Climate VS Weather
Climate
The long-term large-scale average of temperature and weather patterns.
- Timescale: 30+ years
- Spatial Scale: Global to regional (Biomes)
- Example: Southern Utah is a desert; it is usually dry.
Can you tell which areas on this map have a desert climate or tropical rainforest climate?
Weather
Short-term small-scale events in the sky.
- Timescale: Minutes to Days
- Spatial Scale: A few miles
- Example: A thunderstorm
Climate Affects Weather
Warmer air can make storms bigger and stronger.
Climate Change Adaptation
Can you define climate change adaptation?
What do we need to know to adapt?
Location
How will a changing climate affect this area?
Mountain Climate Risks:
Floods and Landslides
- Storms are dumping more water all at once and the land can't hold it all.
Ecosystems
- Plants and animals from warm places are moving into habitat that used to be colder.
Water Supply
- Many places, especially Utah, depend on snowmelt for water in the summer. When it snows less or melts too fast, there is less water in the summer.
Food and Agriculture
- Too much heat, not enough water, or too much water all at once can make plants and animals unhealthy.
Culture and Tourism
- Skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities are important to areas like Utah. Less snow means less of these activities.
Floods and Landslides
Landslide: When a large amount of dirt, rock, and plants moves down a steep slope.
Flood: An overflow of water on dry land.
Floods and landslides are examples of how water can change the shape of the land.
Planning
What can we do to adapt to these changes?
Local Examples of Adaptation
The roofs of houses tilt into gutters to channel the water to the ground when it rains.
Making all of the water go to the ground keeps the roof from leaking but can cause flooding if it goes to the wrong place.
This is a green roof display on campus at Utah State University.
The green roof uses nature in adaptation.
Instead of just moving the water somewhere else, the green roof uses plants to absorb the water, and they use it to grow.
The Logan River passes by business buildings in South Logan.
Big rocks, grasses, trees, and other plants stabilize the riverbank to keep it from washing away.
This is a stormwater catch basin in South Logan.
This is designed to catch runoff from roads and sidewalks.
Sometimes plants grow in these man-made ponds.
Firefly Park in Nibley is a wetland.
A boardwalk was built so that people can walk through the park without getting muddy.
This protects the wetland ecosystem that many insects, birds, reptiles, and other animals call home.
This is a road by the art building at Utah State University.
Curbs and drains move water off of the road and sidewalks to pipes underground.
In this case, the drain got clogged so water would pool onto the road whenever it rained. The water sank into the cracks, and the road started falling apart.
This is an example of an adaptation that needs to be fixed.
Can you think of other examples of adaptation?
Limits
Why might it be difficult to adapt?
Activity
This webpage was made by Lydia Conger with support from Kendall Becker, PhD; Scott Hotaling, PhD; and USU Climate Resiliency Extension.
The work was funded by the “Secure Water Future” project through an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant (#2021-69012-35916) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. We are grateful for feedback from Hope Braithwaite and participants in USU Extension’s Climate Adaptation Intern Program.