but there's no cure. The condition elevates the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.

Atmospheric composition and temperature impact the color of lightning

Just as fire ranges from red to blue with increasing temperature, lightning's blueish-white comes from the superheating of air. The emission of light from the predominantly nitrogen- and oxygen-rich atmosphere produces a purple tint, with additional color caused by light scattering from humidity, hail, dust, and ash.

Why is the Amazon rainforest important?

Watch this five-minute video from National Geographic to learn about the importance of the Amazon rainforest and the risk of what's to come if humans continue to deforest it. The Amazon rainforest is about the same size as the continental United...

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.