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Compare and contrast weather and climate. What factors account for a location’s weather? Describe how unequal heating causes weather.

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Final answer:

Weather is the short-term atmospheric conditions like temperature and humidity while climate is the long-term average of such conditions. Weather is influenced by factors like latitude and altitude. Unequal heating of the Earth's surface by the sun, which causes air masses to move, results in weather.

Step-by-step explanation:

The terms weather and climate relate to conditions of the atmosphere. However, weather refers to short-term conditions—such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure—that can change moment by moment. On the other hand, climate refers to the long-term average of these conditions, averaged over at least a 30-year period.

A location's weather is influenced by numerous factors including latitude, altitude, proximity to a body of water, and the presence of a mountain range. These factors affect the amount of sunlight an area receives, its temperature and the amount of precipitation.

Unequal heating of the Earth's surface by the sun causes weather. The sun's rays hit the equator directly, hence heating it more than the poles which it hits at a slant. This uneven heating causes air masses to move, resulting in weather patterns and phenomena.

Learn more about Weather and Climate

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