Weather is here and now.
Climate is long-term and everywhere.

Weather is local. Climate is average weather over a wide area.
My neighbor wearing his down-filled Christmas jacket raised an eyebrow. “Global warming?” he asked. He pointed to the snow on my driveway. When I told him global warming is a worldwide average and can vary, he said “It’s cold all over right now.” He meant the recent freezing of crops in Florida.

While Florida and my town do not exactly form a global average, I have been puzzled by this increase in snow and cold when we’re hearing so much about warming. Especially after the big snows last winter discussed in this National Geographic post. So I went looking. The most persuasive explanation I’ve read is summarized in a study published by the American Meteorological Society and discussed by the liberal blog Climate Progress.

“Most of the United States had experienced 61%–80% of the storms in warmer-than-normal years. . . These comparative results reveal that a future with wetter and warmer winters, which is one outcome expected, will bring more snowstorms than in 1901–2000.” “Agee found that long-term warming trends in the United States were associated with increasing cyclonic activity in North America, further indicating that a warmer future climate will generate more winter storms.”

Thinking locally, I guess Climate Change is a more useful way to think about the effects of Global Warming. Change may not mean more winter sun where I live. And if so, we’ll have to understand a less simplistic future before we know how to adapt our house – let alone our lifestyle – for its effects.